MARKET SNAPSHOT
U.S. stocks finished mixed and oil futures rose with the market wary of continuing conflict in the Middle East and dubious about an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Gold futures settled lower on higher oil and a stronger dollar. The U.S. bond market was closed for a holiday.
MARKET WRAPS EQUITIES
Major U.S. stock indexes ended mixed on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%.
Equities trading volumes were light with bond markets closed Monday for Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day.
The S&P 500 Energy Sector closed at its first record-high in nearly a month, gaining 1.5%. Those gains came after Ukraine said Russian strikes had hit its energy infrastructure, despite President Trump's declaration of an energy ceasefire.
Trump said Friday he reached a deal for Russia to sell millions of tons of diesel into the market, a move designed to address climbing fuel costs for Americans. Traders are unconvinced the deal will make a difference, however, with one Jefferies analyst estimating that if Russia releases the promised amount, it will cover a little more than nine days of U.S. demand.
Investors are also weighing the impact of a deadly attack on Saudi Arabia's capital city airport. On Saturday, at least one Houthi missile hit the international airport, killing at least a dozen people and injuring hundreds more. The attack by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants is the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade, and the kingdom's military has said it will respond.
Equity markets across Asia-Pacific were mixed. South Korea's Kospi fell 3.7%. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4%, the Shenzhen Composite ended 1.8% lower and the ChiNext Price Index declined 2.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index edged 0.3% higher. Japan's financial markets were closed for a public holiday.
Asian semiconductor stocks were broadly weaker ahead of the upcoming earnings season.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Benchmark Index rose 0.8%. New Zealand's S& P/NZX 50 Index increased 0.6%.
COMMODITIES
Oil futures rose for a third consecutive session with the market wary of continuing conflict in the Middle East and dubious about an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
"The market may remain fearful of a renewed disruption and loss of supplies whether in the Strait of Hormuz or the Red Sea as long as escalation risks stay high," Samer Hasn of XS.com said in a note. The senior analyst also sees "no reason to be optimistic" about President Trump's announcement that Russia and Ukraine would refrain from striking each other's energy infrastructure.
Brent settled up 1.8% at $106.65 a barrel and WTI rose 2.1% to $93.74 a barrel.
Gold futures settled lower amid U.S. dollar gains and a rise in oil futures.
The firmer dollar and high oil prices "reinforced concerns that persistent energy-driven inflation could keep the Federal Reserve on a hawkish policy path," Kaynat Chainwala of Kotak Neo said in a note. The market will be looking to this week's U.S. inflation data--CPI on Wednesday and PPI on Thursday--as well as comments by Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh for more clarity on the interest-rate outlook, she added.
Front-month gold settled down 0.6% in New York at $4,165.80 a troy ounce and silver fell 0.9% to $60.141 a troy ounce.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES
Russia Pounds Ukrainian Energy Despite Trump's Ceasefire Announcement
KYIV, Ukraine-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian strikes had hit energy infrastructure across his country hours after President Trump declared an energy ceasefire between the warring sides.
The Russian attacks-including on gas infrastructure, a power plant and a substation-come as the U.S. heaps pressure on Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries, and after Trump moved to allow Russia to export diesel to the U.S. in a bid to drive down American prices at the pump.
"Last night, Russian oil refineries were not burning. But at midnight, a Russian jet-powered Shahed struck a gas-production facility in Ukraine," Zelensky said in an address to the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday. "And there was also a Russian strike on an ordinary gas station, involving several drones."
Cleveland Fed's Hammack Says Interest Rates Need to Be Higher
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack has spent over a year warning about the risks of persistently high inflation, urging her fellow policymakers to take action.
Hammack, who started as president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Fed in August 2024, is currently a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. Now with one rate increase behind the Fed and more likely to follow, Barron's sat down with Hammack for an exclusive interview on how she views the current risk of inflation and how she would like to see the path of policy develop.
Barron's: You've been advocating for nearly a year that the Fed move to a more restrictive policy. What were the early warning signs that you were watching that showed inflation was the bigger, potentially more pressing issue than the labor market?
Meta Stock Jumps 3%. Its New Muse AI Models Rival OpenAI and Anthropic.
Meta Platforms unveiled a new pair of artificial-intelligence models on Monday as the company's once-scattershot AI strategy continues to take shape.
Meta says the two models, dubbed Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, rival top offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic on public benchmarks. The release "brings us to the frontier," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post, referring to the leading edge of AI capabilities.
Muse Wonder will help power Meta's popular new Muse personal agent soon, the company said. It is also available through Meta's API platform and the Muse Code coding agent.
Dating-App Company Bumble in Advanced Talks to Go Private at $1 Billion Valuation
Bumble, the dating-app company founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, is in advanced talks to be taken private in a deal that values it at roughly $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The buyer is Ithaca Holdings, a firm founded recently by two Silicon Valley executives, the people said. Bumble would be one of the first major moves for Ithaca, which plans to apply advanced technologies including artificial intelligence to its investments.
Adnoc Logistics in Talks to Buy Stake in HEA at $3 Billion Valuation
The logistics arm of United Arab Emirates's oil-and-gas giant Adnoc is in talks to acquire a big stake in HEA Energy, a deal that would value the Middle Eastern-based energy marine services company at up to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The talks involve Adnoc Logistics & Services, a unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil, taking either a large minority or controlling stake in HEA, the people said. The discussions are advancing but could still fail to turn into a deal, the people familiar said.
Quantum-Computing Company IonQ to Buy Cybersecurity Firm for Up to $1.3 Billion
Quantum-computing company IonQ struck an all-stock deal to buy Elisity in a transaction that values the cybersecurity firm at up to $1.3 billion, executives told The Wall Street Journal.
It is a bet that cybersecurity will be even more critical for companies as quantum computing and AI systems become more powerful and advanced, said IonQ Chairman and Chief Executive Niccolo de Masi.
"The bad guys are going to keep taking advantage of new technology," he said in an interview. "Unfortunately, we are entering the most dangerous years, vis-à-vis cybersecurity risks."
LVMH's Creaking Sales Cast Pall Over Luxury's Fragile Recovery
French luxury giant LVMH said sales growth slowed, putting the brakes on a long-awaited recovery in Europe's struggling luxury-goods industry.
The Paris-based group, owner of a stable of fashion, jewelry and champagne brands that constitutes a bellwether for the wider sector, made sales of 18.50 billion euros ($20.72 billion) between July and September, it said Monday. That marks organic growth of just 1% from the same period last year, slowing from the 3% increase the company booked over the second quarter.
The result was in line with the expectations of analysts, according to those polled by Visible Alpha ahead of the print. Still, the group's mainstay fashion division, home to heavyweight brands Louis Vuitton and Dior, booked a 5% drop in sales on year to EUR8.245 billion, below analysts' forecasts.
Expected Major Events for Tuesday 00:30/AUS: Sep NAB Business Survey
09:59/CHN: Sep Broad Money M2
14:30/AUS: Aug Australia Conference Board Leading Index
20:00/NZ: Sep REINZ Residential Market Report
20:00/NZ: Sep REINZ Monthly Housing Price Index
23:50/JPN: Sep Money Stock, Broadly-defined Liquidity
00:00/SIN: 3Q Advance GDP Estimates
00:00/SIN: Singapore Monetary Policy Statement
00:00/AUS: Aug Westpac-Melbourne Institute Indexes of Economic Activity
00:00/AUS: Sep Vacancy Report
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