Trump earlier said the US and China “could” sign a trade deal Thursday as the two leaders started a high-stakes meeting.
The two leaders were set to finalise a détente at their South Korea meeting to put the world’s biggest trade fight on hold — at least for now.
Earlier, following the Fed’s expected rate cut, Powell’s caution about future moves and his focus on labor market risks led investors to scale back easing bets.
Fed officials delivered their second straight rate reduction Wednesday to support a softening labor market, and said they would stop shrinking the portfolio of assets on Dec. 1. Governor Stephen Miran dissented again in favor of a larger reduction. Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid said he preferred not to cut rates at all.
Investors also got a chance to price in tech companies spending on artificial intelligence after earnings from megacaps. Three bellwethers – Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — together racked up some $78 billion in capital expenditures last quarter. That’s up 89% from a year earlier.
Their earnings were mixed. Meta Platforms shares fell 7.4% in extended trading while Alphabet jumped 6.7%. Microsoft fell almost 4%. Earlier in the US trading day, Nvidia Corp. became the first company to reach $5 trillion in market valuation.
“Even though the Fed communication was more hawkish than the market had expected, the news of Nvidia’s market cap exceeding $5 trillion and Alphabet’s favorable earnings announcement are supporting tech-related stocks in Asia,” said Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco Asset Management.