Daily News – 30December’25

Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Tuesday, after the tech sell-down on Wall Street continued on AI bubble fears. Nvidia shares dropped more than 1% Monday stateside, giving back some of its more than 5% gain in last week’s period. Palantir Technologies and Meta Platforms also suffered losses, as did Oracle. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.18%, while the broad-based Topix was 0.17% lower. South Korea’s Kospi reversed losses to gain 0.1%, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 1.02%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index opened with marginal gains, while the CSI 300 in mainland China was down 0.42%.

Stocks fell on Monday, spurred by losses in technology, after the S&P 500 scaled to record levels last week. The S&P 500 dropped 0.35% and closed at 6,905.74, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.50% and settled at 23,474.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back by 249.04 points, or 0.51%, and ended at 48,461.93. The artificial intelligence trade came under a bit of pressure in the session. Nvidia shares dropped more than 1%, giving back some of its more than 5% gain in last week’s period. Palantir Technologies and Meta Platforms also suffered losses, as did Oracle. Those moves come after the S&P 500 on Friday hit an intraday high of 6,945.77 before ending the session just below breakeven

Gold stabilized above $4,360 per ounce on Tuesday after plunging more than 4% in the previous session due to profit-taking. Monday’s selloff marked the metal’s largest intraday drop since October and the second time this year that it has fallen sharply in a single day. Limiting further losses, gold’s safe-haven appeal remains strong amid persistent geopolitical uncertainty. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have been thrown into further doubt after reports suggested that President Putin informed President Trump that Moscow would reassess its stance in negotiations following alleged Ukrainian strikes on Putin’s residence. Separately, Trump warned of further strikes on Iran if nuclear rebuilding continues, while also announcing that the US had struck a drug-related facility in Venezuela.

Silver rose by over 1% to $73 per ounce on Tuesday, following an 8% slump in the previous session, which marked the steepest daily drop in over five years, as traders adjusted positions after aggressive profit-taking. The selloff was amplified by thin holiday liquidity and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Renewed friction between Russia and Ukraine, along with extended Chinese military drills around Taiwan, heightened risk sentiment, pushing investors toward safe-haven assets like silver. These factors, combined with speculative buying in China’s silver market, contributed to the record highs seen before the correction. Despite near-term volatility, silver remains on track for one of its best annual performances since 1979, benefiting from three successive US Fed rate cuts and strong industrial demand in solar, electronics, and data centre infrastructure.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskyy, said Monday that he has asked for up to 50 years’ worth of security guarantees for Ukraine during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the weekend. Commenting on the talks with Trump in Florida on Sunday, Zelenskyy told journalists that he said a meeting with Russia would only be possible after the president and European leaders had agreed on a framework peace deal for Ukraine. The comments, reported by Reuters on Monday, included Zelenskyy stating that he had asked for security guarantees for up to 50 years for Ukraine, but that the current 20-point peace plan envisaged guarantees — aimed at deterring future Russian aggression — for 15 years. Zelenskyy said he plans to meet with European leaders in the coming days to discuss the proposals.

The U.S. dollar was steady on Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s release of its December minutes report, which is expected to reveal divisions inside the central bank about next year’s policy pathway. Currency markets were mostly tranquil due to holiday-thinned liquidity as traders looked ahead after a dismal year for the U.S. dollar helped push the euro and sterling to their strongest showings since 2017. The euro was last at $1.177225, on course for a yearly gain of 13.7%, while the pound fetched $1.3509 and was set for an increase of 8% in 2025. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against rivals, was poised for a 9.6% annual drop, its steepest decline in eight years due to Fed rate-cut bets, shrinking interest rate differentials against other currencies and worries about fiscal deficits and political uncertainty. The index was at 98.033 in early trading, not far from a three-month low.

China announced tariff adjustments for certain products starting in 2026, including reduced import duties on resource-based commodities such as recycled black powder for lithium-ion batteries. The country will also lower levies on medical products, including artificial blood vessels and diagnostic kits for certain infectious diseases, according to a statement from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council released Monday. The adjustments will affect 935 products, which will have provisional import tariff rates lower than the most-favoured-nation rates that China applies to all World Trade Organization member states.

The United States on Monday pledged $2 billion in assistance to tens of millions of people facing hunger and disease in more than a dozen countries next year, part of what it said was a new mechanism for the delivery of life-saving assistance following major foreign aid cuts by the Trump administration. The U.S. slashed its aid spending this year, and leading Western donors such as Germany also pared back assistance as they pivoted to increased defence spending, triggering a severe funding crunch for the United Nations. The billions of dollars in assistance pledged by Washington on Monday will be overseen by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the State Department said, under what it described as new model of assistance agreed with the U.N. that aims to make aid funding and delivery more efficient and increase accountability for the spending of funds.

Japan’s SoftBank on Monday said it has agreed to buy data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion as part of its artificial intelligence push. The deal, which has been unanimously approved by a special committee of DigitalBridge’s board of directors, will see SoftBank acquire all the outstanding common stock of DigitalBridge for $16 per share in cash. This represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s closing share price on Dec. 26. The deal is expected to close in the second half of next year, according to a SoftBank statement. SoftBank CEO and Chairman Masayoshi Son said the acquisition “will strengthen the foundation for next-generation AI data centers” and advance the firm’s vision to become a leading “Artificial Super Intelligence” platform provider. “As AI transforms industries worldwide, we need more compute, connectivity, power, and scalable infrastructure,” Son said in a statement.

Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to a public notice issued by the company on Sunday. The company plans to raise 110 billion rupees ($1.22 billion) of fresh capital. Zepto was valued at $7 billion during its last funding round in October, data from research firm Tracxn showed. Zepto told CNBC it filed its draft prospectus under the confidential route, which keeps its filings private, and declined to disclose further details. The sector has continued to attract large sums of capital. Earlier this month, Swiggy raised 100 billion rupees from institutional investors to expand its quick commerce fulfilment network, including warehouses located closer to dense neighborhoods. But some industry leaders have warned that the pace of spending may not be sustainable.

Nvidia has purchased Intel shares worth $5 billion, the American semiconductor firm said in a filing on Monday, carrying out a transaction announced in September. The leading AI chip designer said in September it would pay $23.28 per share for Intel common stock, in a deal seen as a major financial lifeline for the chipmaker after years of missteps and capital-intensive production capacity expansions drained its finances. The world’s most valuable firm bought over 214.7 million Intel shares at the price set out in the September agreement, in a private placement, according to Monday’s filing. U.S. antitrust agencies had cleared Nvidia’s investment in Intel, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission earlier in December.

Meta said on Monday it would acquire Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus, as the technology giant accelerates efforts to integrate advanced AI across its platforms. Tech giants such as Meta have been ramping up AI investments through strategic acquisitions and talent hires as they navigate fierce industry competition. Earlier this year, the Facebook-owner invested in Scale AI in a deal valuing the data-labelling startup at $29 billion and bringing in its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang. Financial terms of its deal with Manus were not released. Singapore-based Manus makes general-purpose AI agent, which can operate as a digital employee, executing tasks such as research and automation independently and with minimal prompts. Meta will operate and sell the Manus service, as well as integrate it into its consumer and business products, including in Meta AI, the company said.