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Stocks skidded Thursday as traders continue to pull back from the buying that has propelled markets to record highs in recent months, with upcoming US inflation and jobs data seen as likely to be the next catalysts for action.Investors have been on a buying spree since shares hit deep lows in the wake of Donald Trump’s April global tariff bombshell, with sentiment buoyed by trade agreements and signs that the Federal Reserve was about to resume its interest rate cut programme.The US central bank — citing a weak labour market and inflation that has not spiked — last week announced its reduction, and forecast there could be two more this year.However, while traders have been banking on a period of easing, some Fed officials, including boss Jerome Powell, are trying to take a more cautious approach, citing still-elevated inflation.His remarks this week that stocks are “fairly highly valued” and that there was “no risk-free path” on rates has tempered the euphoria on trading floors.The bank will be keeping watch on the release this week of its preferred gauge of inflation — the personal consumption expenditure index — and next week’s non-farm payrolls report.Tokyo held solidly in positive territory early Thursday, but most other markets trended lower.Hong Kong dropped, with tech titan Alibaba in the red after Wednesday’s gain of more than nine percent in reaction to its chief executive saying it planned to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence. Its US-listed stock piled on more than eight percent.And China’s biggest car exporter Chery Automobile rocketed more than at the start of its 13 percent on its trading debut in the city, having raised about US$1.2 billion in its initial public offering. It ended up 3.8 percent.There were losses in Singapore, Wellington, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai and Jakarta, while Sydney and Bangkok edged up with Shanghai and Seoul barely moved.London, Paris and Frankfurt fell.The tepid day came after a second day of losses in Wall Street for all three main indexes. While there appears to be some unease in recent days over the latest market rally. “With major regions in easy fiscal mode, and with the Fed cutting against a backdrop of broadening and accelerating profits, it’s not hard to argue for a boom in (earnings per share) and GDP growth,” Bank of America analysts wrote.”US (capital expenditure) and revisions are broadening beyond tech, sticky inflation could help sales and thus drive operating leverage. This is the higher probability ‘tail’ in 2026 than stagflation or recession, in our view.”And Pepperstone’s Michael Brown added that “the bull case has been a solid one for quite some time now, with the S&P having gone over 100 days without a daily loss of at least two percent, and remains firmly intact, with the underlying economy resilient and earnings growth robust”.”Furthermore, the Fed’s ‘run it hot’ approach, resulting in a looser policy stance, sooner than expected, tilts risks to the outlook to the upside.”- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 45,754.93 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 26,484.68 (close)Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,853.30 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 9,232.69 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1733 from $1.1737 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3438 from $1.3445Dollar/yen: DOWN at 148.80 yen from 148.91 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.32 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $64.73 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $69.13 per barrelNew York – Dow: FLAT at 46,121.28 (close)

Nickel mining threatens one of the world’s most important marine biodiversity and coral hotspots in Indonesia, despite the government revoking several permits, a report warned Thursday.Analysis of recent and historic mining in the region showed a “domino effect of destruction,” ranging from deforestation on land to sediment run-off smothering coral reefs, the report by NGOs Auriga Nusantara and Earth Insight said.”Post-mining rehabilitation is very poor,” Auriga Nusantara executive director Timer Manurung told AFP. “We worry that the current nickel mining will impact Raja Ampat for decades to come.”Raja Ampat is part of the famed Coral Triangle, beloved by divers for its marine riches.In June, Indonesia’s government revoked permits for four of the five nickel mining companies operating in the cluster of islands and shoals in Southwest Papua Province.That followed an outcry from activists and residents over the impact of mining for the metal used in everything from stainless steel to electric vehicles.In September, the government allowed one company — PT Gag Nikel — to restart operations, arguing the impact “can be properly mitigated.”But NGOs say serious damage has already been done, and there is little sign of clean-up.Images captured by the groups in the region show sediment run-off turning otherwise emerald waters murky brown, downhill from stripped hilltops.They also documented bleached and damaged coral at current and former mining sites, near jetties and areas affected by sediment run-off.While warmer waters caused by climate change have caused coral bleaching in many parts of the world, Timer said coral just 50-100  metres (160-320 feet) away from the surveyed areas remained healthy.The groups also fear mining could restart in the region, noting no formal revocation letter has been published by the government so far.”Even though there is no active mining operation on sites, the staff of the companies and its heavy machinery are still there,” said Timer.Indonesia’s mineral resources ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Until earlier this year, nickel mining concessions covered 22,000 hectares (54,300 acres) of the Raja Ampat region’s 3.66 million hectares, much of it inside a designated UNESCO Global Geopark.These areas are recognised by the UN body for their “international geological significance” and are meant to be “managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development,” UNESCO says.Gag Nikel’s operations lie outside the Geopark.Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves and has sought to spur domestic processing to capture more of the value chain.

Stocks moved narrowly Thursday as traders continue to pull back from the buying that has propelled markets to record highs in recent months, with upcoming US inflation and jobs data seen as likely to be the next catalysts for action.Investors have been on a buying spree since shares hit deep lows in the wake of Donald Trump’s April global tariff bombshell, with sentiment buoyed by trade agreements and signs that the Federal Reserve was about to resume its interest rate cut programme.The US central bank — citing a weak labour market and inflation that has not spiked — last week announced its reduction, and forecast there could be two more this year.However, while traders have been banking on a period of easing, some Fed officials including boss Jerome Powell are trying to take a more cautious approach, citing still-elevated inflation.His remarks this week that stocks are “fairly highly valued” and that there was “no risk-free path” on rates has tempered the euphoria on trading floors.The bank will be keeping watch on the release this week of its preferred gauge of inflation — the personal consumption expenditure index — and next week’s non-farm payrolls report.Tokyo held solidly in positive territory early Thursday, but elsewhere flitted between gains and losses.Hong Kong was flat, even as tech titan Alibaba jumped more than one percent to extend Wednesday’s gain of more than nine percent after its chief executive said it planned to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence. Its US-listed stock piled on more than eight percent.And China’s biggest car exporter Chery Automobile rocketed more than 13 percent higher on its trading debut in the city, having raised about US$1.2 billion in its initial public offering. There were also small losses in Shanghai, Sydney and Singapore while Taipei, Seoul and Manila were barely moved.That came after a second day of losses in Wall Street for all three main indexes. While there appears to be some unease in recent days over the latest market rally, economists at Bank of America were upbeat.”With major regions in easy fiscal mode, and with the Fed cutting against a backdrop of broadening and accelerating profits, it’s not hard to argue for a boom in (earnings per share) and GDP growth,” they wrote.”US (capital expenditure) and revisions are broadening beyond tech, sticky inflation could help sales and thus drive operating leverage. This is the higher probability ‘tail’ in 2026 than stagflation or recession, in our view.”- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 45,719.71 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: FLAT at 26,525.03Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,850.15Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1745 from $1.1737 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3455 from $1.3445Dollar/yen: DOWN at 148.74 yen from 148.91 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.30 pence from 87.29 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $64.73 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $69.09 per barrel

Wall Street stocks retreated for a second straight session Wednesday while oil prices moved higher as Chinese online retail giant Alibaba surged on new AI investments.Major US indices pulled back further from Monday’s record closes following comments Tuesday from Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell that US stocks are “fairly highly valued.””We’ve given up some ground today,” said FHN Financial’s Chris Low. “It really does look mostly.”Briefing.com described Wednesday’s trading as a shift from the bargain-hunting impulse that has surfaced after other recent dips. But Wednesday’s losses were “modest in the scope of recent gains,” Briefing said in its note.Following a mixed day on European stock markets, the broad-based S&P 500 finished down 0.3 percent.Trade Nation analyst David Morrison characterized Tuesday’s selloff as shallow.”The general feeling is… that any pullback is a buying opportunity,” he said.A key driver of the rally has been expectations that the Fed will continue to cut US interest rates before the end of the year.Investors are awaiting the release on Friday of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s favored gauge of US inflation, and key American jobs figures next week.Crude oil prices rallied for a second day after European officials followed through on US President Donald Trump’s call in Tuesday’s United Nation’s adress to end energy imports from Russia. The EU has already cut around 90 percent of its oil imports from Russia since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, and has announced a plan to phase out the remaining purchases by the end of 2027.EU countries Hungary and Slovakia — both allies of Trump — still import Russian oil via pipeline, and are opposed to any moves to turn off the taps faster.”We will, in due course, present what we have in mind on this,” EU spokesman Olof Gill said Wednesday.Elsewhere, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu’s unveiling of plans to ramp up AI spending by about $53 billion provided a positive catalyst for tech stocks as well as the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets.Alibaba shares surged more than eight percent.”The industry’s development speed far exceeded what we expected, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure also far exceeded our anticipation,” Wu told an audience at the firm’s annual developer conference in Hangzhou, China.The Argentine peso rose sharply on Wednesday after Washington said it is in talks with Argentina for a swap line allowing the country access to billions of dollars.- Key figures at around 2050 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN less than 0.4 percent at 46,121.28 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,637.97 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,497.86 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,250.43 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,827.45 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 23,666.81 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 45,630.31 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent at 26,518.65 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,853.64 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1737 from $1.1815 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3445 from $1.3526Dollar/yen: UP at 148.91 yen from 147.64 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.29 pence from 87.35 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.5 percent at $69.31 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.5 percent at $64.99 per barrelburs-jmb/jgc

Stock markets were torn Wednesday between optimism over artificial intelligence and a warning from US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell on interest rates.Wall Street’s main indices rose at the opening bell after finishing the previous day lower, but wobbled in morning trading.Investors have enjoyed a months-long rally for equities that has pushed some markets to record highs, but the run-up took a pause Tuesday amid talk that the gains may have gone too far.But Trade Nation analyst David Morrison characterised Tuesday’s selloff as shallow.”The general feeling is… that any pullback is a buying opportunity,” he said.A key driver of the rally has been expectations that the Fed will continue to cut US interest rates before the end of the year.However, Powell cooled expectations with a warning Tuesday that cutting rates too aggressively risked stoking inflation, while also noting that stocks are “fairly highly valued”.Investors are awaiting the release on Friday of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s favoured gauge of US inflation, and key American jobs figures next week.Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare noted Powell’s comments that stock valuations are high were not revelatory given that analysts had been talking about the situation for some time.”Yes, stocks are ‘fairly highly valued’, yet the tale of the tape is that the market thinks ‘maybe not’ given the AI boom, the pivot to lower policy rates, and stimulative tax policies,” he said.”Its hopeful view remains supported by the absence of a disillusioning fundamental catalyst,” he added.Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu’s unveiling of plans to ramp up AI spending by about $53 billion provided a positive catalyst for tech stocks as well as the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets.Alibaba shares surged more than nine percent.”The industry’s development speed far exceeded what we expected, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure also far exceeded our anticipation,” Wu told an audience at the firm’s annual developer conference in Hangzhou, China.Trade Nation’s Morrison pointed out that US chipmaker Micron Technology issued positive forward guidance along with strong sales and earnings figures.”The news helped dispel fears over excessive AI spending, and that has fed through to a recovery in the US majors this morning,” he said.Some early gains for US tech giants evaporated in morning trading.Europe’s main stock markets finished the day mixed.Crude prices firmed Wednesday “after (US President) Donald Trump ramped up further pressure on sanctions on Russian oil”, noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.Following calls to do so by Trump, the European Commission also indicated it would propose tariffs on imports of Russian oil, which Hungary and Slovakia continue to buy.The Argentine peso rose sharply on Wednesday after Washington said it is in talks with Argentina for a swap line allowing the country access to billions of dollars.Meanwhile Powell’s comments continued to lend support to the dollar, which had come under pressure from rate-cut expectations.- Key figures at around 1530 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 46,255.64 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 6,652.62New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 22,562.71London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,250.43 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,827.45 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 23,666.81 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 45,630.31 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent at 26,518.65 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,853.64 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1740 from $1.1816 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3451 from $1.3524Dollar/yen: UP at 148.75 yen from 147.66 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.28 pence from 87.37 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.7 percent at $68.08 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.1 percent at $64.72 per barrelburs-rl/sbk

Europe’s main stock markets retreated Wednesday following gains in Asia and Wall Street losses, with focus on shares in technology giants and a warning from US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell on interest rates.Chinese tech firms stood out, with Alibaba shares rocketing after its chief executive said the e-commerce giant planned to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence.Investors have enjoyed a months-long rally for equities that has pushed some markets to record highs, but the run-up took a pause Tuesday amid talk that the gains may have gone too far.Another key driver has been expectations that the Fed will continue to cut US interest rates before the end of the year.However, Powell cooled expectations with a warning Tuesday that cutting rates too aggressively risked stoking inflation.Powell’s comments lent support to the dollar, which had come under pressure from rate-cut expectations.Investors are awaiting the release on Friday of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s favoured gauge of US inflation, and key American jobs figures next week.On Wednesday, the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets rallied thanks to a surge of more than nine percent in Alibaba — which runs some of China’s biggest online shopping platforms — after CEO Eddie Wu unveiled plans to ramp up AI spending by about $53 billion.”The industry’s development speed far exceeded what we expected, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure also far exceeded our anticipation,” Wu told an audience at the firm’s annual developer conference in Hangzhou, China. Crude prices firmed Wednesday “after (US President) Donald Trump ramped up further pressure on sanctions on Russian oil”, noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.- Key figures at around 1100 GMT -London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,217.49 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,847.15 Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 23,603.69Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 45,630.31 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent at 26,518.65 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,853.64 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 46,292.78 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1752 from $1.1816 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3471 from $1.3524Dollar/yen: UP at 148.08 yen from 147.66 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.27 pence from 87.37 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $67.52 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $64.06 per barrel

Equities were mixed Wednesday following a down day on Wall Street, where worries about high valuations were compounded by mixed messaging from the Federal Reserve on its plans for interest rates.Chinese tech firms stood out, with Alibaba rocketing after its chief executive said the e-commerce giant planned to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence.Investors have enjoyed a months-long rally that has pushed some markets to record highs, but the run-up took a pause Tuesday amid talk that the gains may have gone too far.All three main indexes in New York were dragged down from peaks by US tech titans, including Nvidia and Amazon, which have been at the forefront of the global surge owing to huge AI bets.Another key driver of the gains has been expectations that the Fed will cut borrowing costs several times this year, with last week’s reduction followed by forecasts that two more were in the pipeline.However, comments from key officials stoked uncertainty among investors.Fed boss Jerome Powell warned there was “no risk-free path”.”If we ease too aggressively, we could leave the inflation job unfinished and need to reverse course later to fully restore two-percent inflation,” he said at an event in Rhode Island.But he added: “If we maintain restrictive policy too long, the labour market could soften unnecessarily.”The remarks came as Atlanta Fed chief Raphael Bostic and Chicago counterpart Austan Goolsbee warned of more inflation.However, governor Michelle Bowman called on her colleagues to slash rates amid fears they were “at serious risk of already being behind the curve in addressing deteriorating labour market conditions”.”Now that we have seen many months of deteriorating labour market conditions, it is time for the committee to act decisively and proactively to address decreasing labour market dynamism and emerging signs of fragility,” she said in prepared remarks ahead of an event in Kentucky.Investors are now awaiting the release on Friday of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s favoured gauge of inflation, and key jobs figures the week after.New governor Stephen Miran, who was appointed by Donald Trump, also called for more reductions.”Given the indications for the Administration’s dovish reaction function for the Fed, the probability for a policy mistake potentially rises, particularly amid three specific drivers that could keep inflation elevated well into 2026,” said Daleep Singh, of PGIM.He pointed to signs that US tariff effects were begining to emerge, a drop in labour supply that is almost as fast as demand — hitting wages and prices — and stimulative fiscal policy “likely contributing to the largest non-war and recession deficits in US history”.Hong Kong rallied with Shanghai thanks to a surge of more than nine percent in Alibaba after CEO Eddie Wu unveiled plans to ramp up AI spending by about $53 billion.”The industry’s development speed far exceeded what we expected, and the industry’s demand for AI infrastructure also far exceeded our anticipation,” Wu told an audience at the firm’s annual developer conference in Hangzhou, China. “We are actively proceeding with the 380 billion (yuan) investment in AI infrastructure, and plan to add more,” he added.”To embrace the arrival of the ASI (artificial superintelligence) era, the energy consumption scale of Alibaba Cloud’s global data centres will increase by tenfold by 2032, compared with 2022, the first year of GenAI.”There were also gains in Hong Kong-listed Tencent, JD.com and Meituan.Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo, Jakarta, Bangkok and Wellington rose, but Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Manila slipped.London, Frankfurt and Paris all dropped in the morning.- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 45,630.31 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent at 26,518.65 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,853.64 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 9,191.96 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1791 from $1.1816 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3485 from $1.3524Dollar/yen: UP at 148.08 yen from 147.66 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.42 pence from 87.37 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $63.78 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.5 percent at $67.29 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 46,292.78 (close)

Embattled Australian telco giant Optus was hit with a $66 million fine on Wednesday over “appalling” sales conduct as the firm grapples with fallout from a network outage linked to several deaths.A federal court ruled the company — one of Australia’s top telecoms providers — should be punished for selling products to vulnerable customers between 2019 and 2023 that they did not need or want, leaving many in debt.Many of these people were also Indigenous and lived in remote parts of the country.Federal Court’s Justice Patrick O’Sullivan labelled the company’s conduct as “extremely serious” and “appalling”.Consumers incurred thousands of dollars of debt while on modest incomes and became embarrassed or stressed over how they would pay these, he added.The court formally approved the penalty Wednesday, which Optus and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had agreed to in June. Optus previously described its sales practices during the offending period as “unconscionable conduct and inappropriate”.Following the ruling, Optus said it had changed its sales practices to better support customers. “Optus is remediating impacted customers as a matter of priority,” the company said.It will also donate $662,300 to improve the financial literacy of Indigenous communities. Wednesday’s fine comes just days after an outage impacted 600 people across South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory for at least ten hours.The outage prevented calls to emergency services, with four deaths now linked to the outage.On Wednesday, Optus announced details of an independent review that will probe the series of events that took place and determine why emergency calls did not connect.”There are no words that can express how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people, who could not reach emergency services in their time of need,” chief executive Stephen Rue said.Optus was previously fined $7.9 million after an outage halted its mobile and internet systems for nearly 12 hours in 2023.

Equities wavered Wednesday following a down day on Wall Street, where worries about high valuations were compounded by mixed messaging from the Federal Reserve on its plans for interest rates.Investors have enjoyed a months-long rally that has pushed some markets to record highs but the run-up took a pause Tuesday amid talk that the gains may have gone too far.All three main indexes in New York were dragged down from peaks by tech titans including Nvidia and Amazon, which have been at the forefront of the global surge owing to huge bets on artificial intelligence.Another key driver of the gains has been expectations that the Fed will cut borrowing costs several times this year, with last week’s reduction followed by forecasts that two more were in the pipeline.However, comments from key officials stoked uncertainty among investors.Boss Jerome Powell warned there was “no risk-free path”.”If we ease too aggressively, we could leave the inflation job unfinished and need to reverse course later to fully restore two-percent inflation,” he said at an event in Rhode Island.But he added: “If we maintain restrictive policy too long, the labour market could soften unnecessarily.”The remarks came as Atlanta Fed chief Raphael Bostic and Chicago counterpart Austan Goolsbee warned of more inflation.However, governor Michelle Bowman called on her colleagues to slash rates amid fears they were “at serious risk of already being behind the curve in addressing deteriorating labor market conditions”.”Now that we have seen many months of deteriorating labour market conditions, it is time for the committee to act decisively and proactively to address decreasing labor market dynamism and emerging signs of fragility,” she said in prepared remarks ahead of an event in Kentucky.Investors are now awaiting the release Friday of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, the Fed’s favoured gauge of inflation, and key jobs figures the week after.New governor Stephen Miran, who was appointed by Donald Trump, also called for more reductions.Pepperstone’s Chris Weston wrote: “One assumes that if we see US core PCE inflation print at 0.2 percent month-on-month, followed by a tick higher in the layoff rate… and another weak non-farm payrolls release, Bowman may conclude the time for insurance cuts has passed and revert back to a 50-basis-point dissent.”In Asian trade, Tokyo fell along with Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Wellington, though there were small gains in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Manila.- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 45,300.30 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,223.11 Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,832.38Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1802 from $1.1816 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3514 from $1.3524Dollar/yen: UP at 147.74 yen from 147.66 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.33 pence from 87.37 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $63.58 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $67.08 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 46,292.78 (close)London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 9,223.32 (close)

Caught off guard by ChatGPT and mocked for early blunders with its own generative artificial intelligence efforts, Google has pulled off a dramatic turnaround in just one year, becoming a major player in consumer-facing AI.”The market had written off Alphabet in the AI race,” Matt Britzman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said of Google’s parent company. “That was short-sighted.”In March 2023, Google hastily launched its version of ChatGPT, called Bard, four months after the original shook the world.During its launch event, Bard made an error answering a question about the James Webb telescope, drawing ridicule from viewers tuning in from around the world.Several analysts subsequently downgraded their recommendations of Alphabet, worried that ChatGPT would eat into the Google search engine’s generation-long dominance of the internet.A year later, in May 2024, the Mountain View, California giant unveiled AI Overviews, a feature integrated into Google Search that again caused online ridicule after recommending a glue pizza recipe and eating a rock a day in answers to queries.Despite massive investments in AI technology for over a decade — acquiring the DeepMind lab in 2014 and producing high-level research publications that inspired the ChatGPT phenomenon — Google kept stumbling.Much of Google’s AI development “focused on powering its platforms rather than delivering services directly to consumers,” said Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight.Ted Mortonson, an analyst at financial services firm Baird, said Google leadership was caught “flat-footed” and had grown “too complacent” about their AI advantage.- Turnaround trajectory -Amid the crisis, change was afoot. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was seen back at the Googleplex, and the company undertook a drastic internal reorganization.In spring 2024, AI developers were consolidated under a single Google DeepMind banner with Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis put in charge.”It took us time to bring these teams together,” CEO Sundar Pichai explained on the “Lex Fridman Podcast” in early June.Google also needed time to deploy its new in-house AI chips, the TPUs (Tensor processing units), essential to the company’s ambitions.But “I could see, internally, the trajectory we were on,” he said.Despite the “glue pizza” missteps, or hallucinations in AI parlance, Overviews marked the first step in Google’s turnaround.Next came the commercial launch of NotebookLM — a digital document tool that can synthesize uploaded content into easy-to-understand writing or even a chatty podcast.At Google’s developer conference in May 2025, the company unveiled video generation tool Veo 3, whose precision and consistency made a big splash, along with AI Mode, a feature that completed the transformation of search engine into ChatGPT-style chatbot.August brought a new version of the Pixel smartphone, whose AI enables 100x zoom and real-time translation. Mid-September saw the launch of video generation on YouTube.”Today’s tools, especially from Google, can be used in the real world, as opposed to just being developer conference demos,” emphasized Avi Greengart of Techsponential.With Pixel, “Google is in pole position in AI equipment,” said Wood.Google drove the point home with its image editing program integrated into Gemini, informally called Nano Banana, which became such a sensation that Gemini topped ChatGPT in iPhone downloads for the first time earlier this month.The outlook brightened further for Google when it avoided having to sell its Chrome browser — a government demand in its search monopoly trial that was rejected by a federal judge in early September.Signaling the shift, Apple is reportedly considering using Gemini for its overhaul of AI voice assistant Siri, according to Bloomberg.A partnership with the iPhone giant would hand Google a new revenue stream, though monetizing its AI “is still somewhat of a question mark,” said Greengart.”Google is playing the long game,” said Wood. “It knows that right now, it needs to offer free services to get consumers engaged with Gemini. However, in the longer term, it’s hoping this can be turned into a substantial revenue stream.”