ASIA STOCKS: China Skips Party, as Regional Bourses Strong on Tech/Shutdown End
The NIKKEI was buoyed by improving global sentiment as Sony Group has delivered decent quarterly earnings, with a share buyback as well. The KOSPI's relentless rally continues as key tech stocks rise between 4-6% on the potential for an end to the US shutdown. In Taiwan, TSMC reported with sales up over 16% in October, in line with forecasts, but the slowest month in six months. Markets are looking ahead to Nvidia's earnings outlook next week and with Asia's key tech stocks correlations growing with Nvidia, it is likely to drive sentiment into next week.
- The NIKKEI's gains were modest, a mere +0.24% and over 2.6% below last week's record high.
- The KOSPI is up +0.86% today and almost 14% over the last month. The sell off last week sees the KOSPI no longer overbought on the relative strength index, providing potential upside should Nvidia's results be in line or better than expected.
- China's bourses have missed the rally today with all major bourses down. All major bourses remain above all moving averages, with upward sloping trend lines suggesting that the positive trend remains in place. Despite this the Hang Seng is down -0.20%, the CSI 300 -0.67%, Shanghai down -0.38% and Shenzhen down -0.32%.
- South East Asia's major bourses are mixed with SE Thai and Jakarta Comp down, whilst the FTSE Malay KLCI is up +0.58% and the FTSE Straits Times in Singapore +1.1%. For the KLCI, it is the best start to a trading week since the end of September.
- Whilst India's NIFTY 50's finished higher yesterday, it finished on a weakening trend; giving back earlier gains. That sentiment flowed over into today with falls of -0.21% to 25,535 as the index fails to break above the 20-day EMA of 25,582.
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US: Trump Oval Office Announcement Underway Shortly
US President Donald Trump is shortly due to deliver an announcement in the White House Oval Office. LIVESTREAM The announcement is expected to relate to drug pricing and could follow a similar template to a recent pledge from Pfizer.
- The announcement will be Trump's first press remarks since a market-moving Truth Social statement earlier today in which Trump suggested calling off a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and raising tariffs on China in response to new export controls from Beijing on rare earths. See earlier bullets here and here.
RATINGS: Moody's Completes Periodic Review Of Belgium, No Rating Action
No ratings actions for Belgium from Moody's, which is quoted in a press release on Bloomberg: "Moody's Ratings (Moody's) has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Belgium and other ratings that are associated with this issuer. The review was conducted through a rating committee held on 2 October 2025 in which we reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), and recent developments. This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future."
- There had been some speculation there could be a ratings action - MNI wrote Thursday: "* Moody's on Belgium (Current rating Aa3, Outlook Negative): We expect Moody's to maintain their current stance in the absence of 2026 budget details."
MACRO ANALYSIS: US Macro Week Ahead: No CPI, But Plenty Of Pre-Blackout FedSpeak
Below is the week’s data schedule, with MNI’s annotation of whether or not data will be postponed.
- As we went to press, the Fed announced that next week's Industrial Production data will be postponed (was due to be published next Friday Oct 17) as the data “incorporate a range of data from other government agencies, the publication of which has been delayed as a result of the federal government shutdown.”
- We won’t be getting September CPI as scheduled on Oct 15, but at least the BLS announced it will publish the data on Oct 24.
- As such next week we’ll be looking at some under-covered data points, including the Redbook weekly and Chicago Fed’s CARTS retail sales data (in lieu of the Census Bureau retail sales report), with a little more focus than usual on regional Fed manufacturing indices (NY, Philadelphia).
- Once again, the dearth of tier-one data leaves Fed commentary in focus ahead of the pre-FOMC blackout period: highlights for us are Philadelphia Fed President Paulson making her first comments on monetary policy on Monday since being appointed in the summer, while as always Chair Powell bears watching on Tuesday (we also hear from Bowman, Waller, Collins, Miran, Schmid, and Musalem).
- Additionally we get the latest Beige Book which was already key given the FOMC was already increasingly focused on anecdotal information as it attempts to navigate murky economic waters.
