2025

By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Asia shares rose alongside precious metals on Tuesday as momentum buying from investors extended ahead of the festive holidays, with an advanced reading on U.S. GDP expected later in the day.

The fragile yen rebounded as traders stayed alert to any signs of intervention from Japanese authorities to stem the currency’s slide.

Despite it being a holiday-shortened week for much of the world, investors will have the chance to catch up on a slew of U.S. economic releases in the coming days, which had been delayed by a record government shutdown last month.

Tuesday’s key data point will be on third-quarter growth figures, which are forecast to show the U.S. economy had continued to grow strongly.

Expectations are for annualised growth to come in at 3.3%, a slight pullback from the previous quarter due in part to a sharp pullback in imports after a run-up earlier in the year ahead of the introduction of tariffs.

“Looking ahead, underlying growth is likely to slow down in Q4 given the lengthy government shutdown and the potential for a further headwind from auto sales,” said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie Group.

Still, the market mood remained buoyant ahead of the outcome and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.39%, while Tokyo’s Nikkei eased 0.1%, weighed down by a stronger yen.

European futures were mixed, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were little changed.

Overnight, shares of Nvidia rose after Reuters reported the company told Chinese clients it aims to start shipping its second-most powerful AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February next year.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk jumped 6% in extended trading after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its weight-loss pill on Monday.

“Risk-on sentiment is dominating Wall Street to begin the week of Christmas, with investors raising equity and commodity exposures as we approach year-end,” said Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

“For now, traders are taking their cue from the general sense amongst participants that there’s little standing in the way for a Santa Claus rally to manifest.”

In precious metals, spot gold and spot silver vaulted to all-time highs, driven in part by safe-haven demand from escalating geopolitical tensions as the U.S. tried seizing more tankers carrying Venezuelan oil. [GOL/]

Oil prices eased a touch, having risen on Monday on worries about supply disruption.

Brent crude futures edged 0.26% lower to $61.91 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell 0.33% to $57.82 per barrel. [O/R]

INTERVENTION RISK KEEPS YEN IN CHECK

China’s CSI300 blue-chip index was up 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was flat.

China will step up urban renewal and deepen efforts to stabilise its property market in 2026 as it prepares to launch its latest Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), according to a readout of housing policy work conference released on Tuesday.

Over in the foreign exchange market, the yen remained the focal point as investors weighed the odds of an imminent intervention from Japanese authorities to shore up the currency.

Japan has a free hand in dealing with excessive moves in the yen, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Tuesday, issuing the strongest warning to date on Tokyo’s readiness to intervene in the currency market to arrest sharp declines in the currency.

That sent the yen rising some 0.7% against the dollar to 155.99. It also made broad gains against other peers like the euro and the Swiss franc.

Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho, however, doesn’t necessarily see intervention as imminent, saying it “may instead be opportunistic.”

“And to be sure, there will be no fixed ‘line in the sand’,” he said.

While the BOJ raised rates at the conclusion of its December policy meeting on Friday, the move was widely expected and Governor Kazuo Ueda offered few hints on the extent of future rate hikes.

“Their message is so underwhelming… you hike, but you need to hike with conviction. They didn’t hike with conviction,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis.

In other currencies, the dollar was on the back foot, with the euro up 0.15% at $1.1776, while sterling rose 0.24% to $1.3493.

(Reporting by Rae WeeEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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Dec 23 (Reuters) – New car sales in Europe rose year-on-year in November for a fifth consecutive month, helped by an increase in EV registrations in markets including Germany, Italy and Spain, data from the European auto lobby ACEA showed on Tuesday.

Battery electric registrations, a proxy for sales, reached a market share of 21% in the European Union, 26% in the United Kingdom and 98% in Norway.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Europe’s car industry faces challenges, including competition from China, U.S. import tariffs and difficulties in profitably meeting domestic regulations for EV adoption.

The European Commission last week made public a plan to abandon an effective 2035 ban on combustion engine cars after pressure from the region’s auto sector, marking the bloc’s biggest retreat from its green policies in recent years.

But analysts said for the longer term, EVs are the future.

BY THE NUMBERS 

Sales in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association rose 2.4% to 1.1 million cars in November, ACEA data showed. 

Registrations at Volkswagen and Renault rose 4.1% and 3% year-on-year, respectively, while they fell 2.7% at Stellantis, a drop after three months of growth.

Tesla registrations fell by 11.8%, as record sales in Norway mitigated losses in other markets. They were up 221.8% at its Chinese competitor BYD. Tesla’s market share in the month was 2.1%, while BYD’s 2%.

Total EU car sales rose 2.1% to almost 900,000 vehicles. Registrations of battery electric, hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid cars were up 44.1%, 38.4% and 4.2%, respectively, to account collectively for 65.6% of the bloc’s registrations, up from 56% in August 2024. 

KEY QUOTE

“Despite the recent positive momentum, overall volumes remain well below pre-pandemic levels,” the ACEA said in a statement.

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; editing by Barbara Lewis)

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TOKYO, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Japan’s Daiwa Securities is aiming to generate 100 billion yen ($635.61 million) in M&A-related revenue by the financial year ended March 2031, its CEO said, as Japan undergoes a dealmaking boom that neared record levels in 2025.

The objective exceeds Daiwa’s current target of 70 billion yen and comes as Japan’s total merger and acquisition deal value hit around $319 billion in the year to December 17, 2025, second only to 2018’s $343 billion, LSEG data showed.

As Japan finally exits deflation, companies are increasingly seeking better returns on their assets, stoking appetite for growth acquisitions, particularly those overseas.

Long-awaited corporate governance reforms have also reignited global investor interest in Japanese firms, sparking a wave of private equity deals and activist investor activity.

“Tokyo will become the starting point for cross-border M&A,” Daiwa CEO Akihiko Ogino told Reuters in an interview.

In April, Daiwa established a dedicated team in Tokyo to coordinate its operations in different countries. The team now has six members, Ogino said.

Daiwa has been on a multi-year M&A-related hiring push, with current numbers at around 640 people but with a view to reaching 900 people by March 2031.

The recruitment drive has kept a lid on M&A-related profits even as revenues hit a record high of 59 billion yen in the year ended March 2025.

“We’re now entering the harvest phase,” Ogino said.

“Japanese firms are at the stage of having to make bolder decisions than ever before,” Ogino said.

($1 = 157.3300 yen)

(Reporting by Miho Uranaka; Writing by Anton Bridge; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast due to what it said were national security risks identified by the Pentagon.

The pause, effective immediately, is the latest step the administration has taken to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful.

The administration said the pause will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects.

“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”

The statement did not detail the national security risks.

Wind proponents slammed the move, saying it was another blow by the administration against clean energy.

The administration said leases are paused for the Vineyard Wind project under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.

The Interior Department said unclassified reports from the U.S. government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called “clutter.” The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of wind projects, the Interior Department said.

National security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole Kirk Lippold said the projects were awarded permits “following years of review by state and federal agencies,” including the Coast Guard, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the Air Force and more.

“The record of decisions all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process,” he said, arguing that the projects would benefit national security because they would diversify the country’s energy supply.

The action comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law.

Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

Saris ruled in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, that challenged Trump’s Day One order that paused leasing and permitting for wind energy projects.

Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, and prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity.

Wind supporters called the administration’s actions illegal and said offshore wind provides some of the most affordable, reliable electric power to the grid.

“For nearly a year, the Trump administration has recklessly obstructed the build-out of clean, affordable power for millions of Americans, just as the country’s need for electricity is surging,” said Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Fund.

“Now the administration is again illegally blocking clean, affordable energy,” Kelly said. “We should not be kneecapping America’s largest source of renewable power, especially when we need more cheap, homegrown electricity.”

The administration’s actions are especially egregious because, at the same time, it is propping up aging, expensive coal plants “that barely work and pollute our air,” Kelly said.

The Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based environmental group, called the pause “a desperate rerun of the Trump administration’s failed attempt to kill offshore wind,” noting that courts have already rejected the administration’s arguments.

“Trying again to halt these projects tramples on the rule of law, threatens jobs and deliberately sabotages a critical industry that strengthens — not weakens — America’s energy security,” said Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the law foundation.

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