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Asian markets extended gains on Wednesday, with Tokyo and Seoul emulating a record day on Wall Street as fresh data pointing to a weakening US jobs market ramped up expectations for a series of Federal Reserve rate cuts.Eyes are now on the release of inflation figures that could help guide the US central bank’s decision-making for the rest of the year.Figures on Tuesday showed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had revised down the number of new jobs in the 12 months through March by a record 911,000, suggesting the economy was slowing quicker than thought.The reading came after news Friday of another big miss on August’s non-farm payrolls report.Fed boss Jerome Powell last month indicated cuts were in the pipeline, having batted away long-running pressure from US President Donald Trump to do so owing to worries about stubbornly high inflation.Analysts said the only question was now how big a reduction would be made at the bank’s policy meeting next week.”The punchy revision will only accelerate the pressure on the Fed to ease in September, and throughout the balance of 2025,” said Chris Weston at Pepperstone.”While expectations could evolve if we get a benign core (consumer price index) print, at this stage, the Fed is far more likely to cut by 25 basis points and to guide with a strong bias that more cuts are to come in the months ahead.”After all three main indexes on Wall Street ended at record highs, Asia continued the positive run on Wednesday with tech firms among the best performers.Tokyo ended at an all-time high, as did Seoul where South Korean traders were hopeful the government will not implement a proposal to lower the capital gains tax threshold for stocks.Hong Kong hit a four-year peak, while Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington, Bangkok and Mumbai were also in the green. Jakarta clawed back a large part of Tuesday’s heavy losses that came after President Prabowo Subianto removed finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following deadly anti-government protests.Shanghai rose even after data showed the Chinese CPI fell back into negative territory, indicating leaders in the world’s number two economy were still struggling to reignite consumer spending.Still, Fidelity International economist Peiqian Liu remained upbeat in light of last year’s stimulus measures by Beijing and a string of other developments including the emergence of the DeepSeek AI platform, improving exports and AI investment.”The extension of the US-China trade truce until early November offers additional breathing room, steadying immediate trade outlooks and supporting the credibility of this year’s growth targets,” she wrote.”In response, recent economists’ surveys saw consensus GDP forecasts for 2025 have been raised close to the government’s target of five percent.”London, Paris and Frankfurt were all higher in the morning.There was little negative reaction to news Trump had told Brussels he would hit China and India with new tariffs for their purchases of Russian oil if EU nations also did so.Meanwhile, crude extended Tuesday’s gains on renewed fears over the Middle East after Israel’s strikes on Hamas in Qatar.- Key figures at around 0830 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.9 percent at 43,837.67 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 26,200.26 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,812.22 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,255.86Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1709 from $1.1707 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3536 from $1.3527 Dollar/yen: UP at 147.46 from 147.42 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.49 pence from 86.57 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.8 percent at $63.12 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $66.88 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 45,711.34 (close)

A chartered plane departed Seoul for the United States Wednesday to repatriate hundreds of South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid, flag carrier Korean Air told AFP.South Koreans made up the majority of people arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in the US state of Georgia last week, according to immigration agents. The operation was the largest single-site raid conducted under US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to an investigating agent. A Korean Air Boeing 747-8I, which seats over 350 passengers, left from Seoul Wednesday, a company representative told AFP.”The chartered plane left around 10:20 am for the US,” said the spokeswoman.”A timeline for the return flight has not been finalised,” she added.Local media broadcast footage showing what they described as the chartered plane taking off from Incheon International Airport.Citing diplomatic sources, Yonhap news agency reported that the plane would leave the United States with the workers at 3:30 am Thursday (1830 GMT Wednesday).Seoul’s foreign minister Cho Hyun headed to Washington on Monday for further talks, calling the mass detention of South Koreans a “grave situation” and pledging to secure the workers’ swift return “in good health”.Before departing, Cho told South Korean MPs that “a tentative agreement” had been reached with US authorities to ensure the detained workers would not face penalties, such as a five-year ban on re-entry.”I can tell you that negotiations are going well,” he said.In addition to being a key US security ally, South Korea is Asia’s fourth-biggest economy and a major automaker and electronics producer, and its companies have multiple plants in the United States.Seoul has also heeded Washington’s repeated call during tariff negotiations for global investment in the United States.The site of the raid is a $4.3 billion joint venture between two South Korean firms –- Hyundai and LG Energy Solution –- to build a battery cell manufacturing facility in Georgia.Experts said most of the detained South Korean workers were likely to hold visas that do not allow for hands-on construction work.

When David Ha started an AI company in Japan with his former Google colleague, they had a choice: create another huge, energy-intensive tool like ChatGPT, or go their own way.Since its 2023 launch, the value of their firm Sakana AI has soared past $1 billion, becoming Japan’s fastest start-up to reach so-called unicorn status.”In a space like AI, everyone’s kind of doing the same thing. They’re just like collecting the world’s data, building a gigantic model, sucking up all this energy,” Ha told AFP.For a new venture, “the chance of success is actually quite low, especially in Japan”, where the resources to run power-hungry data centres are scarce.Instead of going head-to-head with top players like OpenAI or Alibaba, Sakana aims to merge existing and new systems, large and small, to develop what it calls “collective intelligence”.In many countries, “people are debating, should I use a Chinese model or should I use a US model?” Ha said, referring to AI foundation models trained on vast amounts of data.But in today’s tumultuous world, “you can imagine… a scenario where a certain provider might turn off their models”, he added.Combining the best aspects of multiple systems means Sakana’s AI-powered programmes could in theory “continue to operate”, he said, even if “with slightly lower performance at the beginning”.Sakana’s approach has won it the support of US chip giant Nvidia as well as Japanese banks and other businesses keen to get ahead in the fast-moving world of generative artificial intelligence.The word sakana means fish in Japanese, and the start-up says it is inspired by nature, where species from ants to humans collaborate to solve problems.- ‘Soft power’ -Ha, a Hong Kong-born Canadian and long-term Japan resident, is a former Google Brain research scientist who previously traded derivatives for Goldman Sachs.He founded Sakana AI with ex-Google researcher Llion Jones, co-author of a groundbreaking 2017 machine learning paper, and Ren Ito, who has held positions in Japan’s foreign ministry.Sakana’s team numbers more than 100, including contractors, and its unassuming offices are located in a shared Tokyo start-up space.Japan is pouring tens of billions of dollars into AI and semiconductors, hoping to claw back some of its 1980s tech glory and boost the productivity of its shrinking workforce.But there is some way to go. In academic institute IMD’s 2025 World Competitiveness Ranking, Japan came 35th, with researchers saying it needs to foster entrepreneurship and address labour shortages caused by its ageing population.”There are a lot of business challenges in Japan”, where working environments are “very different” to Europe, China or the United States, Ha said.But “building from the ground up” is an advantage for Sakana AI, which is “taking advantage of Japan’s soft power” to attract talented software engineers.In starting the company, Ha has put down roots in Japan, which “has its problems” but remains “a leading democracy in Asia”, he said.- Experimentation -The tools developed by Sakana AI include a Japanese-language chatbot called “Tiny Sparrow” that works offline, protecting users’ privacy.Another trained on historical Japanese literature responds to text queries in samurai-like language.Some coders have pointed out problems in the output of Sakana projects such as AI Scientist — a bid to automate scientific discovery, whose paper passed a peer-review process this year — and in others built to improve the efficiency of AI engineering.”We have to experiment,” Ha said. In academia and business, too, “things may not go your way, and we learn from that”.In any case, “people take these concepts very seriously” and work can progress quickly — like the evolution of AI-generated video from “blobby” images to hyper-realism, he said.In May, Sakana announced a “multi-year partnership” with Japanese megabank MUFG to develop “bank-specific AI systems”.While Ha wants to keep Sakana’s AI research team small and “niche”, the arm of the start-up that helps Japanese businesses and the public sector deploy AI is growing.”It is a challenge to balance between working on cutting-edge… AI development, and on the business side to deploy trusted solutions that are known to work,” he said.Ha predicts that investors’ excitement around AI will inevitably taper.”Every major technological revolution, from canals to the dot-com boom, has been fuelled by a bubble,” he said.”That speculative investment, while risky, is what funds the foundational breakthroughs.”

Asian markets extended gains on Wednesday following a record day across Wall Street as fresh data pointing to a weakening US jobs market ramped up expectations for a series of Federal Reserve rate cuts.Eyes are now on the release of consumer price index (CPI) figures later in the day that observers say could help guide the US central bank’s decision-making for the rest of the year.Figures on Tuesday showed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had revised down the number of new jobs in the 12 months through March by a record 911,000, suggesting the economy was slowing quicker than thought.The reading came after news Friday of another big miss on August’s non-farm payrolls report.Fed boss Jerome Powell last month indicated cuts were in the pipeline, having batted away long-running pressure from US President Donald Trump to do so owing to worries about stubbornly high inflation. Analysts said the only question was now how big a reduction would be made at the bank’s policy meeting next week.”The punchy revision will only accelerate the pressure on the Fed to ease in September, and throughout the balance of 2025,” said Chris Weston at Pepperstone.”While expectations could evolve if we get a benign core CPI print, at this stage, the Fed is far more likely to cut by 25 basis points and to guide with a strong bias that more cuts are to come in the months ahead.”After all three main indexes on Wall Street ended at record highs, Asia continued the positive run on Wednesday.Hong Kong rallied to hit a fresh four-year high while Seoul was just short of a record fuelled by hopes for South Korean economic reforms.Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington and Manila were also in the green. Jakarta clawed back some of Tuesday’s heavy losses that came after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following deadly anti-government protests.Shanghai wavered after data showed the Chinese CPI fell back into negative territory, indicating consumers in the world’s number two economy were still struggling to fire on all cylinders.Still, Fidelity International economist Peiqian Liu remained upbeat in light of last year’s stimulus measures and a string of other developments including the emergence of the DeepSeek AI platform, improving exports and AI investment.”The extension of the US-China trade truce until early November offers additional breathing room, steadying immediate trade outlooks and supporting the credibility of this year’s growth targets,” she wrote.”In response, recent economists’ surveys saw consensus GDP forecasts for 2025 have been raised close to the government’s target of five percent.”There was little negative reaction to news Trump had told Brussels he would hit China and India with new tariffs for their purchases of Russian oil if EU nations also did so.Meanwhile, crude extended Tuesday’s gains on renewed fears over the Middle East after Israel’s strikes on Hamas in Qatar.- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 43,684.29 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 26,206.05Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,809.48Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1692 from $1.1707 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3518 from $1.3527 Dollar/yen: UP at 147.48 from 147.42 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.50 pence from 86.57 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $63.07 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $66.80 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 45,711.34 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,242.53 (close)

US stock indices rocketed to fresh records as markets digested disappointing US jobs data, while political upheaval in France lifted the European country’s borrowing rate.The US Labor Department estimated that 911,000 fewer jobs were created in the United States than previously reported in a revision to data for the 12 months ending in March.The figures suggest the job market has been slowing for longer than previously thought, further bolstering the odds of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts following poor monthly reports for July and August.After last month’s big miss on US jobs creation, “these revisions suggest that jobs momentum is being lost from an even weaker position than originally thought,” said analysts at ING.Investors are now looking to consumer inflation data coming Thursday, since a hot reading could keep the Fed from cutting further as it looks to curb price increases.After sluggish trading early in the day, US indices picked up momentum throughout the session. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all finished at records.In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei briefly spiked to a new record before ending lower amid hopes that whoever replaces Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister will unveil a fresh round of economic stimulus.Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will pick its new leader on October 4 to replace Ishiba, who resigned at the weekend after huge election setbacks.In Paris, the CAC 40 index moved higher after French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou submitted his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of his government’s ousting.Bayrou on Monday suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote he called in parliament, seeking support for more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) in budget cuts to rein in France’s debt.France’s borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of traditional European debt-laggard Italy on Tuesday, ahead of an update on the country’s credit rating from Fitch on Friday. However, “for now, the market impact seems limited”, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, agreed that “a genuine financial crisis with a self-reinforcing doom loop (higher yields = bigger deficits = even higher yields…) remains quite unlikely for the time being”. Gold, an investment haven in uncertain times, extended its record run, hitting an all-time high of over $3,680 an ounce. Oil prices moved higher after Israel’s strikes on Qatar added to worries of a broadening of the Middle East conflict.- Mining merger -On the corporate front, British mining group Anglo American and its Canadian peer Teck Resources announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar merger, creating a behemoth of copper production and of other critical minerals.Anglo American shares ended nine percent higher in London, while Teck’s stock jumped 11.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares in rival miners jumped on their coattails.Indonesian stocks and the rupiah tumbled after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following fatal anti-government protests across the country.- Key figures at around 2110 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 45,711.34 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 6,512.61 (close)New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.4 percent at 21,879.49 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,242.53 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 7,749.39 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.4 percent at 23,718.45 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 43,459.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 25,938.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,807.29 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1707 from $1.1763 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3527 from $1.3545 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.42 from 147.50 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.57 pence from 86.84 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $66.39 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $62.63 per barrelburs-jmb/arp

Stock markets mostly rose while gold reached new highs on Tuesday, with expectations of US rate cuts to bolster the world’s biggest economy offsetting political turbulence in Japan and France. A steep downward revision to US job creation cemented expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin lowering its benchmark rate next week in a bid to boost growth.US employment growth is likely to be revised down by 911,000 for the 12 months ending in March, official data showed.After last month’s big miss on US jobs creation, “these revisions suggest that jobs momentum is being lost from an even weaker position than originally thought,” said analysts at ING.Investors are now looking to consumer inflation data coming Thursday, since a hot reading could keep the Fed from cutting further as it looks to curb price increases.US stock indices were little changed but remained near record highs reached in recent weeks, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing at a record on Monday.In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei briefly spiked to a new record before ending lower amid hopes that whoever replaces Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister will unveil a fresh round of economic stimulus.Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will pick its new leader on October 4 to replace Ishiba, who resigned at the weekend after huge election setbacks.In Paris, the CAC 40 index moved higher after French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou submitted his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of his government’s ousting.Bayrou on Monday suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote he called in parliament, seeking support for more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) in budget cuts to rein in France’s debt.France’s borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of traditional European debt-laggard Italy on Tuesday, ahead of an update on the country’s credit rating from Fitch on Friday. However, “for now, the market impact seems limited”, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, agreed that “a genuine financial crisis with a self-reinforcing doom loop (higher yields = bigger deficits = even higher yields…) remains quite unlikely for the time being”. Gold, an investment haven in uncertain times, extended its record run, hitting an all-time high of over $3,680 an ounce. – Mining merger -On the corporate front, British mining group Anglo American and its Canadian peer Teck Resources announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar merger, creating a behemoth of copper production and of other critical minerals.Anglo American shares ended nine percent higher in London, while Teck’s stock was up 14 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares in rival miners jumped on their coattails.Indonesian stocks and the rupiah tumbled after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following fatal anti-government protests across the country.- Key figures at around 1550 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 45,586.51 pointsNew York – S&P 500: FLAT at 6,495.58New York – Nasdaq: FLAT at 21,795.77London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,242.53 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 7,749.39 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.4 percent at 23,718.45 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 43,459.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 25,938.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,807.29 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1725 from $1.1760 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3534 from $1.3549 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.23 from 147.43 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.63 pence from 86.80 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $66.75 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $62.99 per barrelburs-bcp/js/sbk

Stock markets mostly rose while gold hit a record high on Tuesday, with expectations of US rate cuts to bolster the world’s biggest economy outweighing political shakeups in Japan and France. Tokyo’s Nikkei briefly spiked to a new record before ending lower amid hopes that whoever replaces Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will unveil a fresh round of economic stimulus.Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will pick its new leader on October 4, replacing Ishiba, who resigned at the weekend after huge election setbacks.In Paris, the CAC 40 index moved higher after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou submitted his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron after parliament ousted his government.Bayrou on Monday suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote he called, seeking support for over 40 billion euros ($47 billion) in budget cuts to rein in France’s debt.France’s borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of traditional European debt-laggard Italy on Tuesday, ahead of an update on the country’s credit rating from Fitch on Friday. However, with Paris stocks rising, “for now, the market impact seems limited”, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.For Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank, “a genuine financial crisis with a self-reinforcing doom loop (higher yields = bigger deficits = even higher yields…) remains quite unlikely for the time being”. Gold, an investment haven in uncertain times, extended its record run, hitting an all-time high of $3,694 an ounce. The Nasdaq hit a record high on Monday, “helped by expectations of lower Fed rates”, Ozkardeskaya said.Last month’s big miss on US jobs creation raised concerns about the strength of the world’s top economy but it has stoked bets that the US Federal Reserve will loosen monetary policy, even as inflation remains stubbornly above its target.Investors are awaiting the release of fresh data on prices this week to get a better idea about the Fed’s next move, with Bloomberg reporting that expectations are for three quarter-point reductions before the end of the year.- Mining merger -On the corporate front, British mining group Anglo American and its Canadian peer Teck Resources announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar merger, creating a champion of copper production and other critical minerals.Anglo American shares jumped 10 percent in London deals on Tuesday, while Teck’s stock surged over 16 percent in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares in rival miners jumped on their coattails.Indonesian stocks and the rupiah tumbled after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following fatal anti-government protests across the country.- Key figures at around 1340 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 45,563.48 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 6,504.43New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.2 percent at 21,836.85London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,236.73Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 7,752.99Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 23,680.39Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 43,459.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 25,938.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,807.29 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1749 from $1.1760 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3563 from $1.3549 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.80 from 147.43 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.44 pence from 86.80 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.5 percent at $67.03 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.5 percent at $63.20 per barrelburs-bcp/js

Stock markets mostly rose and gold hit a record high Tuesday as traders balanced expectations of cuts to US interest rates with political shakeups in Japan and France. Tokyo’s Nikkei briefly spiked to a new record but ended down as political upheaval in Japan offset hopes that whoever replaces Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will unveil a fresh round of economic stimulus.Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will pick its new leader on October 4, replacing Ishiba, who resigned at the weekend after huge election setbacks.On Tuesday, the Paris CAC 40 made solid gains in midday deals. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was Tuesday to submit his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron after parliament ousted the government.Bayrou on Monday suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote he had himself called.France’s borrowing costs exceeded those of traditional European debt-laggard Italy Tuesday, while safe haven bet gold extended its record run higher.The precious metal hit an all-time high $3,659.36 an ounce.However, with Paris stocks rising, “for now, the market impact seems limited”, noted Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. The Nasdaq hit a record high Monday, “helped by expectations of lower Fed rates”, she added.Last month’s big miss on US jobs creation raised concerns about the strength of the world’s top economy, but it has stoked bets that the Federal Reserve will loosen monetary policy, even as inflation remains stubbornly above its target.Investors are awaiting the release of fresh data on prices this week to get a better idea about the Fed’s next move, with Bloomberg reporting that expectations are for three quarter-point reductions before the end of the year.- Mining merger -On the corporate front, the mining sector was in focus after British group Anglo American and Canadian peer Teck Resources announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar merger, creating a champion of copper production and other critical minerals.Anglo American shares surged more than 10 percent in London deals Tuesday, while Teck’s stock rallied in after-hours trading. Shares in rival miners jumped on their coattails.Indonesian stocks and the rupiah tumbled after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following deadly anti-government protests across the country.- Key figures at around 1045 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,242.52 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,766.45Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.3 percent at 23,730.50Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 43,459.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 25,938.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,807.29 (close)New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 45,514.95 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1756 from $1.1760 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3578 from $1.3549 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.49 from 147.43 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.59 pence from 86.80 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $66.39 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $62.63 per barrelburs-bcp/lth

Asian and European markets mostly rose Tuesday fuelled by optimism the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates this year, with gains led by a record high in Tokyo while gold also hit a fresh peak.Last month’s big miss on US jobs creation raised concerns about the strength of the world’s top economy, but it has stoked bets that the central bank will loosen monetary policy, even as inflation remains stubbornly above its target.Investors are awaiting the release of fresh data on prices this week to get a better idea about the Fed’s next move, with Bloomberg reporting that expectations are for three quarter-point reductions before the end of the year.Hopes for a move were boosted last month when Fed Chair Jerome Powell signalled a dovish pivot in a speech to an annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.After a healthy day on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq chalked up another record, Asia was mixed and European markets advanced.Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai and Bangkok rose with London, Paris and Frankfurt.Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Wellington slipped.Indonesian stocks and the rupiah tumbled after President Prabowo Subianto removed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in a cabinet reshuffle following deadly anti-government protests across the country.Gold hit a new high above $3,659.While the mood on trading floors is upbeat, IG markets analyst Fabien Yip offered a note of caution.”Market participants have recently responded favourably to economic weakness under the ‘bad news is good news’ paradigm, as indicators of economic deceleration could prompt accelerated Fed rate cuts,” she wrote in a commentary.”However, following (Friday’s) employment data release, investors are increasingly concerned that monetary policy easing may prove insufficient to address labour market deterioration.”Tokyo briefly spiked to a new record but ended down as political upheaval in Japan offset hopes that whoever replaces Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will unveil a fresh round of economic stimulus.”Investors are betting that the next leader from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could unleash a new wave of fiscal stimulus to bolster the economy,” said Hani Abuagla, senior market analyst at XTB MENA.”All eyes are on the upcoming LDP leadership race. The fiscal and monetary policy stances of the candidates will be critical in determining the future direction of both Japanese stocks and the yen.”Still, observers are keeping tabs on developments in the country after long-term yields on government bonds hit a record.Also in view this week is a European Central Bank policy decision as well as uncertainty in France after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was ousted in a confidence vote, forcing President Emmanuel Macron to seek a replacement.French 10-year government bond yields jumped on the news.- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 43,459.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 25,938.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,807.29 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,246.23 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1752 from $1.1760 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3567 from $1.3549 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.23 from 147.43 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.63 pence from 86.80 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $62.91 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.0 percent at $66.69 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 45,514.95 (close)