ASEAN Countries

Asian stocks rose Tuesday, while gold and Nasdaq enjoyed their biggest gains in months on signs that a deal would be reached to end the U.S. Government shutdown. Gold rose by nearly 3% over night and was comfortably above the $4,100 mark in Asia's morning. The Nasdaq gained 2.3%, recovering much of the losses caused last week by nerves about the valuation and profitability for AI firms. South Korea's Kospi also recovered from last week's losses and gained 2.1% early in trade. Japan's Nikkei increased 0.7%. Hong Kong and China's markets opened higher. S&P futures rose 0.1%. The Senate cleared...

The dollar was stable and government bond yields were rising. Global shares rose Monday on the back of optimism that a resolution to a historic U.S. shutdown is in sight. On Sunday, the U.S. Senate advanced a measure that would reopen federal government and put an end to a shutdown of 40 days. The shutdown has caused federal workers to be unable to work and food aid delays and slowed air travel. In a procedural motion, the Senate advanced a bill passed by the House. The amended version will fund government operations until January 30, and includes a package of...

On Monday, global shares rose amid optimism that the U.S. government's historic shutdown is nearing an end. Yields also rose and the dollar continued to suffer losses from the previous week. On Sunday, the U.S. Senate advanced a bill aimed at reopening federal government. The measure would end a 40-day shutdown which has impacted federal workers and food aid. It also slowed down air travel. In a procedural motion, the Senate advanced a bill passed by the House. The amended version will fund government operations until January 30, and includes a package of 3 full-year appropriations. The Nasdaq futures gained...

The dollar continued to suffer from losses last week, despite the optimism of a possible end to the historic U.S. shutdown. On Sunday, the U.S. Senate moved toward a vote to reopen the federal government. This came a day after Senate majority leader John Thune announced that bipartisan discussions in the chamber had taken a positive direction. Nasdaq Futures gained 1.1%, while S&P500 futures increased by 0.65%. The Nikkei, Japan's stock market index, rose 1% and MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan gained 0.9%. Charu Chanana is the chief investment strategist of Saxo. The Senate may pass the bill...

Investors worried about the sustainability and growth of artificial intelligence stocks, while U.S. Treasury rates dipped. The Nasdaq has fallen about 3% this week. Chip stocks and other tech-related shares have also been among the worst performers. As optimism about AI drove markets to new highs, the Nasdaq gained more than half since April when U.S. president Donald Trump announced tariffs. The Financial Times, however, reported earlier this week that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned the U.S. to be prepared for China's victory in the AI race. We're still seeing the AI selloff after our comments... about China winning in...

Investors worried about the sustainability and growth of artificial intelligence stocks, while U.S. Treasury rates dipped. The Nasdaq has fallen about 3% this week. Chip stocks and other tech-related shares have also been among the worst performers. As optimism about artificial intelligence drove markets to new highs, the Nasdaq gained more than half since April when U.S. president Donald Trump announced tariffs. The Financial Times, however, reported earlier this week that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had warned the U.S. about China's potential to beat it in the AI race. We're still seeing the AI selloff after our comments... about China...

Investors became uneasy over the extent of the artificial intelligence rally, and yen and bonds were stable. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up about 0.3% by the afternoon in Asia. This was after a Nasdaq drop of 1.9% on Thursday. The world's largest tech index has fallen 2.8% this week, and if that trend continues, it will be the biggest drop in a single week since April when tariffs were first announced. Since then, the Nasdaq index has gained over 50%. European futures and FTSE Futures both fell by 0.3%. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.2%, resulting in a loss of...

Investors' concerns over stretched valuations eroded confidence in the early trading of Wednesday, as Asian stocks continued to fall overnight on Wall Street. MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan fell by 0.8%. South Korean shares were the biggest losers, with a drop of 4.1%. U.S. E-mini Futures fell 0.4% after the S&P500 dropped 1.2% overnight. Chris Weston is the head of research for Pepperstone Group, based in Melbourne. There aren't a lot of reasons to buy, and the market is lacking a catalyst until Nvidia announces its earnings on November 19. The stock market is retreating after reaching record...

The global stock market was poised to post its third consecutive week of gains, and seventh consecutive month of growth on Friday. Earnings from Apple and Amazon eased concerns over lofty valuations. Meanwhile, the dollar rose after comments by some Federal Reserve officials. Amazon's stock soared by more than 10% following the announcement that cloud revenue grew at the fastest rate in almost three years. This helped the company to forecast quarterly sales exceeding estimates. Apple shares fell 0.3%, to $270.52, after hitting an intraday high of $277.32, after the company reported its quarterly earnings. It also forecasted holiday quarter...

Asian stocks were up and down early on Thursday, as investors watched to see if U.S. leaders and Chinese leaders would reach a deal. MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific index outside Japan traded flat last, while U.S. S&P500 e-minis futures edged up 0.1% after Wall Street stocks posted a small loss to end a four-day streak of gains. As the Trump administration in the United States imposes tariffs on imports from abroad, global markets are undergoing a series of central bank decisions. These will provide clues as to the future path of interest rates. Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping...

The European stock market hovered around recent highs Wednesday. New AI deals and prospects of improved U.S. China trade relations helped to boost sentiment. Traders waited for the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting in anticipation of a 25 basis-point rate reduction. Wall Street closed Tuesday at a record-high after Nvidia revealed that it will build a new chip. seven supercomputers Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Energy A deal was reached OpenAI can restructure. During Asian trading, stocks in Japan and South Korea also reached new highs. The MSCI World Equity Index rose by less than 0.1% at 0946 GMT. The...

Investors awaited the policy announcements of multiple central banks, and digested corporate earnings. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve is set to kick-off a series of announcements by global central banks including those from Japan, Canada and Europe. According to CME's FedWatch Tool, the Fed is widely expected at this meeting to reduce interest rates. Markets are pricing in a 96% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut. The central bank's expectations of a lower interest rate path, along with recent signs that trade tensions between China and the U.S. were easing, have boosted risk appetite. Stocks are higher...

Nippon Steel is Japan's largest steelmaker. It expects to report an annual profit drop of 14% before one-offs in the current fiscal year. However, it did not include its outlook for U.S. Steel due to the significant challenges on the U.S. Market. The Japanese steelmaker is expecting a underlying business gain, or profit adjusted to remove one-offs of 680 billion dollars for the fiscal year ending March. This is down from last year's 793.7 billion dollars. Nippon Steel acquired U.S. Steel for $15 billion in June. The company said that it had excluded the U.S. Steel business from its fiscal...

Sojitz, a Japanese company, has started importing rare earths heavy from Australia's Lynas. This is the first import of this kind produced using Australian ore that was separated and refined in Malaysia. This move is intended to ensure that Japan can obtain key materials for electric vehicles and renewable energies from other sources than China, the dominant market. Japan, the United States and their allies are working to create supply chains outside China as Beijing tightens its export controls on key minerals. Kosuke uemura, CEO of Sojitz, told reporters that the company would continue to promote diversification in the rare...

Sany Heavy Industry's shares rose up to 4.7% on their Hong Kong debut Tuesday, after the Chinese construction equipment maker raised HK$12.36bn ($1.59bn) in one the biggest listings in the city this year. According to the prospectus, this company was founded in 1994 and is part of the Sany Group. It is now China's leading construction machinery manufacturer, and ranks among the top three worldwide. Sany, which manufactures excavators and concrete machinery as well as road construction equipment and cranes, operates 16 production bases in different countries and sells its products to more than 150. The stock price opened at...

Sanae Takaichi, the new Japanese premier, gave a putter that Shinzo Abe used to use. Shinzo was his friend and former leader of Japan. The club, displayed in a case with a gold-leaf ball and bag autographed by Japanese major champion Hideki Matsuzaya, was one of many references to Trump’s bond with Abe which underpinned relations between the two countries during Trump's first term. Analysts say that Takaichi will want to rekindle the bond with Abe's protegee Takaichi who was killed by a single gunman in 2022 to help her minority government navigate any thorny matters that may arise, such...

The Chinese-led expansion in Indonesia of aluminium production is expected to lead the global market in excess next year. This will result in lower prices for the metal used widely in the transportation industry. Three new smelters backed by China are close to completion, including Xinfa-Tsingshan Juwan in Weda Bay, Taijing at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park and the Adaro-Lygend Kaltara Project in North Kalimantan. Indonesia exported 325.293 metric tonnes of aluminium from January to August of this year. This is up 67% compared to the same period last year. Ross Strachan is an analyst with consultancy CRU. He said,...

Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, said that he had expressed his deep concern to Premier Li Qiang in China about Beijing's increased export controls for critical raw materials. Costa expressed that the European Union expects China to help end Russia's war on Ukraine in a press release following his meeting with Li in Malaysia, at the ASEAN summit. Li stated that China was willing to extend and deepen "optimised" and "balanced" trade cooperation with European Union. This statement came from a Chinese readout of the discussion, which was released by Xinhua, the official news agency. Beijing and Brussels...

A spokesman said that the Indonesian government had begun relocating residents in areas around the Modern Cikande Industrial Estate. The site was found to be contaminated with radioactive Caesium 137. Indonesia launched the effort after it detected high levels Caesium 137, an artificial radionuclide in the sprawling industrial area near Jakarta. At this stage, we will allocate 19 families totaling 63 people. Why now? Why now? He added that the task force will move eight more families, totaling 28 people, in the next phase. The task force said that it has also completed the decontamination of 20 of the 22...

After banning copper concentrate exports in 2011, the energy ministry of Indonesia has now said that it may permit Amman Mineral International, a copper miner, to export copper concentrat after all. Indonesia banned the export of copper concentrates and other raw materials from mid-2023 in order to boost its domestic metal processing industry. However, Amman continued to export until December, last year when it was due to commission a brand new smelter. Tri Winarno, an official in the energy ministry, stated that after a fire broke at its smelter located in West Nusa Tengggara in Indonesia this year. He said...

This week, a delegation of Singaporean firms is visiting South Africa to explore partnership opportunities in manufacturing, logistics and consumer goods. Trade between the two countries has almost doubled in the last four years. Enterprise Singapore, Singapore's agency for trade and enterprise, stated that this mission was part of the Scale-Up Programme and aimed to link participating firms with South African counterparts, and potential partners, in a variety of sectors including agriprocessing and industrial supplies. "South Africa is already a close partner of Singapore, and there are many Singaporean firms operating in South Africa," Rahul Ghosh said on Thursday. He...

The United Nations chief said that tariffs were a major problem for the global trade system, and the developing countries were the worst affected. The rules-based system of trading is in danger of being derailed, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned delegates on Wednesday at the U.N. Trade and Development Conference in Geneva. He cited concerns over trade wars and increasing trade barriers. The tariffs imposed by Donald Trump since his inauguration in January shocked the financial markets, and created a ripple of uncertainty throughout the global economy. Trump increased tariffs on imports of dozens countries starting August 7. This...

U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer announced that he and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent would be heading to Malaysia on Tuesday to meet with Chinese officials to discuss what Greer called Beijing's "extremely aggressive" and "disproportionate measures" to curb the exports of rare-earth minerals. Greer said on CNBC's SquawkBox program that President Donald Trump could still meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, but the decision would be mutual if it took place at the sidelines an economic conference in South Korea. The U.S. negotiator stated that China's actions violated an agreement their officials made months ago, to continue supplying rare...

Malaysia welcomes foreign companies to form joint ventures to develop rare Earths in the nation, according to state media on Wednesday. The report was based on the Trade Minister. According to estimates by the government, Malaysia has 16.1 million tons of rare earths, but does not have the technology to mine or process them. Malaysia wants to build midstream processing capability in a market dominated by China. China tightened export restrictions earlier this month. Exclusively, earlier this month, it was reported that the government is in talks with China about rare earths processing. The Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional will...