Asian Stock Rally Pauses, Silver Stays Volatile: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — A rally in Asian stocks paused after a seven-day run, tracking technology-led declines on Wall Street. Gold and silver fluctuated after a slump from fresh all-time highs.
MSCI Inc.’s gauge of Asia Pacific shares was down 0.1% in early trading. Contracts on the S&P 500 Index also edged lower after the US benchmark fell 0.3% Monday and the Nasdaq 100 slid 0.5%. Tesla Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Meta Platforms were among the Big Tech decliners in the session.
The weakness in equities “is a reversal from last week when tech stocks led on the way up,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab. However, it “doesn’t appear connected to any single fundamental factor,” he said.
A gauge of global equities ended a seven-day winning streak on Monday while still staying on course to cap its best year since 2019. Silver continued to be volatile after tumbling 9% in the previous session, a selloff that followed a historic surge powered by speculative trades and fears of a supply shortage.
For several Asian equity markets, including Japan, South Korea and Thailand, Tuesday marks the last trading session of the year.
The MSCI All Country World Index has climbed 21% in 2025 and a measure of Asian stocks has rallied almost 26%. Even as the S&P 500 — up some 17% — has underperformed many global peers, an optimistic consensus is taking hold that US stocks will continue rallying in 2026 after three straight years of gains.
Despite a raft of risks spanning a potential bust in the artificial-intelligence advance to unanticipated policy shocks, sell-side strategists are forecasting another 9% average gain in the S&P 500 next year.
Meantime, President Donald Trump teased that he has a preferred candidate to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, but is in no hurry to make an announcement — while also musing that he might fire the central bank’s current leader, Jerome Powell.
Investors were also assessing the outlook for US interest rates and monetary policy. Wall Street interest-rate strategists — with several notable exceptions — expect stable-to-higher Treasury yields in 2026 despite Fed interest-rate cuts.
The Fed is due to release minutes of its December meeting later on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in markets, Bitcoin was little changed. The cryptocurrency topped $90,000 in the last session before erasing its gain. A gauge of the dollar was steady.
Oil held the bulk of a gain as traders weighed geopolitical tensions from Venezuela to Russia and Iran against concerns about a glut. West Texas Intermediate traded near $58 a barrel after rising 2.4% on Monday, while Brent settled below $62.
Corporate News:
Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to acquire Singapore-based AI startup Manus, which makes an artificial intelligence agent that it sells to small and medium-sized businesses. Citigroup Inc. said it expects to post a roughly $1.1 billion after-tax loss on the sale of its remaining business in Russia to Renaissance Capital. SoftBank Group Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire DigitalBridge Group Inc., a private equity firm that invests in assets such as data centers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. DigitalBridge jumped more than 40% in premarket trading. Airbus SE landed orders for dozens of aircraft from two Chinese carriers as the European planemaker grows its market share in Asia’s biggest economy. Origin Energy Ltd. said Kraken Technologies Ltd., a software platform that helps utilities manage the transition to cleaner energy, has been valued at $8.65 billion after the software company’s first standalone raising. South Korea’s stock market renaissance in 2025 was one for the history books. From world-beating gains in arms exporters to the eye-popping surge in AI and K-beauty shares, investors were rewarded in a market that reached new highs. Stocks
S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:42 a.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix fell 0.3% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.1% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1772 The Japanese yen was little changed at 156.09 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.9992 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.2% to $87,013.26 Ether was little changed at $2,931.18 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.11% Australia’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 4.74% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $57.79 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.2% to $4,341.58 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
