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Stock markets marked time Tuesday as traders monitored key economic indicators, with US inflation data due later this week that could influence Federal Reserve policy.On Wall Street, the Dow stood just in positive territory more than two hours into the session but the tech-heavy Nasdaq was off 0.3 percent and the broader S&P 500 was also marginally into the red.London ended the day flat and Paris and Frankfurt added barely half of one percent as investors digested purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data — a closely watched gauge of economic health. The index showed eurozone business activity hit a 16-month high in September, partly driven by solid growth in Germany, while France weighed on performance.Britain’s reading came in below expectations, suggesting the economy is losing momentum, analysts noted, as inflation fears linger.Gold pushed to another all-time high and the dollar steadied. Oil prices rose around two percent after the OECD on Tuesday raised its forecast for world economic growth this year.Among shares on the move, while a clutch of major tech firms took a breather, consumer health company Kenvue rose around four percent, bouncing back from a record low in the previous session, after medical experts including the World Health Organization refuted US President Donald Trump’s linking of the firm’s popular pain reliever Tylenol to autism. In focus remains Friday’s report on US personal consumption expenditures, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Markets expect two further interest rate cuts by the Fed by the end of the year as officials aim to shore up the stuttering labour market despite elevated inflation.With US indices looking to build on a start to the week which saw them finish at fresh all-time highs, David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said that while “leading tech companies are investing hundreds of billions in generative AI… some investors continue to question if this is money well spent”.Yet, “despite this, equities continue to grind higher with little indication that there’s anything on the horizon which could derail the current rally,” he added.With trade subdued by a holiday in Japan and an approaching typhoon in Hong Kong, Asian markets mostly drifted as Hong Kong and Shanghai both closed lower. Taipei jumped more than one percent, with chip titan TSMC soaring over three percent as it tracked US counterpart Nvidia, which announced a $100-billion investment in OpenAI for next-generation artificial intelligence.A rise in tech giants helped lift major Wall Street indices to fresh highs on Monday.However, there are growing worries that the surge may have gone too far and markets are due a pullback with eyes on a possible government shutdown in Washington.Elsewhere, investors will keep an eye on an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei at the UN General Assembly after the US Treasury pledged to “do what is needed” to support Argentina’s economy, which has faced a plunge in the peso, stocks and bonds. – Key figures at around 1550 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 46,461.99 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 6,684.53New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,723.02 London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 9,223.32 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 7,872.02 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 23,611.33 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7 percent at 26,159.12 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,821.83 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1791 from $1.1799 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3514 from $1.3515Dollar/yen: UP at 147.88 yen from 147.87 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.25 pence from 87.30 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $63.76 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.0 percent at $67.91 per barrel

US President Donald Trump blasted the United Nations and Europe on his return to the world body Tuesday, warning that Western countries were “going to hell” because of migration and calling climate change a “con job.”In a blistering speech during his first UN General Assembly appearance since his White House comeback, Trump also accused the world body of failing to help him as he tried to broker a series of peace deals including in Gaza and Ukraine.”What is the purpose of the United Nations?” asked Trump in a wide-ranging speech lasting nearly an hour. “It has such tremendous potential but it’s not even coming close to living up to that.”Trump’s first speech to the UN back in 2018 saw fellow leaders laughing at the Republican, but this time his full-frontal attack on the global organization and US allies was received in near total silence.The 79-year-old’s litany of complaints even extended to a broken escalator and teleprompter at the New York headquarters of the UN, which he has repeatedly targeted during both of his presidential terms.”These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” he said.- ‘Going to hell’ -Trump began his speech by criticizing the UN for failing to get involved in what he claims are seven wars that he has ended, or in his failed efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.”All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter,” he said. “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.”He then called recognition by a slate of Washington’s allies of a Palestinian state a “reward” to Hamas for “horrible atrocities ” in the armed group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Trump had more harsh words for European allies for failing to stop oil purchases from Russia. He criticized China and India on the same score — but Moscow itself escaped relatively lightly.His strongest language was reserved for blasting migration, one of the core political messages that has driven his two US election victories.Trump lambasted the UN for “funding an assault” on Western nations that he described as an “invasion.””Your countries are going to hell,” he told European leaders.The US president took a typically controversial stance on climate change too, calling it a “hoax” made up by “evil people.” He has pushed for oil drilling and rolled back environmental protections since returning to office.”Climate change — it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” said Trump. – ‘Wreaking havoc’ -Trump boasted of his tough crime policies, including sending troops to Washington and deadly US strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boats.”To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” Trump said.Trump’s second term has opened with a blaze of nationalist policies curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization and the UN climate pact, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.Opening the annual summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that aid cuts led by the United States were “wreaking havoc” in the world.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meanwhile warned in his speech of “anti-democratic forces” targeting institutions after an alleged coup plot orchestrated by his predecessor, who has won backing from Trump.Trump however said he and Lula shared a brief hug at the UN and had agreed to meet next week.On Ukraine, Trump will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky for the second time since he sat down in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August — a summit that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no progress.Ahead of Trump’s speech, the US Secret Service said they had disrupted a plot to potentially disrupt telecommunications around the UN that involved “nation-state threat actors.”

The US Secret Service said Tuesday it had dismantled a network of electronic devices that could have crashed New York’s telecommunications network in an attack ahead of the UN General Assembly.The protective agency did not say who was responsible for the sophisticated material but linked it to “nation-state” actors and “individuals that are known to federal law enforcement.”ABC News quoted a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation as saying officials “believe the plot is connected to the Chinese government.””The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said.In a statement released shortly before President Donald Trump began addressing world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York, the Secret Service said the network of devices was uncovered after threats were made against senior US officials.”In addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks,” the agency said.”This includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”Secret Service special agent Matt McCool said the agency was “working towards identifying those responsible and their intent, including whether their plan was to disrupt the UN General Assembly.”McCool said no arrests have been made so far.He said the investigation that led to the seizure of the electronics began this spring in an effort to identify what he called the “fraudulent calls” made to senior US officials.- 300 servers, 100,000 SIM cards -The Secret Service said the devices it seized were located within a 35-mile (56-kilometer) radius of the UN and included 300 computer servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites.”Given the timing, location and potential for significant disruption to New York telecommunications posed by these devices, the agency moved quickly to disrupt this network,” it said.”Early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement,” it said.The New York Times said an initial analysis of data on SIM cards has identified ties to “at least one foreign nation” as well as drug cartel members.The newspaper said 80 grams of cocaine and illegal firearms had been found at locations where the electronic devices were found.

The leader of a US congressional delegation to China warned Tuesday of the “risk of a misunderstanding” between the two countries’ militaries as advances in defence technology move at breakneck speed.Adam Smith, the most senior Democrat on Washington’s Armed Services Committee, told journalists in Beijing that China needs to talk more about its military with other global powers “for basic de-confliction”.”We’ve seen this with our ships, our planes, their ships, their planes coming entirely too close to one another,” he said at a news conference at the US Embassy.”We need to have a better conversation about de-conflicting those things.”The four-person delegation also includes other members of the same Armed Services Committee — Democrats Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan — as well as Republican congressman Michael Baumgartner, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The group on Monday met Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, with whom they talked about the importance of “working through our differences” and more candid dialogue, according to a statement from the US side.Dong called on the visitors to “remove disruptive and restrictive factors” between them, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.Speaking on Tuesday alongside the other lawmakers and the US Ambassador to China, David Perdue, Smith said: “AI and drone warfare and cyber and space is moving so rapidly and innovation is happening so quickly. “The risk of a misunderstanding of capabilities on one side or the other is great,” he said, adding the two sides need to talk so they “don’t stumble in any sort of conflicts”. – Tariffs, TikTok and Taiwan -The bipartisan congressional delegation comes just days after Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump spoke by telephone for the second time since the return to the White House of Trump, who has tried to keep a lid on tensions despite his once virulent criticism of China.Trump said he would meet Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea starting at the end of next month and that he would travel to China next year. He said Xi would also visit the United States at an unspecified time and that the two leaders would speak again by telephone. Both sides dramatically hiked tariffs against each other during a months-long dispute earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains. Washington and Beijing then reached a deal to reduce levies, with the United States imposing 30 percent duties on imports of Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10 percent tariff. The deal expires in November. Smith’s group on Monday held talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, in which they discussed the ongoing trade talks and the hot-button issues of fentanyl, critical minerals and the future of TikTok. The White House has said a US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s prized algorithm, potentially clearing one of the main obstacles to keeping the Chinese-owned platform online in the United States.Asked about the TikTok issue, Smith said: “My understanding is that I don’t think that has been 100 percent resolved.”The delegation later met Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who said the “current stabilisation of China-US relations is hard-won and should be cherished”, according to a readout from Beijing.But the top diplomat took a swipe at Washington over Taiwan, telling the group of lawmakers: “The United States has made a political commitment on the one-China issue. “To safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, it is necessary to firmly oppose ‘Taiwan independence’.”

From the unproven medical claims to the self-proclaimed expertise, anyone watching Donald Trump’s autism announcements Monday could have been forgiven for having flashbacks.There were strong echoes of the US president’s pandemic performance during his first term, when he once famously mused about injecting disinfectant to counter Covid.Five years later, the Republican’s claims were almost as eye-popping.And with the health of millions at stake as he urged pregnant women not to take the painkiller Tylenol — before expounding his theories on vaccines — the stakes were just as high.”There’s a rumor — and I don’t know if it’s so or not — that Cuba, they don’t have Tylenol because they don’t have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism,” Trump said at the White House.It was perhaps the most outrageous of the claims Trump made during a more than hour-long press conference attended by an AFP reporter — but it was far from the last.”The Amish, as an example. They have essentially no autism,” Trump said of the traditionalist people, known for their horse-drawn carts and rejection of modern technology.Turning to his vaccine-skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, as he asked whether that was actually true, Trump added: “Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says. I’m not so careful with what I say.”Time and again the 79-year-old Trump admitted that his personal theories were just that — theories — even as he cast himself in the role of America’s physician-in-chief.”This is based on what I feel,” said Trump as he repeated long debunked concerns over the MMR shot combining vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella.Trump also urged further spacing for childhood vaccines that have been the cornerstone of public health programs around the world for decades — before adding: “I’m not a doctor but I’m giving my opinion.”- ‘Tough it out’ -The billionaire former reality TV star has long made his name challenging the conventional wisdom on politics and diplomacy, and it has won him two elections.But it is on health where his views have often veered furthest from the mainstream. During the Covid pandemic Trump repeatedly resisted lockdowns and masking measures, while throwing his weight behind unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine.He was widely mocked when, during one of his many freewheeling White House briefings on Covid in 2020, he gave some increasingly bizarre suggestions about how to treat the disease.Trump mused about bringing “light inside the body” — and disinfectant.”I see the disinfectant, it knocks it out in a minute… is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside,” he asked a bemused expert.During his second term, Trump’s pick of Kennedy as his health secretary has brought once fringe medical ideas into the heart of the government.Trump himself says he has long been preoccupied with autism, and showed supreme confidence in his views on Monday — even as he struggled to pronounce “acetaminophen,” or paracetamol, the active ingredient in Tylenol.”Don’t take it,” Trump said repeatedly.He urged pregnant women in pain to avoid the drug and “tough it out,” but had few answers for what they should do for fevers that could harm them or their babies.Veering off on the subject of vaccines, Trump also had his own theories.He insisted that children should not be vaccinated against Hepatitis B until the age of 12, versus soon after birth, saying: “Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B.”Trump added that children were being loaded up with “too much liquid” while being innoculated against potentially fatal diseases — repeating a frequent anti-vaccine talking point.”They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said. “It looks like they’re pumping into a horse.”

US President Donald Trump will denounce “globalist institutions” in his first United Nations address since returning to the White House and also meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky against a backdrop of mounting tension with Russia.Trump will speak from the UN General Assembly rostrum for the first time since his political comeback as he tears down decades of US participation in international organizations.Opening the annual summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that aid cuts led by the United States were “wreaking havoc” in the world.”What kind of world will we choose? A world of raw power — or a world of laws?” Guterres said.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would be touting “renewal of American strength around the world” and will describe “how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order.”Trump’s second term has opened with a blaze of nationalist policies curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization and the UN climate body, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.- New talks with Zelensky -Trump will meet Zelensky for the second time since he sat down in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 — a summit that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no breakthrough on Ukraine.Despite Trump’s insistence that he can broker a quick end to the war, Russia has not only kept up its barrage of attacks on Ukraine in the past month but rattled nerves with drone or air incursions in NATO members Poland, Estonia and Romania.Trump said last week that Putin had “really let me down.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a television interview Tuesday, said that Trump was still considering imposing sanctions on Russia but also wanted Europe to take action by buying less oil.”We’re the only ones that can talk to Ukraine and Russia, and everyone’s encouraged us to play that role,” Rubio told NBC News.”At some point that role might end. As you can see, the President’s already repeatedly expressed his deep disappointment at the direction that Putin is taking this, even after Alaska,” he said.A UN report released Tuesday found that Russian authorities have tortured civilian detainees in Ukrainian areas Moscow occupies, including sexual violence, in a “widespread and systematic manner.”Zelensky will again need to tread carefully with Trump, who — along with Vice President JD Vance — berated the wartime leader in an explosive February 28 meeting at the White House, calling him ungrateful for billions of dollars in US military assistance.- New York telecoms plot -The annual UN gathering goes on all week, but Trump, who first made his name in New York real estate, is spending barely a day in the city. One of Trump’s few other one-on-one meetings will be with Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei, an ideological ally to whose government the United States is considering offering an economic lifeline.Ahead of his visit to the UN district, now swarming with heavily armed police and agents and crisscrossed with barricades and road closures, the US Secret Service said they had disrupted a “telecommunications-related” plot.The Secret Service said it “dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior US government officials, which represented an imminent threat to the agency’s protective operations.”The statement said that “nation-state threat actors” were involved.Trump’s appearance comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron led a group of Western allies of the United States in recognizing a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic step strongly opposed by Israel.The United States and Israel both shunned the special session.

High-skilled migrants are vital for the US economy, the OECD’s chief economist told AFP, after the United States imposed a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas widely used by the tech industry.Alvaro Pereira, who is leaving his post after being named governor of Portugal’s central bank, spoke to AFP as the Paris-based organisation released an updated outlook for the world economy.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a 38-member grouping of wealthy nations, upgraded the forecast to 3.2 percent growth in 2025, up from 2.9 percent in its last report in June.The OECD said the economy “proved more resilient than anticipated” in the first half of the year as companies rushed to import goods before US President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect.It also raised the US growth outlook from 1.6 percent to 1.8 percent but warned it was expected to slow as higher tariffs start to bite.The OECD said cuts in the US federal workforce and Trump’s crackdown on immigration would also soften growth.”There’s obviously less labour growth and less labour growth means that obviously this will impact total GDP,” Pereira told AFP.He noted that the report was written before the new H-1B visa fee rule came into force over the weekend.”We do think that continuing to attract high-skilled individuals from the United States or from around the world is a key strength of the US economy,” Pereira said.”This will only become exacerbated with the AI boom, because basically there’s significant labour shortages in the ICT (information and communication technology) sector.”H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills — such as scientists, engineers and computer programmers — to work in the US, initially for three years but extendable to six.Such visas are widely used by the tech industry. Indian nationals account for nearly three-quarters of the permits allotted via lottery system each year.The US and Germany are the two OECD countries with the highest labour shortage in the ICT sector, Pereira said.- Tariff impact taking ‘longer’ -The OECD report said the impact of Trump’s tariffs had been mitigated by companies “front-loading” — importing goods before the levies came into force.”The impact of tariffs is taking longer to reach the economy,” Pereira said.”A lot of firms decided to act and export a stockpile (to) the United States … to avoid the tariffs.” But he warned that the OECD was already seeing “less growth and more inflation” than expected.”Usually when the world economy is doing really well, it’s growing around four percent, so were far away from that,” he said.

Stock markets diverged Tuesday as traders monitored key economic indicators, with US inflation data due later this week that could influence Federal Reserve policy.Paris, Frankfurt and London equities rose as investors digested purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data — a closely watched gauge of economic health. The index showed eurozone business activity hit a 16-month high in September, partly driven by solid growth in Germany, while France weighed on performance.Britain’s reading came in below expectations, suggesting the economy is losing momentum, analysts noted.Gold pushed to another all-time high and the dollar steadied. Oil prices rose around one percent after the OECD on Tuesday raised its forecast for world economic growth this year. In focus is Friday’s report on US personal consumption expenditures, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Markets expect two further interest rate cuts by the Fed by the end of the year as officials aim to shore up the stuttering labour market despite elevated inflation. With trade subdued by a holiday in Japan and an approaching typhoon in Hong Kong, Asian markets mostly drifted.Hong Kong and Shanghai both closed lower. Taipei jumped more than one percent, with chip titan TSMC soaring over three percent as it tracked US counterpart Nvidia, which announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI for next-generation artificial intelligence.A rise in tech giants helped lift major Wall Street indices to fresh highs on Monday.However, there are growing worries that the surge may have gone too far and markets are due a pullback with eyes on a possible government shutdown in Washington.”Equity indices are soaring even as the real (US) economy shows signs of strain,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.”For now, optimism around AI-driven growth and record levels of investment is keeping momentum alive, but the balancing act is precarious,” he added.Elsewhere, investors will keep an eye on an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei at the UN General Assembly. The US Treasury said Monday it stood ready to “do what is needed” to support Argentina’s economy, which has faced a plunge in the peso, stocks and bonds. Financial markets have been rattled by recent provincial election defeats for Milei’s party. – Key figures at around 1040 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,231.35 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 7,879.24 Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 23,575.63Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7 percent at 26,159.12 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,821.83 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 46,381.54 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1792 from $1.1799 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3501 from $1.3515Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.76 yen from 147.87 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.34 pence from 87.30 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $63.03 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $67.27 per barrel

Donald Trump makes his big comeback to the UN General Assembly podium on Tuesday, where the US president intends to denounce “globalist institutions” and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as patience with Russia wears thin.Trump will address the United Nations for the first time since he returned to office and quickly took to slashing the US role in international organizations.It will be Trump’s second time seeing Zelensky since the US leader invited Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 to Alaska, a meeting that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no breakthrough on Ukraine.Russia has not only kept up its barrage of attacks on Ukraine in the past month but has increasingly raised fears in the West, with drone or air incursions in NATO members Poland, Estonia and Romania.Mike Waltz, newly installed as the US ambassador to the United Nations, voiced solidarity over the airspace violations.”The United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” said Waltz, who was earlier Trump’s national security advisor.Trump took office vowing that he could end within one day the Ukraine war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and boasted of his personal chemistry with Putin.But Trump acknowledged last week that Putin had “really let me down.”A UN report released Tuesday found that Russian authorities have tortured civilian detainees in Ukrainian areas Moscow occupies, including sexual violence, in a “widespread and systematic manner.”The report cautioned that Russia’s frequent disregard of legal safeguards, combined with a dire lack of accountability had “placed many Ukrainian civilians outside the effective protection of the law during their detention.”Zelensky is expected to press Trump to take a harder line and impose long-threatened new sanctions on Russia.But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, last week previewing the talks with Zelensky, said Trump was not ready to pressure Putin, saying that without him, “there’s no one left in the world that could possibly mediate” on Ukraine.Zelensky will again need to tread carefully with Trump, who — along with Vice President JD Vance — berated the wartime leader in an explosive February 28 meeting at the White House, calling him ungrateful for billions of dollars in US military assistance.- Attacking ‘globalist’ institutions -Trump, who hails from New York, is spending barely a day in town for the weeklong summit. One of his few other one-on-one meetings will be with Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei, an ideological ally to whose government the United States is considering offering an economic lifeline.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would discuss the “renewal of American strength around the world.””The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” she told reporters in Washington.Trump in his second term has moved more aggressively in his nationalist “America First” vision of curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization and the UN climate body, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.”Instead of inflaming global crises and fueling chaos and inequality, he should use his power and influence to work with the global community to provide meaningful solutions,” said Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America.Trump’s appearance comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron led a group of Western allies of the United States in recognizing a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic step strongly opposed by Israel.The United States and Israel both shunned the special session.

Asian markets struggled Tuesday to track another record day on Wall Street, with traders now awaiting the release of US inflation data that could dictate Federal Reserve policy in coming weeks.The tepid performance came after a hot couple of weeks on trading floors fuelled by optimism over an easing of US monetary policy.Last week’s interest rate cut came with Fed forecasts for two more before the end of the year as officials aim to shore up the stuttering labour market despite elevated inflation.That puts in focus Friday’s report on personal consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.With trade subdued by a holiday in Japan and an approaching typhoon in Hong Kong, Asian markets drifted.Hong Kong and Shanghai slipped with Manila, Bangkok and Wellington, while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore and Jakarta rose.Paris and Frankfurt started with gains as data showed eurozone business activity growth hit a 16-month high in September.Taipei jumped more than one percent with chip titan TSMC soaring more than three percent as it tracked US counterpart Nvidia, which announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI for next-generation artificial intelligence.However, there are growing worries that the surge may have gone too far and markets are due a pull-back with eyes on a possible government shutdown in Washington.Senators failed to pass a stopgap funding bill Friday after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed it.The bill was shot down by Democrats and with both chambers scheduled to be in recess next week, time is running out to keep the government running after the end of the fiscal year September 30.A shutdown would see non-essential operations start to grind to a halt and hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily left without pay.”There are rickety bridges ahead. The US government shutdown drama remains unresolved—another potential rockslide on the tracks,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes. “The Senate’s failure to bridge the gap between competing proposals leaves traders watching the Sept. 30 deadline with one eye, even as the other scans record-high tickers. “Markets rarely derail on the first warning, but complacency can turn into chaos when the train rounds a blind corner.”- Key figures at around 0810 GMT -Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7 percent at 26,159.12 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,821.83 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,249.95Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1790 from $1.1799 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3518 from $1.3515Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.74 yen from 147.87 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.21 pence from 87.30 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $62.12  per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $66.39 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 46,381.54 (close)