The Federal Reserve unveiled the minutes of its December meeting, which indicated that most officials expected further rate cuts. US bourse headed south on the last full trading day of the year, yet with modest downswing.

The S&P 500 dropped for the third consecutive day, down 9 points to settle at 6,896. The Nasdaq fell 55 points or 0.2% to end at 23,419. The DJIA sank 94 points or 0.2%, closing at 48,367.

Investors took advantage of the high prices to reduce their holdings of large-cap tech stocks that had performed strongly this year, with Nvidia (NVDA.US) fading 0.4% and Palantir (PLTR.US) retreating 1.8%. Intel (INTC.US) yet added 1.7%, and Meta (META.US) rose over 1%.

US bourse will close early on Wednesday, the last trading day of the year, and will be closed on Thursday for the New Year's holiday.
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Meta (META.US) has acquired Manus, a Chinese AI startup, to accelerate the integration of advanced AI technology across various platforms, according to foreign media reports. The financial terms of the acquisition, however, have not been disclosed.

Manus is developing general AI agents that can independently perform tasks like research and automation as a digital worker with only minimal prompts required.

Earlier this year, Manus claimed that the performance of its AI agents had surpassed OpenAI's DeepResearch.
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US bourse reverted down on Monday, dampened by downswing in techs. The S&P 500, which had just hit a record high last week, adjusted downward, dropping 24 points or 0.4% to 6,905. The Nasdaq also lost 118 points or 0.5%, closing at 23,474. The DJIA slid 249 points or 0.5% to 48,461.

AI-related stocks were under pressure on Monday. NVIDIA (NVDA.US) joined stake in Intel (INTC.US) with US$5 billion according to a September agreement, with NVIDIA sagging 1.2%, giving back part of last week's over 5% gain, and Intel rising against the market by 1.3%.

Tesla (TSLA.US) dived 3.3%. AI defense stock Palantir (PLTR.US) sank over 2%. Oracle (ORCL.US) faded 1.3%. Meta Platforms (META.US) also declined.
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ByteDance's total procurement orders for domestic chips next year may exceed RMB40 billion, while the figure for 2025 is expected to be close to zero, Chinese media quoted sources as saying.

It is reported that ByteDance is significantly increasing its procurement of domestic computing power, driven by two factors such as the computing power gap that emerged after Nvidia's H20 supply was cut off in April 2025, and the explosive growth in the token call volume of its cloud computing business, Volcano Engine, and AI application, Doubao.

As a result, ByteDance started to accelerate its in-depth cooperation with Huawei.
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AliExpress, a subsidiary of BABA-W (09988.HK), released a poster with a “boxing duel” theme, displaying two boxing gloves, one black and one red, clashing violently, with the caption “See You in Hangzhou on January 7”.

The red and black boxing gloves in the poster correspond to the brand colors of AliExpress and Amazon, respectively, suggesting that AliExpress is openly challenging Amazon, Chinese media reported, citing industry insiders.

AliExpress will purportedly hold a Brand Globalization Conference in Hangzhou on January 7, 2026, inviting mainly large sellers who stock up for overseas markets. Meanwhile, Amazon's annual merchant conference had been previously held in Hangzhou.
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US bourse started lower but trended higher on Tuesday as the market absorbed the US 3Q GDP annual growth rate of 4.3%, which beat expectations. The DJIA finished up 79 points or 0.2%, at 48,442. Led by Nvidia (NVDA.US), the Nasdaq concluded 133 points or 0.6% higher, at 23,561. The S&P 500 ended up 31 points or 0.5%, at 6,909, marking a historic closing high.

Techs traded mixed. Nvidia soared 3%. Amazon (AMZN.US) and Alphabet (GOOG.US) gained over 1%. Apple (AAPL.US) went up 0.5%. Tesla (TSLA.US) dipped 0.7%. Oracle (ORCL.US) retreated 1.5%.

Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) rallied 7.3% as its oral weight-loss drug received FDA greenlight.
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Driven by the growth in EV registrations in Germany, Italy, Spain and other markets, new car sales in Europe recorded YoY growth for the 5h consecutive month in November, rising by 2.4% to 1.1 million units, as announced by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

In November, new car registrations for Volkswagen and Renault increased by 4.1% and 3%, while Stellantis and Tesla (TSLA.US) dropped by 2.7% and 11.8%, respectively. BYD COMPANY (01211.HK)'s new car registrations surged by 221.8%.
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US bourse opened higher and trended higher on Monday as Thursday marks the beginning of Christmas holiday. The DJIA finished up 227 points or 0.5%, at 48,362. The Nasdaq closed up 121 points or 0.5%, at 23,428. The S&P 500 added 43 points or 0.6%, settling at 6,878.

Tesla (TSLA.US) shot up as much as 3.7% to peak at US$498.83, nearing the US$500 mark, with the day's upswing ebbing to 1.6% at US$488.73. Other major techs showed mixed trends, with Apple (AAPL.US) down 1%, Microsoft (MSFT.US) down 0.2%, and Alphabet (GOOG.US) up 0.9%.

AI stocks had a good run, with NVIDIA (NVDA.US) up 1.5%, reportedly set to start shipping H200 chips to China in mid-February; Oracle (ORCL.US) up 3.3%; and Micron (MU.US) up 4%.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison provided a US$40.4 billion guarantee for Paramount's (PSKY.US) acquisition offer for Warner Bros (WBD.US), with Paramount up 4.3% and Warner Bros also up 3.5%.
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Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOG.US) announced on Monday that it will acquire the data center and energy infrastructure company Intersect for US$4.75 billion in cash and assume its debt.

Alphabet stated that Intersect will continue to operate independently, but this acquisition will help accelerate the deployment of more data centers and power generation capacity.

The transaction is anticipated to be completed in the first half of 2026, subject to certain conditions being met.
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The US government has begun the approval process for Nvidia (NVDA.US) to export its H200 chips to China, Reuters quoted sources as saying.

The US Department of Commerce has submitted the chip export license application to the State Department, Department of Energy and Department of Defense for review.

It is believed that these departments have 30 days to conduct their evaluations, and US President Donald Trump will have the right of final decision.
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