1. Asia markets mostly slip as investors look to Trump-Takaichi meeting in Japan
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped more than 1% to hit a record high above 51,000 for the first time Wednesday, lifted by renewed optimism over U.S.-Japan trade ties and expectations of another Federal Reserve rate cut.
The gains came after U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed a new rare earths framework on Tuesday. Markets also grew more confident that the Fed would deliver a second straight 25 basis point cut to support slowing growth. Trump’s visit marked his first meeting with Takaichi, who assumed office earlier this month. He also met Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace.
2. Stocks close at record highs for second day as AI trade heats up ahead of Fed rate decision
Stocks hit fresh records on Tuesday as investors stepped further into the artificial intelligence trade a day before the Federal Reserve is set to announce its interest rate decision. The S&P 500 rose 0.23% to close at 6,890.89. It had surpassed the 6,900 level for the first time on an intraday basis earlier in the day. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.80% to finish at 23,827.49, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 161.78 points, or 0.34%, to settle at 47,706.37. In addition to their closing highs, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and 30-stock Dow scored new all-time intraday highs alongside the broad market S&P 500. The market’s gains were led by Nvidia, which climbed about 5% and had notched a new high.
3. Gold steadies ahead of Fed verdict; trade optimism limits upside
Gold prices inched higher on Wednesday, ahead of a widely expected interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve, although easing U.S.-China trade tensions kept bullion strength in check. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $3,957.42 per ounce, as of 0257 GMT, after dropping to its lowest point since October 7 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, investors continued to monitor progress toward a potential US–China trade breakthrough that could further dampen safe-haven demand. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to finalize a framework agreement aimed at halting further US tariff increases and easing China’s restrictions on rare earth exports.
4. Oil prices edge higher with focus on Middle East tensions, Fed rate cut
Oil prices rose slightly in Asian trade on Wednesday as renewed military action between Israel and Hamas threatened to upset a recent ceasefire, although caution before the conclusion of a Federal Reserve meeting kept traders to the sidelines. Oil prices stemmed two straight days of losses, as markets looked to potential supply disruptions from renewed hostilities in the Gaza strip. Recent U.S. sanctions against Russia also buoyed prices. Oil also took support from industry data showing an unexpected draw in U.S. oil inventories over the past week. But crude prices remained fragile amid persistent fears of a looming supply glut, especially as recent reports showed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) was gearing up to hike production again.
5. Judge extends ban on Trump firing federal workers during government shutdown
A federal judge on Tuesday extended a temporary order blocking the Trump administration’s plans to fire thousands of federal employees during the government shutdown. The order, called a preliminary injunction, prohibits the administration from issuing reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices until the government reopens, Judge Susan Illston said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Illston had imposed a short-term firing freeze, known as a temporary restraining order or TRO, on Oct. 15. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the labour-union plaintiffs in the lawsuit, praised the judge’s latest order. President Donald Trump has said that the shutdown — which is now the second-longest ever — gives his administration an “opportunity” to slash what he has described as “Democrat Agencies.”
6. Trump says he expects to lower fentanyl-related tariffs on Beijing, discuss ‘farmers’ with China’s Xi
U.S. President Donald Trump said he expects to lower fentanyl-linked tariffs on China ahead of a much-anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea this week. He told reporters aboard the Air Force One on Wednesday that fentanyl flows into the U.S. and “farmers” will be among topics he expects to discuss with Xi on Thursday. When asked whether the potential one-year pause in Beijing’s implementation of rare earth export controls would be enough to draw more concessions from the U.S., Trump said “we haven’t talked about the timing yet but we are gonna work out something.” A delicate trade detente between the world’s top two economies that includes lower tariffs on each other’s goods is nearing its expiration on Nov. 10, if they fail to agree on another extension. Trump has also threatened additional 100% tariffs on Beijing starting Nov. 1.
7. Australia’s inflation tops forecasts at 3.2%, highest in over a year
Australia’s inflation accelerated in the third quarter, with consumer prices rising 3.2% from a year earlier — the fastest pace in more than a year — the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
The increase topped the 2.1% rise in the second quarter and came in above the 3% forecast by economists polled by Reuters. The ABS said the most significant price rises were in housing, recreation and culture, and transport. Trimmed mean inflation rate, which excludes extreme price changes in consumer goods and services, rose to 3%, up from 2.7% last quarter. It was the first increase in trimmed mean inflation since December 2022, the bureau said.
8. Trump signals he could speak to China’s Xi about Nvidia’s ‘super duper’ chips
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to discuss Nvidia’s advanced AI chips with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their widely expected meeting on Thursday, he told a media scrum Wednesday. While taking questions regarding his high-stakes meeting with Xi, Trump signalled that Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processors could be discussed. “We’ll be speaking about Blackwell, it’s the super-duper chip,” he said. Nvidia’s “super-duper chip” appeared to refer to the GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip — its most advanced AI chip. More broadly, Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture represents its latest generation of AI chips, or ‘graphics processing units,’ used to train and run large language models. Trump went on to laud Nvidia’s Blackwell chips, claiming that they are about a decade ahead of any other chip.
9. Israel strikes Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating U.S.-brokered ceasefire
Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza on Tuesday after Israel accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, the latest test of a fragile deal brokered earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump. Local health authorities said the strikes killed at least 26 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis. The attacks by Israeli planes continued into early Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, the latest violence in a three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying he had ordered immediate “powerful attacks.”
10. Apple hits $4 trillion market value as new iPhone models revitalize sales
Apple briefly topped $4 trillion in market value for the first time on Tuesday, the third Big Tech company to hit the milestone, as robust demand for its latest iPhone models allayed fears over its slow progress in the AI race. Its stock briefly reached $269.89, giving Apple a market value of $4.005 trillion, before receding and ending the day up 0.1%, giving the company a value of $3.992 trillion. Apple’s shares have gained about 13% since the new launches on September 9, in a turnaround that pushed the stock into positive territory for the first time this year. The latest smartphones, including the iPhone 17 line-up and the iPhone Air, wooed back customers from Beijing to Moscow within the first few weeks of launch, while the company has swallowed the high costs from the tariffs.
11. Lilly partners with Nvidia on AI supercomputer to speed up drug development
Eli Lilly said on Tuesday it was collaborating with Nvidia to build a supercomputer to help with drug discovery and shorten development cycles, getting medicines to people faster. Using the supercomputer, scientists at Lilly will be able to train AI models on millions of experiments to test potential medicines, expanding the scope of drug discovery efforts, the company said. A number of these proprietary AI models will be available on Lilly TuneLab, a federated artificial-intelligence and machine-learning platform that allows biotech companies access to drug discovery models trained on years of its research data. The federated model is a privacy-preserving approach that enables biotechs to tap into Lilly’s AI models without directly exposing either their or Lilly’s proprietary data. Beyond discovery, Lilly plans to leverage the supercomputer to shorten drug development cycles.
12. Nvidia’s stock market value nears record $5 trillion
Nvidia was on the verge of becoming the first company worth $5 trillion on Tuesday after the heavyweight chipmaker said it had $500 billion in bookings for its artificial intelligence processors and that it will build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy. Nvidia’s stock closed almost 5% higher, adding over $230 billion in market value, bringing its total value to $4.89 trillion after briefly touching $4.94 trillion. CEO Jensen Huang kicked off a keynote address at a developer conference in the U.S. capital on Tuesday by praising policy by U.S. President Donald Trump while announcing new products and deals. Microsoft, the world’s second most valuable company, rose 2%, lifting its market capitalization to $4.03 trillion.
13. Online furniture retailer Wayfair surges as upbeat results ease tariff jitters
Wayfair shares soared nearly 23% on Tuesday, as the U.S. online furniture retailer’s third-quarter results and upbeat forecasts allayed investor worries over the impact of the latest tariffs. Furniture retailers have struggled to gauge consumer appetite as housing demand has been uneven amid economic uncertainty. U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50% duty on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, as well as a 30% levy on upholstered furniture beginning October 1 amplified the worries. “We really have not seen any consumer behavior based on the tariffs…the minor, minor pull forwards we saw lasted days in duration and were very small. So, we don’t really think there’s any tariff-induced behavior,” CEO Niraj Shah said on a conference call with investors. Shah highlighted the lift from the company’s customer loyalty programs, as well as a rising number of retail stores. The firm posted revenue of $3.12 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, above estimates of $3.02 billion.
14. Enphase Energy forecasts fourth-quarter revenue below estimates, signals tariff hit
Enphase Energy forecast fourth-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, and said U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs had a negative impact on its margins, sending the solar inverter maker’s shares down over 8% after hours. The company said the tariffs hit its third-quarter margins by 4.9% points and they are also expected to hurt the current quarter. Enphase on a post-earning call said it expects limited exposure to the recent China-related tariffs as the company’s supply chain transitions away from China. Enphase currently pays over 40% tariffs for the cell packs coming from China, it added. U.S. trade officials in April finalized steep tariffs on most solar cells imported from Southeast Asia, after American manufacturers complained that companies from the region were flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.
15. PayPal flags smaller basket sizes, cautious shoppers amid macro uncertainty
PayPal saw a slowdown in payments activity in September that continued into October across both the U.S. and Europe, as consumers became more selective in their purchases, CFO Jamie Miller told analysts on a call. Shares of the company, which had initially jumped 17% after PayPal announced a partnership with OpenAI and reported blowout results, pared some gains during the conference call as investors digested Miller’s comments. The stock was last up 10%. U.S. companies across industries are feeling the squeeze from a widening gap between lower-income and affluent consumers, with tariffs adding further uncertainty, as seen in third-quarter earnings reported so far. “We’re seeing basket sizes just trade down. Average order value being down, particularly in retail where you know consumers are just being more selective, and that behavior has continued into October,” Miller said.
