FT : AI investing looks beyond the Magnificent Seven

AI investing looks beyond the Magnificent Seven
Many investment trusts opt for less obvious routes into the boom

Retail investors with AI holdings are probably in two minds now. Tech stocks continue to hit record highs, but there are also fears they are overvalued. For those looking to diversify their portfolio but still stay invested in AI, investment trusts offer a number of options. 

Magnificent Seven tech stocks are the most obvious way to access AI. The companies have been increasing spending on AI infrastructure and their share prices have shot up as a result. Well-known investment trust giants such as Scottish Mortgage, on a 12 per cent discount, have long been fans of tech companies, holding positions in listed companies including Amazon, Nvidia and Meta. 

But investment trusts are also seeking to access AI through less obvious companies or are capitalising on the boom via other routes.

Will Crighton, an investment trust analyst at Stifel, also recommends Polar Capital Technology, at an 11 per cent discount, and Allianz Technology, at 10 per cent, for their diversity.

“Both trusts are becoming more underweight to the Magnificent Seven and are looking to find the less well known winners,” he says. Both trusts have outperformed the Dow Jones World Tech index this year after a period of underperformance, but are still on discounts, which he argues is because investors have preferred to access tech stocks through passive funds. “We feel the case for active over passive in this area of the market is growing,” he says.

Elliott Hardy, an investment trust analyst at Investec, adds RIT Capital Partners, on a 24 per cent discount, to this list, arguing that it offers investors access to big tech companies but also private companies such as OpenAI, and balances out both of these areas through uncorrelated investments like government bonds.

An alternative route is HG Capital, a private equity trust, which invests in software that helps companies manage their accounting and HR systems. That software is being given a big boost by AI, according to Luke Finch, a partner at the trust.

He thinks HG Capital is reasonably well-placed in the case of a bubble bursting as it is one layer removed from the infrastructure spending at the tech giants. The trust currently trades at a 10 per cent discount.

Matt Hose, an investment trust analyst at Jefferies, recommends Pantheon Infrastructure, at a 15 per cent discount, and Cordiant Digital Infrastructure, at a 26 per cent discount, as alternative options for investors looking to access data centres in Europe.

A smaller company option is the Aberdeen Asia Focus investment trust, at a 13 per cent discount, which invests in Asia’s AI supply chain among other themes. Gabriel Sacks, manager, says that the trust takes advantage of the fact that while the US dominates chip design, it relies heavily on Asia for chip manufacturing. Chroma ATE, one of the trust’s holdings, provides equipment and services to stress test semiconductors for Nvidia and quality control for TSMC. 

One question for investors buying an investment trust at a discount is whether it will ever narrow, with the sector struggling for some time now to close discounts. Hose at Jefferies thinks the outlook is “a bit more positive than it has been”, pointing to activist interest in the space, and argues that those with AI exposure should do better than the pack. 

Of course, there are plenty of investment professionals who do not believe the market is in a bubble. Those include Ben James at Baillie Gifford, who thinks that AI will affect every investment. “AI is a general-purpose technology, everything will be exposed to it at some level.”

“The big thing that is being missed by many in the market now is that most of the focus and debate is on spend, whereas the focus should actually be on the capability enhancements generative AI tools are having at companies. Companies are doing things now that they couldn’t do before,” he says.

Ben Rogoff, manager of Polar Capital, is also a defender of market enthusiasm. His trust mainly focuses on so-called enablers: companies providing the computing, networking and power infrastructure for AI. But he thinks that Big Tech will start to lose its market dominance of AI in the coming years, offering opportunities for investors to find less obvious winners. 

“Where others see an AI bubble, we believe we are in year three of a multi-cycle infrastructure build required to support what we consider the next general-purpose technology,” he says. “AI is not just another theme; it is the defining technology of this decade,” he argues.

FT : Billionaire Drahi comes out fighting as creditors fall through ‘trap doors’

Billionaire Drahi comes out fighting as creditors fall through ‘trap doors’
Lenders to Franco-Israeli tycoon’s Altice empire are guessing his next move after falling victim to an aggressive restructuring

For the past few years Patrick Drahi has had his back against the wall. The end of the low-interest-rate era turned the screw on the buccaneering billionaire, who had loaded up his Altice telecoms empire with more than $60bn of cheap debt.

But in the aftermath of last week’s Thanksgiving celebrations Drahi launched a fightback that stunned Altice’s many creditors, who were served up a turkey of a restructuring they neither expected nor wanted.

Altice International, a subsidiary that owes more than €8bn, stripped assets away from creditors in a transaction regarded by European debt investors as one of the most aggressive in living memory.

That came swiftly after Altice US, which sits on more than $26bn of debt, initiated legal action against creditors. Some of the world’s most powerful asset managers, including Apollo and BlackRock, stand accused of colluding to force it into bankruptcy.

Drahi’s aggressive debt issuance over the past two decades has earned the Franco-Israeli industrialist royalty status in the junk bond market.

That codependence, and a comparatively amicable restructuring agreed with lenders to Drahi’s French business in February, had raised hopes that creditors to other corners of an empire that stretches from the US to Portugal and Israel could escape with limited losses.

But last week’s events have underlined that the 62-year-old telecoms tycoon has no intention of easing the pain for the institutions that fuelled his growth, as he aims to wriggle out from under a mountain of debt.

“People thought he [Drahi] was aggressive in France, but he has seemingly ratcheted it up a notch,” said New Street Research analyst Russell Waller.


Drahi built his telecoms empire off the back of heavy borrowing at low interest rates, notably raising $16.7bn in the largest ever high-yield bond deal to finance a takeover of SFR, one of France’s main telecoms providers, in 2014.

But in the current higher rate environment Altice has been forced to consider widespread asset sales to reduce its debt pile.

An unpredictable situation was further complicated by the arrest of Drahi’s longtime lieutenant, Armando Pereira, on suspicion of defrauding the company in 2023. Pereira denies wrongdoing.

French authorities intensified their probe last month, raiding companies and properties across the country to gather evidence of what the prosecutor described as a “vast, corrupt system” that operated to the detriment of Altice.

Drahi’s battles with creditors are taking place against the backdrop of a potential dismantling of his wider empire. He has already rejected a €17bn bid for French mobile operator SFR and is expected to receive offers for Altice’s €7bn French fibre network XpFibre early next year. Several approaches for Altice Portugal have so far failed.

Signs of what was to come for creditors to Drahi’s US business began to emerge when Altice hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which has a reputation for advising companies to deploy hostile restructuring tactics.

The litigation launched last week was the first instance of a company alleging creditors violated US antitrust law in a debt restructuring. Many of the lenders in that group — which also includes Ares Management and Oaktree Capital — are exposed to multiple Altice entities.

Drahi’s next salvo came just days later, when Altice International announced that it would be shifting assets that contribute about 80 per cent of its €1.6bn of earnings out of the creditors’ pool of collateral, in a transaction known as a “drop down”.

One high-yield bond investor said the move was “really pushing the frontier” of such transactions, which designate subsidiaries as “unrestricted”.

Drahi’s lieutenants had in February threatened to restructure its French business in a similar fashion, but ended up backing down and agreeing to a deal that involved handing a 45 per cent stake in the company to creditors, in exchange for a substantial debt writedown.

Lenders to Altice’s Luxembourg-based international business, where creditor protections are weaker than in France, were ultimately more vulnerable to aggressive action.

In the aftermath some of Altice International’s top ranking bonds fell by as much as 12 per cent on Monday morning, from 75 cents on the euro to 66 cents. Two of its junior bonds fell from around 35 cents on the euro to just over 16 and 19 cents respectively.


An Altice bondholder said that by suing US creditors Drahi was sending a “warning” to the lenders to the group’s international business, who are being advised by US law firm Gibson Dunn.

Drahi “wants as big an impact on the [bond] price as possible and to scare investors as much as possible,” the bondholder said.

The man pulling the strings for Drahi in his latest restructuring is Dennis Okhuijsen, a hard-headed lieutenant who handled the negotiations with creditors to Altice France, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Dennis is the guy who levered up all of Patrick’s assets and who put the debt structures in place — he is now back to help unravel it all,” said an executive familiar with the arrangements.

The person added that Okhuijsen is helping Drahi use all the “trap doors” he built into the agreements, at a time when bond investors’ discipline on enforcing strict covenants was weak.

After falling through those trap doors creditors are scrambling to figure out Drahi’s next move. Top of mind is understanding whether the billionaire will use his newly liberated assets to raise more debt, pay himself a dividend or sell them entirely.

Waller at New Street Research believes Drahi’s gambit was likely an attempt to force lenders to come to the table and agree a restructuring, in effect a new spin on the same tactics Drahi deployed in France.

By moving Altice’s Portuguese and Dominican operations outside of the restricted group, creditors have been left with about €300mn of earnings underpinning their €8bn of debt.

“That is clearly unsustainable,” Waller said. “He will probably move those assets back into the restricted group and in return, creditors will agree to a write down.”

As well as moving the assets away from creditors, Altice announced that its Portuguese business had raised €750mn of new debt through “a private financing transaction” to pay upcoming liabilities of the wider international business, as well as for general working capital purposes.

Altice International also said that it could raise another €2bn of new debt at Altice Portugal to follow the transaction.

CreditSights analyst Mark Chapman said Drahi holds “most of the cards, with limited scope for the creditors to fight back hard”.

But one industry executive reckons they will not go down without a fight.

“It’s going to end up in court . . . it will go on and on and on,” he predicted, adding that while Drahi will still “have his yacht and have a billion in the bank”, he may end up as somebody “nobody wants to lend any money to”.

FT : Why French leveraged buyouts are caving in like camembert

Why French leveraged buyouts are caving in like camembert
Debt restructurings feel more like a biennial standing appointment rather than a one and done

Corporate crises come in cycles. But France is proving that some loops are stubbornly hard to break. There are a lot of companies sliding into distress and entering restructurings — many not for the first time.

Corporate bankruptcies in France have reached an all-time high of 68,227 cumulatively over the past 12 months to September. While France is about 16 per cent of European GDP, its companies account for about 30 per cent of all the distressed loans — those trading below 90 cents on the dollar — in Morningstar’s European Leveraged Loan Index.

Just last week, lenders prepared to take control and inject equity into care-home operator Colisee while retail giant Casino proposed its second restructuring, with a potential €300mn of fresh equity from majority shareholder Daniel Křetínský, in less than two years.


In part, French companies simply have a lot of debt. The country has been a particularly fruitful hunting ground for private equity, with 4,675 leveraged buyouts since 2015, according to analysis by HEC business school, compared with 2,786 in Germany and 1,749 in Italy. Some targets of past acquisitions, such as Apollo-owned chemical maker Kem One and payment-terminals provider Ingenico, are buckling under higher interest rates.

The sorry state of the French economy — with high debt and growth at a miserly 0.7 per cent of GDP this year — does not help domestically-focused businesses. Partners Group’s property business Emeria’s unsecured debt is trading at around 50 cents on the euro, a sign that investors are bracing for losses as the credit becomes riskier. It also means that the French government is keen to cut costs, squeezing companies that depend on public spending, such as those in the healthcare sector.

Laboratory companies, for instance, rely on the government to pay for routine medical testing. The average price for medical testing has fallen more than 20% between 2015 and 2023, and is expected to decline again from 2026. That’s bad news for the likes of EQT-owned Cerba Healthcare, which racked up a €4bn debt pile through post-Covid acquisitions and whose unsecured bonds are trading at 13 cents on the euro.

There are two ways of bringing French corporate distress back down to manageable levels. The first is to stop adding to the pile, and the second is to clean out the existing backlog. It is not clear that either are happening, however.

The amount of total debt piled on to companies during buyouts may have fallen slightly, from nearly 6 times trailing ebitda in October 2021, says PitchBook LCD, to 5.7 times in the past year. But that’s still far above the debt loaded on to German LBOs at 4.33 times, and the UK’s 5 times. And debt restructurings, in France and elsewhere, feel more like a biennial standing appointment than a one and done. This cohort is unlikely to fix itself up for good.

FT : Lab-grown genomes set to transform human DNA

Lab-grown genomes set to transform human DNA
Research shows synthetic chromosomes can be transferred to human cells with potential to improve viral resistance

Scientists in the UK have taken the first steps in a new programme to create whole human genomes from laboratory chemicals, which they say could eventually transform biology and medicine.

It will allow human DNA to be altered on a scale that is not possible with the more limited gene-editing techniques available today, and could be used for many applications such as making human cells resistant to viruses or altering the immune system.

The £10mn Synthetic Human Genome Project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, has successfully demonstrated that a synthetic chromosome can be transferred to a human cell.

It is a “landmark step for synthetic biology”, said James Collins, professor of medical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is not involved in the project. “This work lays essential groundwork for the engineering of synthetic human genomes and the transformative applications that will follow.”

The research strategy, described in the journal Science, involves first assembling a synthetic human chromosome — the DNA structure carrying genetic information — inside a mouse cell.

The synthetic chromosome is then transferred into a human cell in place of one of the original chromosomes. The nucleus of a human cell contains 23 chromosome pairs with one set inherited from each parent.


Programme leader Jason Chin of the Ellison Institute of Technology at Oxford university and colleagues at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge have previously pioneered the creation of microbes with synthetic genomes to make new materials that natural bacteria cannot produce.

But building a human genome requires a different strategy, said Chin. “It is 1,000 times larger than a bacterial genome — and a human cell contains two copies of each chromosome, so it is hard to engineer the DNA in one copy without affecting the other one,” he said.

To do this, the team uses a mouse embryonic stem cell as the “assembly cell” in which a human chromosome is engineered, he explained. “We are moving chunks of synthetic DNA to replace the corresponding chunks on the human chromosome inside the assembly cell.”

The experiments showed that the synthetic chromosome could be transferred to a human cell to replace one of the two natural chromosomes without causing damage. The whole process can be repeated and the second natural chromosome expelled to produce a human cell with two synthetic chromosomes.


Several years of development and safety evaluation will be required before the technology is ready to use in medicine. One possible application is to make human cells resistant to viruses, such as by repopulating the liver of immunocompromised patients to prevent them picking up infections, said Chin. “Another is to make cells with synthetic genomes precisely tailored for a particular type of cellular therapy.”

In the more immediate future, the synthetics genomics programme will provide new biological insights, Chin said. For example, the experiments have already shown that the DNA caps on the end of a human chromosome called telomeres grow up to 10 times longer when it is transferred to a mouse cell and then shrink back to their original size when put back into a human cell.

Although the Synthetic Human Genome programme does not envisage any outlandish experiments to transform human DNA for purposes that people might find objectionable, such as enhancing intelligence or physical appearance, it has set up a wide-ranging project with the University of Kent to examine the ethical, social, economic and policy implications of genome synthesis.

FT : Friedrich Merz jets to Belgium to secure frozen Russian assets plan

Friedrich Merz jets to Belgium to secure frozen Russian assets plan
German chancellor has been driving force behind EU plans for reparations loan to Kyiv

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is making a last-ditch bid to secure crucial Belgian support for an EU plan to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to fund European military aid to Ukraine.

Merz will travel to Brussels on Friday to dine with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who has become the biggest obstacle to a so-called reparations loan for Kyiv backed by the assets. European officials are rushing to get backing for the plan before leaders debate the proposal at a summit in two weeks.

“It is a race against the clock,” said a German government insider. Another added: “Merz thinks it is on his shoulders to carry this over the line.”

The meeting comes days after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled legal proposals for the loan, which controversially rely on emergency powers in EU treaties to keep Russian assets frozen indefinitely, and push the loan through while bypassing potential national vetoes.

Merz supports the proposal and use of the Article 122 emergency powers, even if Belgium remains opposed, according to people familiar with his position. A spokesman for the German government declined to comment on the message Merz intends to deliver to de Wever.

In order to attend, the German leader rescheduled his first state visit to Norway, where he had been due to meet the King as well as Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Von der Leyen will also take part in the Brussels dinner. 

Writing in the Financial Times in September, the German chancellor endorsed leveraging about €210bn of Russian central bank assets immobilised in Europe for Ukraine. That marked a reversal from earlier scepticism, driven partly by fears it could undermine confidence in the euro, according to people with knowledge of his thinking.

“He is taking a high risk and throwing his whole weight behind it,” said Carlo Masala, professor of international relations at the Bundeswehr University Munich. “It shows how serious he is about the issue.”

Belgium and Brussels-based Euroclear, a clearing house which holds most of the assets, have threatened to block the plan without “cast-iron” guarantees that the other EU countries would also bear the brunt of any financial burden or retaliation from Moscow. 

Several countries, including France, have balked at issuing national guarantees for the loan, needed in case Euroclear is required to return the assets to Moscow. The European Central Bank has declined to provide emergency liquidity to Euroclear should those guarantees be triggered.  

Recent talks over a deal to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine have injected fresh urgency into the debate. Merz and other European leaders, who were excluded from the US-Russia negotiations, were alarmed to discover that the discussions touched directly on the Russian sovereign assets held in Europe, according to several people close to the chancellery.

Norbert Röttgen, a senior MP from Merz’s CDU party, described the decision on Russian assets as “Europe’s moment of truth”. He added: “If we can’t do this [the reparations loan], then what does it say about Europe’s sovereignty and all that talk about strategic autonomy?”

For Berlin, the need to secure the assets quickly and send a political signal to Moscow and Washington now outweigh legal caution, the people said. While Berlin has urged the commission to address Belgium’s concerns, it believes that there is no alternative to the loan to keep Ukraine solvent.

Germany’s push is also partly driven by concerns that the country, which has relaxed its debt brake to allow virtually unlimited spending on defence, risks having to shoulder most of the cost of supplying Ukraine with military equipment.

“We will end up paying the bill,” one of the people said.

>>> US After Hours Summary: RBRK +15%, COO +12%, ULTA +6.4% higher on earnings;

After Hours Summary: RBRK +15%, COO +12%, ULTA +6.4% higher on earnings; AGX -10.9%, HPE -9%, S -9% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: RBRK +15%, COO +12% (also names new Chair; also strategic review), ZUMZ +11.2%, CHPT +10.4%, ULTA +6.4%, TTAN +5.6%, SWBI +2.7%, SFIX +2.1%, IOT +1.9%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: PRAX +21.1% (completes pre-NDA meeting with FDA; also results from EMBOLD study), NFE +19.3% (final approval for 7-yr gas supply agreement), VNDA +8.1% (FDA lifts partial clinical hold on protocol VP-VLY-686-3403), FOSL +6.6% (Director bought 28170 shares at $3.62 worth ~$102K), CAPR +5.3% (stock offering), WKC +1.1% (additional $150 mln to share repurchase authorization), WEC +0.5% (plans to raise dividend; also provides guidance), CRM +0.1% (AstraZeneca (AZN) selects Agentforce Life Sciences for customer engagement)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DOMO -11.8%, AGX -10.9%, HPE -9%, S -9% (also CFO transition), DOCU -6%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: TARA -12.5% (stock offering), IEX -8.9% (names new CFO), OKLO -7.8% (equity distribution agreement up to $1.5 bln), BLNK -7% (files for 14,814,814 share stock offering), SOFI -5.7% (stock offering), MTUS -4.4% (reaches agreement with United Steelworkers Local 1123), CVLT -3.1% (CFO to step down), AIR -1.9% (names interim CFO), WALD -1.6% (stock offering by selling shareholders), SKYT -1.6% (mixed shelf offering), RDNT -1.3% (mixed shelf offering), FDS -1.2% (trusted market intelligence available via Amazon Quick Research), PTC -1% (names new CFO), OC -0.9% (increases dividend), NB -0.5% (acquires scandium alloy assets), PLTR -0.2% (Northslope deepends partnership with PLTR), DAR -0.2% (to sell production tax credits), EMN -0.1% (increases dividend)

WWD : Gucci Hires Another Automotive Executive as Senior VP of Marketing

Gucci Hires Another Automotive Executive as Senior VP of Marketing
Giovanni Perosino joins Gucci from Maserati and his appointment is effective Dec. 15.

GUCCI HIRE: Kering continues to cast its net into the automotive industry.

Gucci is naming Giovanni Perosino senior vice president marketing. The appointment is effective Dec. 15.

Perosino joins Gucci from Maserati, where he has been global chief marketing officer. He has more than 25 years of experience in brand strategy, marketing and communications and has held throughout his career senior leadership roles at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Audi, Lamborghini and ITA Airways.

Perosino will report to the newly appointed chief client, marketing and commercial officer Dario Gargiulo, and will lead Gucci’s global marketing and communications teams.

As reported, Gianluca De Ficchy was named Gucci’s chief financial officer, reporting to Francesca Bellettini, president and chief executive officer of Gucci. He succeeds Alberto Valente, whose title was chief financial, data and operations officer, and who worked at Gucci for 17 years.

Like Luca de Meo, who took on the role of CEO of parent company Kering on Sept. 15, De Ficchy joins Gucci from the automotive industry. He was most recently CEO of Mobilize within the Renault Group and was chairman of the board of directors of RCI Banque SA. He began his career at Ernst & Young, then joined RCI Bank and Services and advanced through several key roles at FCA and Nissan.

As reported, de Meo spent five years leading Renault and boasts a total of 30 years in the automobile industry at brands including Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Toyota, Volkswagen and Seat.

The recent appointments come as Valérie Leberichel has exited Gucci, which she joined at the end of December last year as senior vice president of global communications. She was recruited by and reported to then-CEO Stefano Cantino.

As Gargiulo arrived, Maria Cristina Lomanto, Gucci’s president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa since May, left the company. Chief commercial officer Cayetano Fabry succeeded Lomanto as head of the EMEA region.

Gucci is in the midst of a turnaround under Bellettini and artistic director Demna.

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 4th of December 2025

>>> Up
* Alfa Laval Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 509 kronor
* Atlas Copco Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 178 kronor
* BCP Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 96 euro cents
* Bodycote Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 765 pence
* Commerzbank Raised to Neutral at Goldman; PT 35.50 euros
* Carlsberg Raised to Buy at UBS
* Gecina Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 95.40 euros
* Inditex Raised to Neutral at Mediobanca SpA; PT 50 euros
* Mitie Rated New Outperform at RBC; PT 195 pence
* Schneider Electric Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan
* SocGen Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 72.75 euros
* Softcat Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 1,950 pence
* YouGov Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 385 pence

>>> Down
* Aegon Cut to Neutral at UBS
* DNB Bank Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 290 kroner
* Grand City Properties Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 11.50 euros
* Great Portland Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 340 pence
* NatWest Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 685 pence
* Siemens Healthineers Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; PT 46 euros
* Swedbank Cut to Sell at Goldman; PT 282 kronor

>>> Initiation
* Capgemini Re-Initiated Neutral at JPMorgan
* Gecina Reinstated Buy at ING; PT 97 euros
* New Wave Rated New Buy at SB1 Markets; PT 135 kronor

>>> Call
*

>>> What to look at today - 4th of December 2025

Japanese assets took the spotlight in Asia on Thursday. The nation’s shares led regional gains after US data boosted odds of a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut next week, while a sale of its 30-year government bonds drew the strongest demand since 2019. The Topix and Nikkei 225 rose more than 1.7% each versus a gain of 0.5% for MSCI Inc.’s broader gauge of Asian equities. Indexes in South Korea and Taiwan snapped a two-day advance. US stock futures were steady after the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% overnight, while Bitcoin hovered near $93,500 after a two-day rally.  Data on Wednesday showed US companies shed payrolls in November by the most since early 2023, reinforcing concerns about a more pronounced labor market weakening. Swaps pricing indicated rising expectations for a December cut Wednesday, with traders assigning more than a 90% chance to a 25-basis-point reduction. Yields on Japanese debt have surged as bets intensified for a rate hike at the Dec. 19 BOJ policy decision. Thirty-year bonds gained following the auction result, which came after a sale of 10-year notes earlier in the week also drew firm demand. The 30-year yield had earlier risen to 3.445%, the highest since the tenor debuted in 1999, while the benchmark 10-year rate reached the highest since 2007. Meanwhile in Australia, bond yields rose to the highest level this year amid growing speculation the central bank will switch back to raising rates to curb inflation. In currency markets, a gauge of the dollar rose 0.1% after dropping 0.4% in the previous session, when US treasuries rose across the curve, pushing two-year yields down to around 3.48%. The Indian rupee fell to a record low against the dollar as sentiment remains weak amid delays in securing a trade deal with the US. eparately, China set its daily reference rate for the yuan at a level that was significantly weaker than estimates, suggesting the central bank is aiming to limit gains in the managed currency which is inching close to a keenly watched level of 7 per dollar. While moves in Asian equities this week have been small, the regional MSCI gauge is on course for a third straight session of gains. It jumped 2.7% last week, the most since early October. In commodities, silver fell but continued to trade near an all-time high on the reinforced bets of a Fed cut. Gold edged lower. Oil held a modest gain as investors weighed the outlook for a ceasefire in Ukraine and the fallout from tensions between the US and Venezuela. Trade and geopolitics were also on investors’ radar. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the US is expecting a large investment pledge from Taiwan in trade talks. Separately, Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang said he’s unsure whether China would accept the firm’s H200 artificial intelligence chips should the US relax restrictions on sales of the processors, following a meeting Wednesday with President Donald Trump. Notably, gains for American equity benchmarks came despite weakness in most megacaps. Shares in Salesforce Inc. rose in post-market trading after the company delivered an outlook for revenue in the current period that topped analysts’ estimates.
Despite the apparent confidence among investors, US policymakers have been torn as to whether they’ll cut rates for a third straight meeting as they attempt to balance the slowdown in the job market with still-elevated inflation. Data on Wednesday showed US services activity expanded at a slightly faster pace, while a measure of prices paid dropped to a seven-month low Before their final policy meeting of the year, Fed officials will get a dated reading on their preferred inflation gauge. On Friday, the September income and spending report is due to be released — long delayed because of the government shutdown.
The figures will include the personal consumption expenditures price index and a core measure that excludes food and energy. Economists project a third straight 0.2% increase in the core index. That would keep the year-over-year figure hovering just below 3%, a sign that inflationary pressures are stable, yet sticky. US After Hours PATH +8.9%, NCNO +5.8%, CRM +2.2%, FIVE +1.2% higher on earnings; SNOW -2.4%, PVH -2.4%, AI -1.9% lower on earnings.


Nikkei +2.01% Hang Seng +0.14% CSI +0.12% Shanghai -0.15% Shenzen -0.18%

Eur$ CNH CNY JPY GBP CHF RUB TRY WTI$ Gold BTC ETH

S&P -0.01% Nasdaq -0.10% EuroStoxx +0.54% FTSE +0.33% Dax +0.48% SMI


Macro :
- French Government to Review Financial Support of Renewables
- SpaceX Backer, Vying to Run NASA, Downplays Ties With Musk
- Sam Altman Has Explored Deal to Build Competitor to Elon Musk's SpaceX -- WSJ
- Merz in Danger With Business Warning Germany Is in ‘Free Fall’
- Europe’s Biotech Standout Faces Crucial Year After 1,300% Rally

Keep an eye on :
- ABBN SW : ABB Takes Minority Stake in OctaiPipe; No Terms Disclosed
- ACE IM : Plenitude to Buy Acea Energia in Deal Worth Up To €587m
- NDA GY : Aurubis FY Dividend per Share Beats Estimates
- BLAND LN : British Land to Join, WPP to Leave FTSE 100 Index
- CIE SM : Mahindra Taps BNP, JPMorgan to Sell 3.6% of Cie Automotive
- EPIC SW : Epic Suisse Offers Shares at CHF80 Each: Terms
- ERA FP : Eramet Starts Performance Improvement Program
- GLEN LN : Glencore Would Seek Equal Stake in Chile Mine Deal With Anglo
- GLEN LN : Glencore Tapped by Codelco to Design New Chile Copper Smelter
- GTT FP : GTT Gets Order From HD KSOE for Tank Design of Two LNG Carriers
- IFCN SW : Inficon Names Dimitrij Lisak as new CFO Starting July 2026
- INTRUM SS : Intrum Buys Back €112.5m of Bonds in Tender Offer
- LEON SW : Leonteq Sees Low Double-Digit Million Underlying Loss for 2025
- MC FP : LVMH, Arnault Deny Diverting or Owning “Hidden” Hermes Shares
- MediaOn IPO : MediaOn to Offer 2m Shares, Holders to Offer 1.9m Shares in IPO
- META US : EU to launch antitrust probe into Meta over use of AI in WhatsApp
- NOVOB DC : Novo Nordisk to Launch Ozempic in India in December: Reuters
- NOVOB DC : Novo Not Ready to Quit Alzheimer’s After Ozempic Pill Setback
- NOVB DC : Denmark Probes if Novo Can Pay for Eye-Disease Compensation: DR
- 1913 HK : Prada : -3.5%
- PMU GY : Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Raised Puma Voting Rights to 5.16%
- RIO LN : Rio Tinto Sees FY Copper Production 860,000 to 875,000 Tons, Rio Tinto Seeks to Release $5b-$10b From Existing Asset Base
- SKAB SS : Skanska Gets $263m Contract to Build Data Center in US
- SLPB SS : SLP Explores Conditions for Directed Issue of 20M B Shares
- STLA IM : Stellantis, Michelin, Forvia Agree on Hydrogen JV Restructure
- TECN SW : Tecan Says Gillner to Succeed Braunschweiler as Board Chairman
- TEF SM : America Movil Says It Will Seek Telefonica Chile Bid Alone
- UCB BB : UCB to Present Positive Data on Fenfluramine in CDD at AES 2025
- VER AV : Verbund to Propose Special Dividend of €1.15/Share for 2025
- WPP LN : British Land to Join, WPP to Leave FTSE 100 Index

>>> TradeGate Pre-Market Indications

DAX:
  • Siemens Energy (ENR TH) +2.6%
    • Capital Goods Set-Up Seen Attractive in 2026, JPMorgan Says
  • Commerzbank (CBK TH) +1.9%
    • Commerzbank Raised to Neutral at Goldman; PT 35.50 euros
  • Infineon (IFX TH) +1.7%
  • SAP (SAP TH) +1.4%
    • NOTE: Salesforce Gains on Forecast, AI Adoption Trends: Street Wrap
  • Rheinmetall (RHM TH) +1.2%
  • Siemens Healthineers (SHL TH) -0.9%
    • Siemens Healthineers Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; PT 46 euros
MDAX:
  • Aixtron (AIXA TH) +1.3%
  • Aurubis (NDA TH) -3.5%
    • Aurubis FY Dividend per Share Beats Estimates
SDAX:
  • Formycon (FYB TH) +6.7%
    • EQS-News: Formycon and MS Pharma sign exclusive commercialization
  • Grand City Properties (GYC TH) -1.9%
    • Grand City Properties Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 11.50 eu