Powell, Trump remarks send global markets into the red

Global markets fell flat on their face early Wednesday in reaction to comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and ￰0￱ Donald Trump a day earlier, humbling investors across all major asset ￰1￱ Cryptopolitan reported, Powell warned that “equity prices are fairly highly valued,” while Trump added more heat by slamming the Fed’s indecisiveness in a morning ￰2￱ futures barely moved Tuesday ￰3￱ Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up just 18 points, or 0.04%. S&P 500 futures added 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 rose 0.09%. That came after the S&P 500 finally ended a three-day win streak and backed away from record ￰4￱ after-hours trading, Micron Technology surged over 2% thanks to earnings that beat forecasts and a strong ￰5￱ company’s 46% revenue jump was tied to the AI boom that’s still pulling in ￰6￱ markets tumble after Powell and Trump leave rate outlook unclear Across Asia, markets were all over the place by Wednesday.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 dropped 0.92%, closing at 8,764.5. Japan moved in the opposite ￰7￱ Nikkei 225 climbed 0.3% to 45,630.31, and the Topix rose 0.23% to 3,170.45. Japan’s stock rally is still going, even with risk on the ￰8￱ investors keep pumping money into the market, helped by governance reforms and improving company ￰9￱ Korea didn’t hold ￰10￱ Kospi lost 0.4% to close at 3,472.14. The Kosdaq, packed with smaller names, slid 1.29% to 860.94.

Still, defense stocks ignored the ￰11￱ Aerospace, Korea Aerospace, and Hyundai Rotem all climbed between 2% and 5%. Investors were clearly betting on military tech no matter what Powell or Trump ￰12￱ Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index jumped 1.49%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 finished higher at 4,566.07. But that didn’t mean things were ￰13￱ Typhoon Ragasa tore through the region, bringing violent winds and ￰14￱ Hong Kong Observatory said southern districts and high grounds were facing hurricane-level ￰15￱ stayed open, though, and Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares soared more than 6% after CEO Eddie Wu told investors the company was ramping up investment in artificial intelligence.

Japan’s recovery looks steady but ￰16￱ wages and household spending are creeping ￰17￱ is finally hovering around the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, and the yen has calmed down after its wild crash to 160 per dollar last ￰18￱ Khan, senior fund manager at UBP Investments, said Japan’s strength is tied to “fundamentals and valuations relative to other markets.” The Nikkei 225 now trades at a 23.01 price-to-earnings ￰19￱ sits at ￰20￱ S&P 500, by comparison, is floating up at ￰21￱ in commodities, spot gold was last seen at $3,778.78 per ounce, up 0.4% after smashing through a record high of $3,830 on ￰22￱ futures for December slid 0.1% to $3,812.10. Silver kept running, up 0.5% to $44.23 per ounce, closing in on its highest level in nearly 14 ￰23￱ moved 0.4% higher to $1,483.53, and palladium added 0.3% to $1,225.46.

Oil wasn’t spared from the drama, as its prices moved up slightly as traders reacted to falling ￰24￱ ￰25￱ futures surged by 26 cents to settle at $67.89 per barrel by 0810 GMT, while ￰26￱ Texas Intermediate crude also rose 26 cents, finishing at $63.67, according to data from ￰27￱ supply drop gave oil bulls a reason to show up, even if Powell and Trump had just dropped an economic gut ￰28￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.