1. Asian benchmarks are mixed after Wall Street edges down from record highs
Asian shares traded mixed Wednesday after U.S. stocks edged down from record highs and as market focus turned to expectations for the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut of the year. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.2% in morning trading to 44,995.79. The Finance Ministry reported Japan’s exports to the U.S. dropped 13.8% in August compared to the same month the previous year, marking the fifth straight month of declines, as auto exports declined amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7% to 8,812.80. South Korea’s Kospi dropped nearly 1.0% to 3,415.71. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged nearly 0.9% to 26,662.13, while the Shanghai Composite shed less than 0.1% to 3,858.74.
2. Dow closes up 250 points, S&P 500 inches lower after Fed delivers widely expected rate cut
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher and the S&P 500 was little changed after a volatile day of trading as the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate as expected on Wednesday. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell tempered enthusiasm a bit by signalling the move was not the start of a long rate-lowering cycle. The broad-market index settled down 0.1% at 6,600.35, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3% to 22,261.33. The Dow finished up 260.42 points, or 0.6%, at 46,018.32, after earlier hitting an all-time high. One of the biggest winners of the day was the small cap-focused Russell 2000, which jumped 0.25%. Smaller companies rely more on variable financing and so stand to benefit from lower rates.
3. Gold hits all-time peak as Fed resumes easing cycle
Gold prices soared to a record high on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points and signalled a steady path of easing through the rest of the year. Spot gold eased 0.2% at $3,681.39 per ounce after hitting a record high of $3,707.40 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled 0.2% lower at $3,717.8. U.S. dollar extended its fall, making greenback-priced gold more appealing to holders of other currencies. This marks the Fed’s first rate cut of the year, following a pause in policy changes since December after lowering interest rates three times in 2024. The rate cut, along with projections showing two more 25 basis point reductions at the remaining policy meetings this year, indicate Fed officials have begun to downplay the risk the Trump administration’s trade policies will stoke persistent inflation.
4. Oil prices ease on U.S. demand concerns
Oil prices eased on Wednesday after data showing an increase in U.S. diesel stockpiles stoked worries about demand and the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates as expected. Brent crude futures settled 52 cents, or 0.76%, lower to $68.22 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 47 cents, or 0.73%, at $64.05. U.S. crude inventories fell sharply last week with a jump in exports and a sharp decline in imports, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Russian oil supply risks were also in focus after Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure intensified in recent weeks.
5. Fed approves quarter-point interest rate cut and sees two more coming this year
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a widely anticipated rate cut and signalled that two more are on the way before the end of the year as concerns intensified over the U.S. labour market. In an 11-to-1 vote signalling less dissent than Wall Street had anticipated, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point. The decision puts the overnight funds rate in a range between 4.00%-4.25%. Newly-installed Governor Stephen Miran was the only policymaker voting against the quarter-point move, instead advocating for a half-point cut. In the post-meeting statement, the committee again characterized economic activity as having “moderated” but added language saying that “job gains have slowed” and noted that inflation “has moved up and remains somewhat elevated.” Lower job growth and higher inflation are in conflict with the Fed’s twin goals of stable prices and full employment. “Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated” the Fed statement said. “The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate and judges that downside risks to employment have risen.”
6. Fed forecasts only one rate cut in 2026, a more conservative outlook than expected
The Federal Reserve is projecting only one rate cut in 2026, less than expected, according to its median projection. The central bank’s so-called dot plot, which anonymously shows 19 individual members’ expectations, indicates a median estimate of 3.4% for the federal funds rate at the end of 2026. That compares to a median estimate of 3.6% for the end of this year, following two expected cuts on top of Wednesday’s reduction. A single quarter-point reduction next year is significantly more conservative than current market pricing. Traders are currently pricing in two to three more rate cuts next year, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, updated shortly after the decision.
7. Bessent made mortgage claims similar to ones Trump cited to try to fire Fed’s Cook: Report
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to call two different houses his “principal residence” at the same time — a similar claim to the one that President Donald Trump cited when he tried to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, according to a report Wednesday. Documents show that on the same day in September 2007, Bessent agreed that homes in both Bedford Hills, New York, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, each would be his principal residence. Cook signed mortgage agreements declaring that houses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta were each her principal residences, according to prior reports. Cook signed those documents within two weeks of each other in summer 2021, before she was appointed to the Fed’s Board.
8. Israel opens new route out of Gaza City, death toll passes 65,000
The Israeli military said it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City as it stepped up efforts on Wednesday to empty the city of civilians and confront thousands of Hamas combatants. Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel’s orders to move south because of dangers along the way, dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area and fear of permanent displacement. Mass displacement of Palestinians widely condemned, and Israeli official says it will take months to seize Gaza.
9. Nvidia CEO says he’s ‘disappointed’ after report China has banned its AI chips
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has weighed in on the U.S. tech giant’s struggles in China after a report claimed the country has banned its artificial intelligence chips. Huang said he was “disappointed” after reports on Wednesday that the Cyberspace Administration of China had ordered companies including TikTok parent company ByteDance and Alibaba not to buy Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip that was made for the country. “We probably contributed more to the China market than most countries have. And I’m disappointed with what I see,” Huang said. “But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.” It comes after a tumultuous few years for Nvidia’s business in China, which Huang described as “a bit of a roller coaster.” “We’ve guided all financial analysts not to include China” in financial forecasts, Huang told reporters Wednesday at a press briefing in London.
10. Alibaba’s shares jump after it lands a major customer for its AI chips
Alibaba shares rose on Wednesday after Chinese state media reported that the e-commerce giant secured a major customer for its artificial intelligence chips. China Unicom will deploy Alibaba’s AI accelerators from its semiconductor unit called Pingtouge or T-Head, according to a report from China state broadcaster CCTV. Alibaba does not sell chips directly, but companies can effectively use the computing power based on those semiconductors by buying Alibaba cloud services. The move underscores China’s efforts to boost the use of its own domestic semiconductors for AI at a time when Nvidia’ access to the world’s second-largest economy remains in a state of flux.
11. Boeing, Honeywell sued by Air India crash victim families
The families of four passengers killed in the June 12 crash of an Air India Boeing 787 said in a lawsuit that the accident resulted from allegedly faulty fuel switches, which the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has said do not appear to have caused the accident that killed 260 people. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court blames Boeing and Honeywell, which made the switches, for the crash seconds after Flight 171 took off for London from the Indian city of Ahmedabad. The plaintiffs point to a 2018 FAA advisory that recommended, but did not mandate, operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, inspect the fuel cutoff switches’ locking mechanism to ensure it could not be accidentally moved.
12. Google, PayPal partner to roll out AI-powered solutions across platforms
Google and PayPal have entered a multi-year strategic partnership to bring new AI shopping and payment experiences to their users, the companies said on Wednesday. PayPal’s shares ticked up over 3% in late afternoon trading. The digital payments company’s solutions, including PayPal-branded checkout, Hyperwallet and Payouts solutions, will now be integrated into a range of Google products. “Through this partnership, PayPal will use our industry-leading AI to enhance services and security, and we will more deeply integrate PayPal’s innovative payment capabilities for a better experience across Google products and platforms,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet. PayPal’s Enterprise Payments will be a key payment provider, processing card payments across products such as Google Cloud and Google Play, among others.
13. Lilly gets a boost from new weight-loss pill data as it weighs speedier approval in US
Eli Lilly’s bid for approval for an experimental weight-loss pill got a boost on Wednesday with new clinical trial data, and the company reaffirmed that it was too soon to assume the drug will be part of a new U.S. speedy review program. Lilly’s shares rose about half a percentage point on Wednesday. Its pill, orforglipron, is designed to mimic the appetite-suppressing GLP-1 hormone targeted by the company’s blockbuster injection tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound. Lilly, based in Indianapolis, has been trying to widen its lead in the fast-growing market for GLP-1 drugs over Danish rival Novo Nordisk. Novo was first-to-market with GLP-1 medicines Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity but this year ousted its CEO and its share price has dropped about 40% as competition has intensified from Lilly.
14. Disney $233 million settlement with employees wins approval
A California judge has approved Walt Disney’s $233 million settlement with 51,478 Disneyland employees who said the entertainment company denied them a living wage. The class-action settlement won final approval on Tuesday by Judge William Claster of the Orange County Superior Court, who called the accord fair, reasonable, adequate and consistent with public policy. About $179.6 million will go to class members, according to court papers. Another $17.5 million represents a civil penalty being paid to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, while $35 million will go to the employees’ lawyers. Remaining sums will cover other costs. The lawsuit began in December 2019, after Disney claimed it was exempt from a minimum wage law approved a year earlier by voters in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located.
15. Apple explores foldable iPhone production in Taiwan, eyes India for 2026
Apple is in talks with suppliers about potential test production of foldable iPhones in Taiwan, according to a report from the Nikkei on Thursday. The technology company aims to eventually mass produce the foldable devices in India, with plans to release them in 2026. Apple’s exploration of the foldable form factor is part of a strategy that could help boost its total iPhone shipments by 10% in 2026. The move would mark Apple’s entry into the foldable smartphone market, a segment where several competitors have already established products.
