Rise and shine everyone.

It should be a quiet start to the week. We have just one Fed speaker today - Goolsbee. But the week promises to be exciting with plenty of earnings in the line up, including Walmart, Target and of course, the big one - Nvidia on Wednesday.

There seems to be a lot happening on the geopolitical front though. Over the weekend, there was news that North Korea could be sending over 100,000 troops to Russia, to fight Ukraine. In retaliation, Ukraine wants to use their long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia, and Washington has given the green light.

Other news from the recent APEC summit - China’s Xi Jinping says he wants to have cordial relations with the US but that comes with 4 “red lines” that shouldn’t be crossed:

1. Not to undermine the CCPs power

2. Push China towards democracy

3. Contain its economic rise, and

4. Encourage independence in Taiwan

None of these seem very detailed but, it does have broad connotations, many of which mean that Trump’s policies may conflict with this agenda.

In US news, there seems to be further nominees that are ruffling feathers. Elon Musk has spoken out about the US Treasury Secretary. While Trump wants to nominate Scott Bessent, Key Square Group founder, Musk publicly endorsed Howard Lutnick. It seems there are further names in the mix as well.

BOJ Governor Ueda’s comments today were seen as dovish, with rate adjustments remaining data-dependent. USD/JPY jumped 0.5% to the 155 level, while 2-year JGB yields edged up to 0.561%, nearing their highest point since 2008-09. Meanwhile, Japan reported an unexpected drop in September machine orders.

In South Korea, the Kospi surged 2.3%, led by Samsung Electronics (+6%) following a $7.2B stock buyback announcement. Samsung affiliates also rallied, with Samsung Life up 11%. South Korea’s FSC described the recent stock sell-off as “excessive” and encouraged institutional investors to support the market.

US Equity Futures are marginally higher this morning after all the major indices closed in the red last week. UST Yields are also higher, while the USD is flat. Commodities are moving up and Bitcoin crossed 90,000 again.

Tesla is up +8% in the pre-market after news that Trump’s team wants to ease rules on self-driving cars.

Chart of the Day

Month to Date performance of Equities around the world

Calendars

(news taken from Reuters, FT, Bloomberg; Calendar from Trading Economics)