ASIA STOCKS: Tech Bounces Again, NIFTY 50 Nears Key Technical
The sell off in Asia's tech sector appears short lived as bell weather shares like SK Hynix in Korea, jump over 7% today. Last week's decline was the worst in over six months for the tech sector with many key names delivering record breaking gains. Last week's falls started in Wall Street and wasn't helped by warnings from the Korea exchange and is a reminder of stock bubbles of the past. Some key bourses in Asia (like the KOSPI and TAIEX) face concentration risk with the tech sector given their surge, as the sector's share of the index reaches new highs. Risk appetite returned today as it appears the US shutdown could be ending, with most major bourses higher today.
- The NIKKEI delivered gains of +0.93% to reach 50,755, just back from last week's high of 50,752 whilst the KOSPI rose almost 3.00% to reach a new recover more than half of last week's falls.
- In China the story was more mixed with the onshore offshore divide on show. The Hang Seng is up +0.61% whilst onshore bourses are all down modestly. The CSI 300 fell -0.24% to 4,667 but remains above the 20-day EMA of 4,639.
- The FTSE Malay KLCI is up +0.63% whilst the JCI in Indonesia +0.22%. Both retain their positions above all major moving averages.
- In India, as P/E's continue to look stretched and at year end forecasts, the NIFTY 50 fell modestly last week despite the turmoil elsewhere. The falls however took it below the 20-day EMA for the first time since September. The gains this morning takes it to 25,568, just below the 20-day EMA of 25,587.
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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.
