1. Hong Kong and China markets little changed as Trump-Xi meeting starts
Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets were largely flat Thursday as investors watched for signals from the first in-person meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping since Trump began his second term. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.48%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was marginally above the flatline. Other Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that a rate cut in December was far from a “foregone conclusion.” The Kospi gained 0.85% with gains seen in auto and shipbuilding stocks, while the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.78%.
2. Dow closes lower, giving up gain after Powell signals Fed may not cut again this year
The Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a rapid reversal on Wednesday, touching a record high earlier in the session before rolling over after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the central bank might not cut interest rates again in 2025. The blue-chip index closed down 74.37 points, or 0.2%, to 47,632.00, while the S&P 500 ended a handful of points lower to 6,890.59. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 0.55% to a fresh record close of 23,958.47, propped up by a rise in Nvidia. The Dow was up as much as 334 points, touching a new all-time high at one point before turning lower. The Fed lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting Wednesday afternoon, putting it in a range of between 3.75% to 4%.
3. Gold ticks up on dollar retreat, Fed rate cut
Gold prices edged higher on Thursday, as a slight pullback in the dollar and a widely expected quarter percentage point rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted demand. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $3,942.97 per ounce, as of 0050 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery slipped 1.1% to $3,955 per ounce. The dollar index fell 0.2% after hitting a two-week high against its rivals in the previous session, making gold less expensive for other currency holders. U.S. negotiators have signalled they seek a return to a fragile trade war truce, but tensions remain high and longer-term economic irritants will likely persist between the geopolitical rivals.
4. Oil prices little changed as markets eye U.S.-China trade talks
Oil prices held on to most gains from the previous session in early trading on Thursday as investors awaited U.S.-China trade talks later in the day, hoping for signs that tensions clouding the economic growth outlook will ease. Brent crude futures fell 3 cents, or 0.05%, to $64.89 a barrel by 0032 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 11 cents, or 0.18%, to $60.37. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Markets hope they will agree to dial down trade tensions that have hurt the outlook for global growth and fuel demand.
5. Fed cuts rates again, but Powell raises doubts about easing at next meeting
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its second straight interest rate cut, though Chair Jerome Powell rattled markets when he threw doubt on whether another reduction is coming in December. By a 10-2 vote, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate to a range of 3.75%-4%. In addition to the rate move, the Fed announced that it would be ending the reduction of its asset purchases – a process known as quantitative tightening – on Dec 1. Governor Stephen Miran again cast a dissenting vote, preferring the Fed move more quickly with a half-point cut. Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid joined Miran in dissenting but for the opposite reason – he preferred the Fed not cut at all. The post-meeting statement did not provide any direction on what the committee’s plans are for December.
6. China, US presidents wrap up talks on trade, tariffs
United States President Donald Trump says his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was “amazing” and that the two leaders made an “outstanding group of decisions. Tensions escalated this month, with Trump threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese products to 100 percent after Beijing imposed new global restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are key for modern technology. “I wouldn’t say everything was discussed,” he added. The White House has yet to release full details from the meeting. “We focused on export controls of China on rare earth, and they’re going to keep those flowing, which is quite important,” Trump said. He added the current tariff rate on China has been lowered from 57 percent to 47 percent. The US president added he had dropped tariffs on China related to fentanyl from 20 percent to 10 percent. He added that China will begin buying Soy Beans immediately, after approving the resumption of purchases yesterday.
7. Government shutdown could cost U.S. economy up to $14 billion, CBO says
The shutdown of the U.S. federal government could cost the economy up to $14 billion, depending on how long it lasts, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The shutdown, now in its fourth week, will result in the loss of at least $7 billion of gross domestic product by the end of 2026 as a result of furloughed federal employees working fewer weeks, the CBO said. And the cost will grow the longer the shutdown drags on, CBO Director Phillip Swagel told U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, in a letter. A six-week shutdown will cost the economy $11 billion, and an eight-week shutdown will cost $14 billion, Swagel said. Senators remain pessimistic about the chances of reaching a bipartisan deal to reopen the government despite the effects of the shutdown becoming more painful for the American people.
8. Trump announces trade breakthrough with South Korea on Asia trip
Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung finalized details of their fraught trade deal at a summit in South Korea on Wednesday, and the U.S. president also sounded an optimistic note about a looming summit with China’s Xi Jinping. “We made our deal, pretty much finalized it,” Trump said at a dinner with Lee and other regional leaders on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific forum. The allies unveiled a deal in late July under which Seoul would avoid the worst of U.S. tariffs on its imports by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States in return for lower tariff rates. But talks over the structure of those investments had been deadlocked and both sides had played down expectations for a deal during Trump’s visit.
9. UK’s Starmer does not commit to tax pledges ahead of budget
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday declined to commit to a previous pledge not to raise taxes on working people ahead of a budget next month, saying upcoming forecasts would show the economy was in a worse state than thought. Economists have said finance minister Rachel Reeves may have to break the government’s promise and raise income tax, a move that would break the commitment Labour made to voters ahead of the election in 2024. Conservative Party opposition leader Kemi Badenoch asked Starmer if he stood by his promise not to increase income tax, social security contributions or value added sales tax. Starmer said the government would lay out its plans in the budget on November 26. Badenoch said he had given the single-word answer “yes” when asked exactly the same question in July.
10. Nvidia becomes first company to reach $5 trillion valuation, fuelled by AI boom
Shares of Nvidia rose more than 3% on Wednesday, making the tech giant the first company to cross the $5 trillion market value threshold. The extraordinary milestone reflects a remarkable rise for the company, which has evolved from a niche developer of video game processors to an integral player in the artificial intelligence boom. Nvidia’s stock, which closed up 5% on Tuesday, has climbed more than 50% year to date. The latest move higher comes shortly after CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia expects $500 billion in artificial intelligence chip orders and announced plans to build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. government.
11. Meta shares drop 9% despite earnings beat as company takes one-time tax charge
Meta shares dropped 9% after the company reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat on sales. Meta said that the implementation of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act resulted in a one-time, non-cash income tax charge of $15.93 billion. The company said it expects the act to result in “a significant reduction” in its U.S. federal cash tax payments for the rest of 2025 and future years. The social media company’s third-quarter sales rose 26% year-over-year, which is its highest revenue growth since the first quarter of 2024. The company said it expects fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of $56 billon to $59 billion. The midpoint of that range comes in above what was expected by analysts. The company also raised its 2025 guidance for capital expenditures, which will now come in the range of $70 billion to $72 billion. It’s prior outlook was between the range of $66 to $72 billion.
12. Microsoft reports earnings beat as Azure revenue climbs 40%
Microsoft reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal first quarter as revenue in the company’s Azure cloud business jumped 40%. The stock slipped in extended trading. Revenue increased 18% in the fiscal first quarter from $65.6 billion a year ago, according to a release. Net income rose to $27.7 billion, or $3.72 per share, from $24.67 billion, or $3.30 per share, during the same period last year. Microsoft said its investment in OpenAI resulted in a $3.1 billion hit to net income in the quarter, equivalent to 41 cents per share. Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud unit, which includes Azure, reported $30.9 billion in revenue, up 28% from a year ago and above the consensus of $30.25 billion. Growth in Azure, which competes with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, also beat estimates, as analysts had anticipated 38.2% expansion.
13. Alphabet tops $100 billion quarterly revenue for first time, cloud grows 34%
Alphabet reported third-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations. Shares rose 5% in after-hours trading. Alphabet reported solid momentum in its cloud business, thanks to strong demand for AI. The company also announced an increase in expected capital expenditures for the fiscal year 2025. “With the growth across our business and demand from Cloud customers, we now expect 2025 capital expenditures to be in a range of $91 billion to $93 billion,” the company said in its earnings report Wednesday. Earlier this year, the company increased its capital expenditure expectation from $75 billion to $85 billion. Most of that goes toward technical infrastructure such as data centres. The latest earnings show the company is seeing rising demand for AI services, which largely sit in its cloud unit.
14. Microsoft Azure, 365 outage impacting businesses globally starting to ease
An outage at Microsoft’s Azure and its suite of productivity software, affecting a range of industries worldwide, had begun to ease, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector.com. Alaska Airlines said on Wednesday it is experiencing a disruption to key systems, including its website, due to the Azure outage, along with Vodafone in the UK and Heathrow Airport. The Microsoft outage follows last week’s disruption at Amazon AWS, which caused global turmoil among thousands of sites and some of the web’s most popular apps, such as Snapchat and Reddit. Microsoft 365 said its services were experiencing downstream impact related to the Azure outage. A recent configuration change to a portion of Azure infrastructure is causing the outage, it said on its status page.
15. GM to cut EV, battery production and 1,200 jobs at Detroit plant
General Motors said on Wednesday it will cut U.S. electric vehicle and battery production and 1,200 factory jobs at its EV plant in Detroit, as the automaker responds to a significant slowdown in demand for its battery cars. The Detroit automaker said it will halt battery cell production at its two U.S. joint-venture battery plants – in Tennessee and Ohio – in January for about six months. It added it will temporarily lay off about 1,550 workers at the factories. In addition, at the Ohio plant, GM said it will lay off 550 workers indefinitely. GM operates the Ohio plant jointly with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution. Automakers in the U.S. are backpedalling hard on their EV plans, anticipating a sharp drop in consumer demand following the expiration of a $7,500 federal tax credit for EV buyers.
16. Etsy taps insider as CEO, forecasts softer core sales amid tariff woes
Etsy’s shares, which have gained about 40% so far this year, were down nearly 7% in early trading, after the company also forecast muted gross merchandise sales (GMS) – a key metric – for the fourth quarter. A long-time Etsy executive, Patel Goyal, will take the helm as CEO at a time when online retailers and marketplaces have been facing the brunt of hefty U.S. tariffs on imports, especially those from China and Vietnam – two major suppliers of products including clothes, shoes and toys. The removal of “de minimis” – the duty-free treatment of e-commerce packages worth less than $800 – for products originating from China and Hong Kong, has also sparked worry. “On the tariff and trade lane front, we experienced some pressure on our U.S. import trade route during the quarter,” Etsy CFO Lanny Baker said in a call with investors.
17. Boeing reports Q3 loss amid 777X certification delay
Boeing reported third-quarter revenue of $23.3 billion, a 30% increase from the same period last year, driven by higher commercial airplane deliveries. However, the company posted a loss per share of $7.14, primarily due to a $4.9 billion pre-tax charge related to the 777X program. The aerospace manufacturer delivered 160 commercial airplanes during the quarter, its highest quarterly total since 2018, and generated positive operating cash flow of $1.1 billion and free cash flow of $238 million. Boeing’s 737 program stabilized production at 38 aircraft per month, and the company announced it has jointly agreed with the Federal Aviation Administration to increase production to 42 per month. The company now anticipates first delivery of the 777-9 in 2027, later than previously expected.
18. AST SpaceMobile stock rises after securing $175 million stc deal
AST SpaceMobile stock rose 7% after announcing a 10-year commercial agreement with stc group that includes a $175 million prepayment and significant long-term revenue commitment. The deal will enable direct-to-device satellite mobile connectivity across Saudi Arabia and key markets in the Middle East and Africa. Under the agreement, AST SpaceMobile will integrate its space-based cellular broadband network with stc’s terrestrial infrastructure to expand mobile coverage, delivering 5G and 4G LTE services directly to standard smartphones without requiring specialized software or device modifications. This marks AST SpaceMobile’s first partnership in the region. The company will build three ground gateways in Saudi Arabia and establish a Network Operations Centre in Riyadh to support network operations.
19. HDFC Bank puts senior executives on gardening leave after Dubai flags compliance lapses
HDFC Bank has placed two senior executives on gardening leave after a compliance review by Dubai’s financial regulator flagged lapses in how the lender offered services to local clients. The move, reported by Bloomberg, forms part of an internal probe into the alleged mis-selling of Credit Suisse’s high-risk Additional Tier 1 bonds to some customers. The bank’s move follows a filing last month that revealed the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) had flagged lapses in how HDFC offered financial services to local clients who were not onboarded at the Dubai International Financial Centre. The regulator’s finding led to a temporary ban on adding new customers at the Dubai branch. In September, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) prohibited HDFC Bank’s DIFC branch from onboarding any new clients or offering financial services to them.
