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Japan's Nikkei 225 fell about 1% to 69,339.80 on Thursday, sliding below the 69,400 mark as hawkish Fed minutes, Brent crude above $101, and a tech-led Wall Street retreat hit Asian markets.
Japan's August wage data beat expectations at 3.8%, yet a steep downward revision to July's figures and fresh fiscal-expansion promises from Tokyo sent the yen on a full round trip back toward 158.00.
Payward, the company behind Kraken, is talking to Wells Fargo about supplying liquidity for crypto trading — days after a 24/7 settlement deal with Singapore Gulf Bank and reported talks with BNY.
Brevan Howard's funds will get prime-brokerage, settlement and financing services from Ripple Prime, as the crypto firm pushes deeper into Wall Street's lucrative swap-financing business.
Wednesday's session knocked spot gold down 1.6% to $4,096.13 — the softest print since August 5 — as a firmer dollar and 20-year-high Treasury yields punished the zero-yield metal.
Front-month natural gas closed Wednesday up 1% at $3.066 per mmBtu as traders bet Thursday's EIA report brings a ninth straight below-average storage build, extending a surplus squeeze that has halved the inventory cushion in a month.
McDonald's wants its US operators to spend an extra $800,000 per restaurant on the "NEXT" modernization plan — and franchisees are pushing back just as restaurant stocks slide.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreated from Tuesday's all-time highs as the 10-year Treasury yield touched its highest since 2002 and Brent crude pushed back above $100 a barrel.
Rabobank strategist Jane Foley argues the Bank of Japan's steady rate increases are quietly stripping the yen of its status as the carry trade's funding currency — but with a 275bp gap to US rates still open, USD/JPY keeps grinding toward 158.
Bitcoin tumbled under $84,000 on Wednesday after Iran escalated strikes on commercial tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude surged past $101, and crypto derivatives markets answered with roughly $547 million in liquidations — overwhelmingly long positions caught on the wrong side.
India's central bank raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% on Wednesday, ending nearly four years of cuts and pauses — but the rupee kept sliding toward 96.96, its weakest ever print, leaving traders wanting more.
Crude is holding near $100 a barrel as IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warns that an energy shock, the AI investment boom and record public debt are combining into a dangerous cocktail for the world economy.
