Most stocks fell in Asia on Tuesday as investors grew nervous about the Federal Reserve’s plans for interest rates next year following an expected cut this week.With traders fully confident of a reduction Wednesday, observers said they would be keeping a close eye on the central bank’s so-called “dot plot” of projections for monetary policy.They will also be poring over its post-meeting statement and boss Jerome Powell’s news conference, looking for clues about the debate taking place among decision-makers.Bets on a third successive cut — and more in 2026 — have surged on the back of data pointing to a weakening jobs market, which has offset concerns about stubbornly high inflation.That optimism was boosted last month by reports that President Donald Trump’s top economic aide Kevin Hassett — a proponent of more cuts — was the frontrunner to take the Fed’s helm when Powell’s term ends.However, the excitement has calmed in recent days and Bloomberg reported that markets are pricing two more reductions next year, down from the three expected last week.”This decision is unlikely to be unanimous, with dissent expected from hawks and doves,” wrote Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.”The market sees two rate cuts by the summer. Should the Fed’s dot plot differ from this, there could be volatility,” Cincotta added.Pictet Wealth Management senior US economist Xiao Cui said: “We expect solid growth, above-target inflation, and a slowing labour market to increase internal divisions at the (policy board) and make 2026 a particularly challenging year for policymakers.”Downside risks to the labour market should lead the Committee to cut once more in December, before shifting to a quarterly pace of cuts in March and June.”However, she said her team “see risks that Fed cuts are delayed into the second half of 2026”.After a pullback in all three main indexes on Wall Street, Asian and European markets also struggled.Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Wellington, Taipei, Mumbai and Manila were all down, though there were gains in Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta.London retreated at the open, while Paris and Frankfurt edged up.Chipmakers were mixed in Asia after Trump said he had reached an agreement with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to allow US chip giant Nvidia to export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had heavily restricted over national security concerns.Biden’s administration required chip companies to create modified, less powerful versions specifically for the Chinese market.- Key figures at around 0815 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.1 percent at 50,655.10 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 25,434.23 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,909.52 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,637.55 Dollar/yen: UP at 156.16 yen from 155.86 yen on MondayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1642 from $1.1640Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3329 from $1.3328 Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.32 pence from 87.34 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $58.79 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.1 percent at $62.43 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 47,739.32 (close)

President Donald Trump said Monday he had reached an agreement with President Xi Jinping to allow US chip giant Nvidia to export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.The announcement marked a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.Democrats in Congress quickly dismissed the shift as a huge mistake that will help the Chinese military and economy.In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had informed Xi that Washington would permit Nvidia to ship its H200 products to “approved customers in China, and other countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security.””President Xi responded positively! $25% will be paid to the United States of America,” Trump wrote, without providing details on how the payment mechanism would work.Trump criticized his predecessor’s approach, saying it “forced our Great Companies to spend BILLIONS OF DOLLARS building ‘degraded’ products that nobody wanted, a terrible idea that slowed Innovation, and hurt the American Worker.”This referred to the Biden administration’s requirement for chip companies to create modified, less powerful versions specifically for the Chinese market.These chips had reduced capabilities — lower processing speeds, for example — to comply with export control regulations.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun did not directly confirm the agreement when asked, but said that “China has always advocated for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes through cooperation between China and the United States.”- Not Blackwell -Under Biden-era restrictions, the H200 and similar advanced chips were blocked from export to China.”We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” an Nvidia spokesperson told AFP.”Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”Trump emphasized that Nvidia’s most advanced chips — the Blackwell series and forthcoming Rubin processors — are not included in the agreement and remain available only to US customers.The H200s are roughly 18 months behind the company’s state-of-the-art offerings.The chips — graphic processing units or GPUs — are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.The Commerce Department is finalizing implementation details, with Trump saying “the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies.”- AI race -The announcement comes as Washington and Beijing compete for dominance in artificial intelligence technology.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lobbied the White House intensely to reverse the Biden-era policy despite considerable opposition in Washington to giving Chinese companies access to powerful chips.Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, attributed the deal to a “backroom meeting” with Trump and Huang’s company’s donation to build the East Wing ballroom at the White House.She and other senior Democrats in the Senate issued a separate statement calling Trump’s decision “a colossal economic and national security failure.””Access to these chips would give China’s military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector,” the lawmakers said.Trump’s post came the same day the US Justice Department announced the arrests of two Chinese businessmen in connection to an alleged scheme to smuggle Nvidia H100 and H200 chips from the US to China. It is unclear whether the agreement will impact the case.Alex Stapp, of the Washington-based Institute for Progress, called the policy a “massive own goal,” with the H200 “6x more powerful than the H20, which was previously the most powerful chip approved for export.”Zhang Yi, founder of Chinese tech research firm iiMedia, said that having Nvidia AI GPUs on the market was unlikely to reverse Beijing’s push to develop its own advanced chips.”Instead, it will actually force its acceleration,” with a 25-percent US charge increasing costs for Chinese companies, which already hold concerns over supply chain security, he told AFP.

German exports almost stagnated in October, official data showed Tuesday, as heavy declines in shipments to the United States and China eclipsed growing trade with the rest of Europe.Overall exports from Europe’s top economy rose 0.1 percent to 131.3 billion euros ($153 billion) from a month earlier, according to preliminary data from federal statistics agency Destatis.Shipments to the United States — Germany’s top export market — plummeted almost eight percent as the effect of tariffs continues to exact a heavy toll. Exports to China fell nearly six percent, with demand weak as the Chinese economy battles a long slowdown and local companies increasingly compete with German firms in the key market. Total exports were slightly better than expected however — analysts had forecast a decline — as they were boosted by a near three-percent jump in sales to other European Union countries.ING economist Carsten Brzeski warned however that exports “are still facing rough headwinds” due to shifting trading relationships with the United States and China.”So far, the European market looks unable to offset these global headwinds,” he said.”It currently requires a lot of imagination to see a quick return of the export sector as a powerful growth engine for the German economy.”The German economy has been hit hard by an industrial slump and weak demand in key markets in recent years, and shrank in both 2024 and 2023. Most imports to Germany came from China in October, although they were down around five percent compared to to September. China recently overtook the United States to reclaim its position as Germany’s top trading partner, as the country redirects more of its exports to Europe due to US tariffs. Imports to Germany in October dropped 1.2 percent month-on-month to 114.5 billion euros. The trade surplus widened to 16.9 billion euros. 

South Korean police raided the Seoul headquarters of e-commerce giant Coupang on Tuesday over a recent data leak believed to have affected almost two-thirds of the country’s population.Coupang is South Korea’s most popular online shopping platform, serving millions of customers with lightning-fast deliveries of products from groceries to gadgets.But the company suffered a massive data leak this year and was forced to alert customers that their names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and some order histories had been exposed.Payment details and login credentials were not affected, it said.Coupang had told authorities the personal information of 33.7 million customers had been leaked — almost two-thirds of the population of the country.On Tuesday police in Seoul conducted a “search and seizure” operation at Coupang’s South Korean headquarters, describing it as a “necessary measure” in its investigation into the leak.Seventeen officers from the force’s cyber investigation unit were deployed, with law enforcement vowing to “comprehensively investigate” based on the evidence obtained.President Lee Jae Myung last week called for swift action to penalise those responsible for the debacle.Seoul has said the leak took place through Coupang’s overseas servers from June 24 to November 8.The company only became aware of it last month, according to police and local media, when it issued a complaint against the alleged culprit — a former employee who is a Chinese national.The suspect is yet to be apprehended.Coupang is now facing a class action lawsuit in the United States, where its global headquarters is based, over the leak.- Exposed -And Seoul’s presidential office said Monday that the firm needed to provide answers over how it would compensate users who have had data stolen.”Coupang must present clear measures outlining how it will take responsibility if damages occur,” presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said, according to Yonhap.The case follows a major breach at South Korea’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, which was fined 134 billion won ($91 million) in August after a cyberattack exposed data on nearly 27 million users.South Korea, among the world’s most wired countries, has also been a target of hacking by arch-rival North Korea.Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network — including individuals’ financial records — over a two-year period.Yonhap reported last month that South Korean authorities suspected a North Korean hacking group may be behind the recent cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, which led to the unauthorised withdrawal of 44.5 billion won in digital assets.