Asian stocks track latest Wall St rally as rate bets rise
Asian markets rose again Thursday to extend the week’s global rally as traders ramp up bets on a third successive US interest rate cut next month.With recent worries over stretched valuations appearing to be on the back burner for now, confidence continues to flow through trading floors, boosting riskier assets including bitcoin.Comments from a number of Federal Reserve officials and a string of weak jobs reports have combined to reinforce expectations that next month’s policy meeting will end with another reduction in borrowing costs.Meanwhile, the central bank’s “beige book” of economic conditions around the United States pointed to a growing divergence in consumption, with lower-income populations pulling back.”Overall consumer spending declined further, while higher-end retail spending remained resilient,” said the report, adding that some retailers felt a negative hit from the record-long government shutdown.Traders were little moved by data showing a drop in jobless claims, confounding forecasts for a small rise.Markets are now pricing in around an 80 percent chance of a cut on December 10 and a further three next year. That compares with just three reductions in total that Bloomberg said had been previously expected.All three main indexes on Wall Street pushed higher for a fourth straight day Wednesday, with markets there closed Thursday for Thanksgiving.Most of Asia took up the baton with glee.Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei and Jakarta all advanced, though Wellington and Manila struggled.The global gains come after markets took a hit this month on concerns that a tech-led surge in recent years may have been overdone and the vast sums invested in the AI sector will take some time to see returns.But those worries have for now been overshadowed by the prospect of lower rates — with the Fed focusing on the jobs market rather than worry about elevated inflation.Analysts also pointed to a wider range of firms pushing markets higher in the latest rally, with smaller cap companies benefiting from lower borrowing costs.And Pepperstone’s Chris Weston said Asia could see more gains.”While funds are well aware that US markets are closed in the upcoming session and most traders will also take Friday off, if Asia-based participants see a meaningful skew for further upside in US equity markets, it would make sense for them to get positioned for that risk,” he wrote in a note.Bitcoin, which last plunged to a seven-month low just above $80,000 amid the recent market swoon, broke back above $90,000 as risk appetite returned. However, it is still off the record high above $126.200 touched in early October.In corporate news, Tokyo-listed beer titan Asahi fell in the morning as it said it would delay its financial results owing to a cyberattack that began in September.The maker of Asahi Super Dry, one of Japan’s most popular beers, announced it was experiencing system troubles on September 29, stopping its ability to receive orders and to ship products. It blamed a ransomware attack.Meanwhile, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange is set to be acquired, pending board approval on Thursday, by one of the country’s top tech giants. Naver Financial said Wednesday it will buy Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Upbit is world’s fourth largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume. – Key figures at around 0215 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 50,203.38 (break) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 25,944.71Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,879.12Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1611 from $1.1598 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3256 from $1.3239Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.08 yen from 156.42 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.58 pence from 87.60 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 percent at $58.33 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $62.80 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 47,427.12 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.9 percent at 9,691.58 (close)
Japan beer giant Asahi delays earnings due to cyberattack
Japanese beer giant Asahi said Thursday it has delayed the release of full-year financial results due to a major ongoing cyberattack that began in late September.”While the Company is making every effort to restore the system as quickly as possible, it has decided to postpone the announcement of financial results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025,” Asahi said in a statement.”Regarding product supply, shipments are resuming in stages as system recovery progresses. We apologize for the continued inconvenience and appreciate your understanding,” said CEO Atsushi Katsuki.The maker of Asahi Super Dry, one of Japan’s most popular beers, said on September 29 that it was hit by a ransomware attack, becoming the latest high-profile global company to be targeted.A ransomware attack is when online actors use malicious software to lock or encrypt a victim’s systems and then demands payment for restoring their functions.The company has not disclosed the identity or the demands of the attacker.But hacker group Qilin, believed to be based in Russia, issued a statement that Japanese media interpreted as a claim of responsibility.Other global brands have also recently experienced similar attacks.Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover was forced to seek emergency funding after a damaging cyberattack halted operations at its UK factories.Japanese retailer Muji said in October that it had stopped its domestic online shopping service after a ransomware attack on delivery partner Askul.A survey released in June has found that a third of Japanese businesses have experienced cyberattacks of some sort.
Yemeni drugs seizure a ‘landmark moment’, say WADA
The seizure of a large amount of performance-enhancing drugs in a raid by Yemeni law enforcement agents is “a landmark moment”, the head of investigations for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has told AFP.Gunter Younger said the operation, which netted 447kg of both narcotics and performance-enhancing substances, mainly amphetamines, showed authorities were increasingly tracking the cross-border trade of prohibited substances.The raid — one of several carried out including at sea — sends “a clear signal to criminal networks that the landscape is shifting, that trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs is now on the radar of the authorities”, Younger said.WADA and the Yemeni authorities believe Syrian and Iranian drugmakers have switched their operations to Yemen since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in December last year.They believe the drugmakers are exploiting the war and economic crisis in Yemen and claim the drugs provide a source of income for the Iranian-backed Huthi rebel group in the country.Major Murad al-Radwany, Interpol’s Yemen-based internal security coordinator, expressed satisfaction his colleagues had helped to dismantle “the first factory to be set up in Yemen and equipped with the latest modern devices”.”It was controlled and dismantled before it began operations and exporting drugs and stimulants abroad, and the experts were arrested,” he told AFP.”At the same time, they were preparing to open a new factory in other cities” to “export drugs and stimulants to neighbouring countries”, he said.Al-Radwany said both Syrian and Iranian “experts” had been arrested.”We are concerned about the spread of such factories in Yemen and the exploitation of the situation our country is going through, whether economic conditions or due to wars,” he said.”Iran is the one that provided the experts with financial support and modern equipment, and investigations have proven this, as well as the experts’ confessions.”Al-Radwany, who did not participate directly in the raids but monitored intelligence and coordinated with the security agencies, said: “The Huthis consider it a source of income, facilitating smuggling to neighbouring countries.”Iran also benefits from this, and its goal is to export drugs and stimulants to Arab countries and destabilise security and stability in Yemen and neighbouring countries.”An Iranian foreign ministry official said the claims were “unfounded”.”This is simply absurd and we firmly reject it,” the official told AFP. “Iran’s sacrifices in countering organised crime and drug-trafficking are world renowned and clear to all.”- ‘Swing the pendulum’ -The raid followed a workshop in Saudi Arabia which was part of WADA’s Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigation Network, or GAIIN for short.Younger said GAIIN had “helped reframe doping as not just a problem for sports, but a wider societal issue”.He said the trade in performance-enhancing drugs had “now drawn the attention of transnational crime groups”.”These gangs are using established criminal mechanisms to take advantage of the profitability of these products.”Younger, a former head of the Bavarian state police cybercrime division, said police forces globally were allocating more resources to the problem.”This is a huge win for the protection of clean sport and ultimately for public health,” he said.Al-Radwany called for more international bodies to support the fight, but he maintained that despite the risks, his agents would pursue the drug smugglers.”We and our families face danger from these gangs and smugglers, yet we continue to pursue them.”Younger is unstinting in his praise of the courage of Al-Radwany and his team.”They are not just removing these potentially dangerous substances from circulation, they are also confronting threats to their own safety at the hands of ruthless criminal gangs,” he said.”Every bust, each network or lab dismantled, each seizure made and each criminal convicted helps to swing the pendulum back in our favour.”
A Hong Kong, les pompiers tentent d’éteindre le gigantesque incendie d’un complexe immobilier
Les pompiers de Hong Kong tentent jeudi de venir à bout du violent incendie qui a englouti plusieurs gratte-ciel d’habitation en rénovation, faisant au moins 44 morts et des centaines de disparus selon les autorités de la région chinoise.Le brasier, le plus grave survenu dans ce haut-lieu de la finance mondiale depuis des décennies, s’est déclaré mercredi après-midi dans un complexe de huit immeubles abritant au total quelque 2.000 appartements, à Tai Po, dans le nord de Hong Kong.L’événement a provoqué une onde de choc dans cette région à statut spécial de la Chine, qui compte parmi les plus importantes densités de population et les plus hauts immeubles d’habitation du monde.Jeudi à l’aube, des appartements brûlaient toujours selon des journalistes de l’AFP, même si l’intensité du feu a fortement diminué aux premières heures de la matinée. Vers 09H00 (01H00 GMT), de la fumée noire continuait de s’échapper du complexe immobilier datant des années 1980, doté de tours d’une trentaine d’étages.Au moins 44 personnes ont péri dans l’incendie, selon le dernier bilan des pompiers communiqué jeudi matin. Parmi eux, un soldat du feu de 37 ans brûlé au visage, avec qui le contact avait été perdu, selon le responsable des pompiers, Andy Yeung.Tôt jeudi, 279 personnes manquaient toujours à l’appel, selon le dirigeant de Hong Kong, John Lee. Les secours ont toutefois indiqué par la suite être entrés en contact avec plusieurs des personnes portées disparues.La police a annoncé avoir arrêté trois hommes en lien avec l’incendie, après la découverte de matériaux inflammables abandonnés lors de travaux de maintenance qui ont conduit le feu à “se propager rapidement”. Ils sont soupçonnés d’homicide involontaire.Le brasier s’est vite propagé d’une tour à l’autre, attisé par le vent. Des échafaudages de bambou, emblématiques de Hong Kong, entouraient ces immeubles en rénovation et ont vraisemblablement pris feu en premier. Flammes, braises et fumée s’échappaient des immeubles durant la nuit, baignée d’une lueur orangée.M. Yuen, 65 ans, qui habite là depuis plus de 40 ans, explique que beaucoup de ses voisins étaient âgés et à mobilité réduite. “Certaines personnes ignoraient qu’il y avait un incendie et ont dû être prévenues par téléphone par leurs voisins”, raconte-t-il à l’AFP. “Je suis anéanti!”- Hébergement d’urgence -Plus de 900 personnes ont été accueillies dans des abris provisoires, où des volontaires apportaient soutien moral et couvertures.Des gens y sont arrivés toute la nuit pour signaler la disparition de membres de leur famille, n’arrivant pas à les joindre. Certains étaient assis, hébétés, fixant avec des yeux rougis les écrans de leurs téléphones portables, espérant des nouvelles de leurs proches.Sur les lieux de l’incendie, dans le complexe de Wang Fuk Court, la température “est très élevée et il y a des étages où nous n’avons pas pu atteindre les personnes qui ont demandé de l’aide, mais nous allons continuer d’essayer”, a assuré Derek Armstrong Chan, directeur adjoint du service de lutte anti-incendies.Selon lui, le feu s’est probablement propagé d’un immeuble à l’autre en raison du vent et des débris incandescents qui s’envolaient. Les autorités poursuivent leur enquête sur les causes de l’incendie, souligne-t-il toutefois.Le président chinois Xi Jinping a présenté ses condoléances aux proches de victimes, et appelé à tout faire “pour éteindre l’incendie et minimiser les pertes humaines et matérielles”, selon la chaîne publique CCTV.”C’est déchirant. On se demande avec inquiétude s’il y a des gens bloqués à l’intérieur”, soupire So, 57 ans, qui habite non loin du complexe en flammes.Les incendies ont longtemps constitué un fléau à Hong Kong, particulièrement dans les quartiers pauvres. Mais le renforcement des mesures de sécurité ces dernières décennies a permis de les rendre plus rares.
Two National Guard soldiers shot near White House, suspect in custody
Two US National Guard soldiers were critically wounded Wednesday in a targeted shooting near the White House — an extraordinary security incident fueling controversy over President Donald Trump’s nationwide crime crackdown.According to multiple US media outlets, the alleged shooter was an Afghan national who had entered the United States in 2021, but US authorities had yet to publicly identify and name the suspect.If confirmed, it would mean a series of painful political issues intertwining in one bloody incident on the streets of the capital -– Trump’s use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the disastrous US war in Afghanistan.Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called it “a targeted shooting” by a single assailant.”That individual has been taken into custody,” she said.CBS News reported that law enforcement officials told the network the suspect was a 29-year-old who used a handgun to carry out the attack, while sources told NBC News the shooting was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism.Both soldiers — part of a militarized anti-crime deployment around the United States ordered by Trump — were in “critical condition,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.Earlier, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey mistakenly said the soldiers, both deployed to the capital from his state, had died.It was the most serious violence against the National Guard since Trump began ordering troops onto the streets of several Democratic-run cities shortly after starting his second term this January.The Republican, who was at his Florida golf club, described the shooter as an “animal.”The suspect “is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Ambushed’ -The shootings took place at the Farragut West metro station two blocks from the White House and in mid-afternoon, when the streets and nearby businesses were packed.Jeffery Carroll, assistant chief of the Washington police, said the gunman “ambushed” his victims.He “came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged at the National Guard members.””He was quickly taken into custody by other National Guard members and law enforcement.”An AFP reporter near the scene heard several loud pops and saw people running.Dozens of bystanders were caught up in the chaos.”We heard gunshots. We were waiting at the traffic light and there were several shots,” said Angela Perry, 42, who was driving home with her two children. “You could see National Guard running toward the metro with their weapons drawn.”Soon after the shootings, security agents flooded the area. Officers carrying rifles stood guard behind yellow tape at the perimeter and a helicopter circled overhead.An AFP reporter saw emergency crews running toward the metro with a wheeled stretcher and shortly after emerging with a casualty wearing camouflage whom they loaded into an ambulance.– Troops controversy –Washington’s government buildings are heavily guarded, but much of the city has suffered from years of sometimes serious street crime.Trump made Washington a showcase for his decision to order National Guard soldiers, in camouflage and occasionally carrying rifles, to patrol cities run by Democratic mayors, also including Los Angeles and Memphis.In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, adding up to 2,500.The policy has prompted bitter complaints from local officials who accuse Trump of stoking tensions, while the deployments are the subject of numerous court challenges.Last Thursday a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in the US capital is unlawful.Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, told CNN that the soldiers are not trained for law enforcement.”That adds, I think, a real wild card element to this thing. We don’t really know how those folks would respond if confronted with a violent incident on the street with an armed person.”