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President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States wants to help China, not hurt it, striking a conciliatory tone days after threatening an additional 100 percent tariff on the world’s second-largest economy.Trump’s statements on Friday as well as his threat to cancel a meeting with Xi later this month sent Wall Street stocks tumbling into negative territory as traders worried the trade war between Washington and Beijing could reignite.”The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” Trump said in Sunday’s post on Truth Social, adding that “respected President Xi (Jinping)… doesn’t want Depression for his country.”Trump on Friday said that he would impose the extra levies from November 1 in response to what he called “extraordinarily aggressive” new Chinese export curbs on the rare-earths industry.Beijing, in turn, accused Washington of acting unfairly, with its Ministry of Commerce on Sunday calling Trump’s tariff threat a “typical example of ‘double standards.'”The ministry said Washington had ratcheted up economic measures against Beijing since September.”Threatening high tariffs at every turn is not the right approach to engaging with China,” it said in an online statement.Chinese goods currently face US tariffs of 30 percent under levies that Trump imposed while accusing Beijing of aiding in the fentanyl trade as well as unfair trade practices.China’s retaliatory tariffs are currently at 10 percent.Rare earths have been a major sticking point in recent trade negotiations between the two superpowers.They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology but produced and processed almost exclusively by China.

Australian airline Qantas said Sunday that data from 5.7 million customers stolen in a major cyberattack this year had been shared online, part of a leak affecting dozens of firms.Disney, Google, IKEA, Toyota, McDonald’s and fellow airlines Air France and KLM are also reported to have had data stolen in a cyberattack targeting software firm Salesforce, with the information now being held to ransom.Salesforce said this month it was “aware of recent extortion attempts by threat actors”.Qantas confirmed in July that hackers had targeted one of its customer contact centres, breaching a computer system used by a third party now known to have been Salesforce.They secured access to sensitive information such as customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and birthdays, the blue-chip Australian company said.No further breaches have taken place since and the company is cooperating with Australian security services.”Qantas is one of a number of companies globally that has had data released by cyber criminals following the airline’s cyber incident in early July, where customer data was stolen via a third party platform,” the company said in a statement.Most of the data leaked was names, email addresses and frequent flyer details, the firm said.But some of the data included customers’ “business or home address, date of birth, phone number, gender and meal preferences”.”No credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were impacted,” Qantas said.It also said it had obtained a legal injunction with the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where the firm is headquartered, to prevent the stolen data being “accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published”.Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told AFP that would do little to prevent the spread of the data.”It’s frankly ridiculous,” he said.”It obviously doesn’t stop criminals at all anywhere, and it also really doesn’t have any effect on people outside of Australia.”- Hackers ‘laying siege’ -In response to questions about the leak, tech giant Google pointed AFP to an August statement in which it said one of its corporate Salesforce servers had been targeted. It did not confirm if the data had been leaked.”Google responded to the activity, performed an impact analysis and has completed email notifications to the potentially affected businesses,” Melanie Lombardi, head of Google Cloud Security Communications, said.Cybersecurity analysts have linked the hack to individuals with ties to an alliance of cybercriminals called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.Research group Unit 42 said in a note the group had “asserted responsibility for laying siege to customer Salesforce tenants as part of a coordinated effort to steal data and hold it for ransom”.The hackers had reportedly set an October 10 deadline for ransom payment.- ‘Oldest tricks in the book’ -The hackers stole the sensitive data using a social engineering technique, referring to a tactic of manipulating victims by pretending to be a company representative or other trusted person, experts said.The FBI last month issued a warning about such attacks targeting Salesforce.The agency said hackers posing as IT workers had tricked customer support employees into granting them access to sensitive data.”They have been very effective,” expert Hunt said.”And it hasn’t been using any sophisticated technical exploits… they have exploited really the oldest tricks in the books.”The hack of data from Australia’s biggest airline comes as a string of major cyberattacks in the country has raised concerns about the protection of personal data.Qantas apologised last year after a glitch with its mobile app exposed some passengers’ names and travel details.And major ports handling 40 percent of Australia’s freight trade ground to a halt in 2023 after hackers infiltrated computers belonging to operator DP World.

China accused the United States of “double standards” on Sunday, after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 100 percent tariff on the world’s second-largest economy.Trump reignited his trade war with China on Friday, accusing Beijing of imposing “extraordinarily aggressive” new export curbs relating to rare earths.He announced extra levies — plus export controls on “critical software” — due to take effect from November 1, and threatened to cancel a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Commerce called Trump’s tariff threat a “typical example of ‘double standards'”.The ministry said Washington had ratcheted up economic measures against Beijing since September.”Threatening high tariffs at every turn is not the right approach to engaging with China,” it said in an online statement.Chinese goods currently face US tariffs of 30 percent under levies that Trump brought in while accusing Beijing of aiding in the fentanyl trade, and over alleged unfair practices.China’s retaliatory tariffs are currently at 10 percent.Rare earths have been a major sticking point in recent trade negotiations between the two superpowers.They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology.China dominates global production and processing of these materials, and on Thurday announced new controls on the export of technologies used for the mining and processing of critical minerals.In response, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that China had taken a “very hostile” stance and should not be “allowed to hold the World ‘captive'”.The US leader also threatened to pull out of a mooted meeting with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month.It would have been the first face-to-face encounter between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies since Trump returned to power in January.- Tensions flare again -A few months ago, Beijing and Washington agreed an uneasy truce in their tit-for-tat trade war that started earlier this year and threw bilateral trade into serious jeopardy.But tensions have boiled up again in recent days.China said on Friday that it would impose “special port fees” on ships operated by and built in the US, calling it a “defensive action”.It took aim at the US’s own port fees charged on Chinese ships, claiming they “severely harmed China’s interests”.Washington announced those fees in April as part of an effort to revive American shipbuilding after a decades-long decline that has seen China and other Asian nations come to dominate the industry.

The NBA brought star-studded lineups to Macau this week for the league’s return to China after six years but many of the biggest wins happened off the basketball court, industry insiders and experts told AFP.Thousands of fans cheered Friday as the Phoenix Suns — led by four-time NBA All-Star Devin Booker — beat the Brooklyn Nets, with celebrities such as David Beckham, actor Jackie Chan and Alibaba founder Jack Ma in front-row seats.It heralded the NBA’s return to China for the first time since being effectively frozen out of the country in 2019 after a team official tweeted support for democracy protests in Hong Kong.Hours after Friday’s pre-season match at a sold-out Venetian Arena, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 100 percent tariff on China, underscoring the volatile backdrop of the NBA’s detente with Beijing.Even so, the NBA and star players are rushing back to the post-pandemic Chinese market, with LeBron James and Stephen Curry visiting the country this year to hawk their brands.”One thing a lot of the athletes would say is that everyone read about James Harden coming to China (in 2023), selling his wine and selling out in like 60 seconds,” said Michael Lin, a VP at sports digital agency Mailman, an IMG company.Booths near the arena showed off the NBA’s Chinese brand partners, including e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, live-video app Kuaishou and dairy giant Mengniu, as well as merchandise aimed at younger consumers.David Leiner, president of trading cards for Fanatics Collectibles, said the company recently started selling China-specific NBA card packs in more than 30 cities, adding that the 10 yuan ($1.4) entry price point was “critical”.”For us, it was very important to get the product broadly distributed,” Leiner told AFP.- Decades of business -China became a priority for the NBA in the early 2000s in part due to Yao Ming’s superstardom, said Mark Fischer, former managing director of NBA China.Fischer said the business entity NBA China was valued at $2.3 billion around the time of its 2008 formation.That figure grew to more than $4 billion a decade later, according to NBA deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum in a 2018 Forbes interview.In 2019, the league signed a deal reportedly worth $1.5 billion with Tencent on exclusive online streaming rights.But that was soon overshadowed when Houston Rockets official Daryl Morey went public in support of Hong Kong protesters.The NBA making its return in Macau showed that Beijing was “opening the side door but not the main gates and red carpet just yet”, said Fischer, now an international sports consultant.Macau is a special administrative region of China, distinct from the mainland, and famous for its casinos.The teams are also taking their chance to claw back missed revenues from the vast China market.The Suns hired the marketing team behind American internet celebrity IShowSpeed’s well-received China streaming tour.”We’re going as far as working with (the Suns) to shoot content around the players eating mooncakes and making sure that the correct terminology around Lunar New Year versus Chinese New Year is used,” said Andrew Spalter, founder and CEO of digital marketing firm East Goes Global.The Nets, owned by Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai, have an in-house Chinese social media team.- Warning -Victor Cha, a geopolitics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that China still held the “ultimate form of power over the NBA” and could leverage its huge market to force firms to self-censor.A sports marketer in China who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Morey tweet took just minutes to trigger online outrage and that because of the sheer number of people in and around the NBA it will be “impossible” to avoid a similar incident.”We know how quickly things can spiral out of control,” the source said.”It’s not even about an individual NBA player, it’s anybody associated with the brand.”Appearing in Macau on Thursday, Las Vegas Sands president and COO Patrick Dumont tried out Alibaba’s AI technology that purported to translate spoken NBA match commentary from English to Chinese, or vice versa.The Dallas Mavericks owner asked if he could say anything he wanted, as opposed to reading out scripted lines shown to him on a screen.His host pointed at the text and replied, “Technically, you can say what you want, but this would be the most optimised.”

US President Donald Trump announced an additional 100 percent tariff on China Friday and threatened to cancel a summit with Xi Jinping, reigniting his trade war with Beijing in a row over export curbs on rare earth minerals.Trump said the extra levies, plus US export controls on “any and all critical software,” would come into effect from November 1 in retaliation for what he called Beijing’s “extraordinarily aggressive” moves.”It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” he said on Truth Social.Stock markets fell as the simmering trade war between the United States and China reignited, with the Nasdaq down 3.6 percent and the S&P 500 down 2.7 percent.Chinese goods currently face US tariffs of 30 percent under tariffs that Trump brought in while accusing Beijing of aiding in the fentanyl trade, and over alleged unfair practices.China’s retaliatory tariffs are currently at 10 percent.Trump had threatened the tariffs hours earlier in a lengthy surprise post on his Truth Social network that said China had sent letters to countries around the world detailing export controls on rare earth minerals.Rare earth elements are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology. China dominates global production and processing of these materials.”There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,'” Trump wrote, describing China’s stance as “very hostile”.The US president then called into question his plans to meet Chinese president Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit later this month.It was to be the first encounter between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies since Trump returned to power in January.”I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he wrote.Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office that he hadn’t canceled the meeting.”I haven’t canceled, but I don’t know that we’re going to have it. But I’m going to be there regardless, so I would assume we might have it,” he said.- ‘Lying in wait’ -The US president said he did not understand why China was choosing to act now. “Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile,” he said.Trump said other countries had contacted the United States expressing anger over China’s “great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”He also accused Beijing of “lying in wait” despite what he characterized as six months of good relations, which has notably seen progress on bringing TikTok’s US operations under American control as required by a law passed by Congress last year.His outburst comes just weeks after he had spoken of the importance of meeting Xi at the APEC summit and said that he would travel to China next year.Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariffs war earlier this year that threatened to effectively halt trade between the world’s two largest economies.Both sides eventually agreed to de-escalate tensions but the truce has been shaky.Trump said last week that he would push Xi on US soybean purchases as American farmers, a key voting demographic in his 2024 election win, grapple with fallout from his trade wars.China had said earlier Friday that it would impose “special port fees” on ships operated by and built in the United States after Washington announced charges for Chinese-linked ships in April.In a further development, the US communications watchdog said it had successfully managed to get “millions” of listings for banned Chinese items removed from commerce platforms.”The Communist Party of China is engaged in a multi-prong effort to insert insecure devices into Americans’ homes and businesses,” Brendan Carr, head of the Federal Communications Commission, said on X.

Stock markets fell Friday after US President Donald Trump threatened China with “massive” new tariffs, while oil prices retreated as Middle East tensions eased following the Gaza ceasefire.Trump, in an angry and lengthy social media post, slammed China for “very hostile” trade practices, including imposing new export controls on rare earths.In addition to “a massive increase of Tariffs,” other major countermeasures were “under consideration”, he said, adding that he no longer felt it necessary to meet China’s President Xi Jinping at a summit later in the month.Trump’s sharp pivot sent Wall Street’s major indices sharply lower, with the Nasdaq leading the major benchmarks lower, down 3.6 percent.The dollar fell against its main rival currencies.Trump’s message “has been disrupting the market calm,” said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones, who also noted that markets have been poised for a pullback after a heady rally.Washington and Beijing had been de-escalating trade tensions after a tit-for-tat tariffs war earlier this year, with the Trump-Xi meeting expected to help prolong a shaky truce.However China on Thursday announced new controls on the export of rare-earth technologies and items, adding to regulations on a critical industry that has been a key source of tension between Beijing and Washington.Oil prices had already fallen more than two percent as the Gaza ceasefire took effect, easing concerns about a wider regional conflict that could disrupt supply.But trade war worries pushed prices down more, with the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate ending down 4.2 percent at $58.90, its lowest closing price since April.European markets also slid after Trump’s comments.Paris finished the day down 1.5 percent amid focus on French President Emmanuel Macron’s handling of a rolling political crisis.The president late Friday reappointed his outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, just four days after he gave his resignation.The week was marked by a raft of new records in several markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, the Frankfurt stock exchange and gold prices reaching new heights. Silver also surged to a decades-long high.Buying sentiment won a boost earlier this week from news that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI had signed multi-billion-dollar chip deals with US firm AMD as well as South Korean titans Samsung and SK hynix.However, there are rumblings that the rally could run out of steam, causing jitters on trading floors.”The AI bubble debate remains a hot topic: some argue this is the new internet bubble 2.0 waiting to burst, others think it’s a bubble that still has room to inflate,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.Such worries have been part of the reason behind the rally in gold to a record price above $4,000 an ounce Wednesday.- Key figures at around 2010 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 1.9 percent at 45,479.60 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 2.7 percent at 6,552.51 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 3.6 percent at 22,204.43 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 9,427.47 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.5 percent at 7,918.00 (close) Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.5 percent at 24,241.46 (close) Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 48,088.80 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.7 percent at 26,290.32 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,897.03 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1615 from $1.1564 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3352 from $1.3304Dollar/yen: DOWN at 151.57 yen from 153.07 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.98 pence from 86.93 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 3.8 percent at $62.73 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 4.2 percent at $58.90 per barrel

US President Donald Trump said Friday he no longer feels the need for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month, slamming Beijing for hostile trade practices and threatening “massive” tariffs.In a lengthy and unexpected Truth Social post, Trump railed against China imposing export controls on rare earth minerals — a critical component in modern technology.”Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile,” Trump said in the post, which he sent as he headed for a medical check-up at a military hospital near Washington.”I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he said, adding that he had also seen no reason to call Xi about the issue.Trump added: “One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America.”Wall Street stocks quickly tumbled into negative territory as traders worried the simmering trade war between Washington and Beijing could reignite.As recently as last week Trump had stressed the importance of his plans to meet Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which was to be their first encounter since the US president returned to power in January.He had also said that he would travel to China next year.But in his post on Friday, Trump said China had sent letters to countries around the world detailing export controls on “each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China.”- ‘Lying in wait’ -“There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time,” Trump wrote.He accused Beijing of “lying in wait” despite what he characterized as six months of good relations, adding that he had not spoken to Xi about the matter.Trump also questioned whether the timing of China’s announcement was designed to take the shine off the Gaza ceasefire deal that he brokered this week between Israel and Hamas.Rare earth elements are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology. China dominates global production and processing of these materials.Trump said other countries had contacted the United States expressing anger over China’s “great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”He characterized China’s approach as building monopoly positions on magnets and other elements, calling it “a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least.””Dependent on what China says about the hostile ‘order’ that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move,” he said.Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariffs war earlier this year that threatened to effectively halt trade between the world’s two largest economies.Both sides eventually agreed to de-escalate tensions but the truce has been shaky.Trump said last week that he would push Xi on US soybean purchases as American farmers, a key voting demographic in his 2024 election win, grapple with fallout from his trade wars.China had said earlier Friday that it would impose “special port fees” on ships operated by and built in the United States after Washington announced charges for Chinese-linked ships in April.

US President Donald Trump said Friday he no longer feels a summit is necessary with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this month, slamming Beijing for hostile trade practices and threatening “massive” tariffs.”Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile,” Trump said in a long post on Truth Social that railed against China imposing export controls on rare earth minerals — a critical component in modern technology.”I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he added in the post, which he sent as he headed for a medical check-up at a military hospital near WashingtonTrump said China had sent letters to countries around the world detailing export controls on “each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China.””There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time,” Trump wrote, adding that Beijing had been “lying in wait” despite what he characterized as six months of good bilateral relations.Rare earth elements are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology. China dominates global production and processing of these materials.”One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that he was considering “many other countermeasures.”Trump said other countries had contacted the United States expressing anger over China’s “great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”The president added that he had not spoken to Xi about the matter.He characterized China’s approach as building monopoly positions on magnets and other elements, calling it “a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least.”

Wall Street rebounded, European stock markets steadied and oil prices fell Friday as investors weighed the US government shutdown, fears of an AI bubble and the Gaza ceasefire.The week was marked by a raft of new records in several markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, the Frankfurt stock exchange and gold prices reaching new heights. Silver also surged to a decades-long high.The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow opened higher on Friday, the 10th day of the US government shutdown, after retreating the previous day.”The stock market … has yet to show that it really cares about the shutdown,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.Investors were focusing on third-quarter corporate results.Buying sentiment won a boost this week from news that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI had signed multi-billion-dollar chip deals with US firm AMD as well as South Korean titans Samsung and SK hynix.The spending added to the hundreds of billions already pumped into the sector as firms look to get ahead in the sphere of artificial intelligence.That in turn has seen investors flood into the tech sector, sending stock prices rocketing — with US chip leader Nvidia topping a $4 trillion market capitalisation.However, there are rumblings that the rally could run out of steam, causing jitters on trading floors.”The AI bubble debate remains a hot topic: some argue this is the new internet bubble 2.0 waiting to burst, others think it’s a bubble that still has room to inflate,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.”And many point out that as long as earnings growth holds, the market can keep going,” she added.Such worries have been part of the reason behind the rally in gold to a record price above $4,000 an ounce Wednesday.Alexandra Symeonidi, corporate credit analyst at William Blair, said that “some market participants started to question the sustainability of the price momentum” and had begun to draw parallels with previous asset bubbles.”So, while the overall market has been healthy, investors have been adding hedges in what is broadly considered to be a safe haven asset.”In Europe, the Frankfurt DAX index and London’s FTSE 100 were flat in afternoon deals.Paris was down 0.1 percent as French President Emmanuel Macron was due to pick a head of government tasked with lifting the country out of political crisis following his last prime minister’s resignation.Oil prices, meanwhile, fell more than two percent as the Gaza ceasefire took effect, easing concerns about a wider regional conflict that could disrupt supply.The US benchmark oil contract, WTI, fell under $60 per barrel.- Key figures at around 1335 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 46,563.85 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,748.22New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 23,064.70London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 9,507.77 Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,033.51Frankfurt – DAX: FLAT at 24,609.52Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 48,088.80 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.7 percent at 26,290.32 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,897.03 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1567 from $1.1558 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3275 from $1.3294Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.62 yen from 153.14 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.15 pence from 86.94 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.5 percent at $63.62 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.6 percent at $59.92 per barrel

Stock markets struggled Friday following a mixed week dominated by the Gaza ceasefire, US government shutdown and fears that the artificial intelligence sector is overvalued.After some equity indices hit record highs, along with gold and bitcoin, “the bull run is on pause”, noted Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.European and Asian stock markets were largely downbeat Friday after losses Thursday on Wall Street.The dollar traded mixed against main rivals and oil prices slid more than one percent.Nathan added that “the great reality check, otherwise known as third-quarter earnings season, is upon us”.Buying sentiment won a boost this week from news that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI had signed multi-billion-dollar chip deals with South Korean titans Samsung and SK hynix as well as US firm AMD.The spending added to the hundreds of billions already pumped into the sector as firms look to get ahead on the sphere of artificial intelligence.That in turn has seen investors flood into the tech sector, sending stock prices rocketing — with US chip leader Nvidia topping a $4 trillion market capitalisation.However, there are rumblings that the rally could run out of steam, causing jitters on trading floors.”Some areas of the market appear overheated,” said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services. Such worries have been part of the reason behind the rally in gold to a record above $4,000 an ounce Wednesday.Alexandra Symeonidi, corporate credit analyst at William Blair, wrote: “Given the strong rally in tech stocks some market participants started to question the sustainability of the price momentum and were driving parallels with recent bubbles.”So, while the overall market has been healthy, investors have been adding hedges in what is broadly considered to be a safe haven asset.”Still, Pepperstone’s Michael Brown remained upbeat on equities and saw plenty of upside. “My view remains that dips in the equity complex should still be viewed as buying opportunities, with the ‘path of least resistance’ continuing to lead higher amid resilient underlying economic growth, robust earnings growth, and a looser Fed policy backdrop,” he wrote in a commentary.- Key figures at around 1045 GMT -London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,500.38 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 8,045.47Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 24,571.46Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 48,088.80 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.7 percent at 26,290.32 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,897.03 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 46,358.42 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1575 from $1.1558 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3280 from $1.3294Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.71 yen from 153.14 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.17 pence from 86.94 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.2 percent at $64.41 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.2 percent at $60.76 per barrel