Category: 3. Business

Dec 26 (Reuters) – Major U.S. stock indexes oscillated around record peaks on Friday in muted post-Christmas trading, while expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and safe haven appeal pushed precious metals prices to all-time highs.

Public holidays kept markets closed in Australia, Hong Kong and most of Europe, but the bourses that were open pushed towards ending the year in positive territory, with Asian stocks rising to multi-week highs in their trading session earlier.

The benchmark S&P 500 was last down 0.03% on the day in New York, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.18% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.07%, with all three set for double-digit yearly gains.

Megacap tech companies have driven the S&P 500 higher in 2025, and investors have been branching out to cyclical sectors including financials and materials, broadening the upswing and leaving the main U.S. indexes set for a third straight year of gains.

Data suggesting the U.S. economy is resilient, paired with the possibility that a new central bank chair to replace Jerome Powell could look to cut rates next year, is supporting markets. Recent pressure on AI stocks stemming from concerns over high valuations and profit-sapping capital expenditures has also lessened. 

Traders watched for a “Santa Claus rally” which is declared if the S&P 500 advances through the last five trading days of the current year and the first two in January. This would be considered a good omen for stocks in 2026 after a volatile year.

Geopolitical tensions enhanced the safe-haven appeal of precious metals the day after the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria. Silver hit an all-time high of $77.4 per ounce, on a 167% year-to-date surge, supported by supply deficits and the metal’s designation as a U.S. critical mineral.

A weakening dollar further burnished dollar-denominated gold for overseas investors, helping to send an ounce up 0.98% to $4,523.

Soojin Kim, commodities analyst at MUFG, said in a note the rally could continue, supported by “major banks forecasting further gains into 2026, the strength of physical demand and persistent geopolitical and monetary uncertainties.”

Oil prices settled more than 2% lower, dragged down by the prospect of a global supply glut and possible progress on a Ukraine peace deal.

DOLLAR’S DECEMBER BLUES    

Investors are preparing for 2026 focused on when the U.S. Federal Reserve might further cut rates and by how much, with traders pricing in at least two cuts over the year, although they do not expect the Fed to move before June. 

The central bank has projected one more cut next year but divisions among decision makers has left investors on edge about the policy outlook. 

Markets are also waiting for President Donald Trump to nominate a Fed chair to replace Powell, whose term ends in May. Any signal of what Trump will decide could sway markets in the coming week.

The U.S. dollar has been under pressure as a result, pushing the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc to highs. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six rivals, rose 0.08% to 98.02 on Friday.

The Japanese yen softened against the dollar as investors remained on watch for potential intervention to shore up the currency. Analysts say year-end trading, when volumes are thin, provide an opportunity for authorities to take action.

The yen has weakened despite the Bank of Japan delivering a well-telegraphed interest rate hike last week. Data on Friday showed that core consumer inflation in Japan’s capital slowed in December but stayed above the central bank’s 2% target, bolstering the case for further rate hikes.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie and Ankur Banerjee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Hugh Lawson and Nick Zieminski)

By Isla Binnie and Ankur Banerjee

At Drayman House in Walla Walla, people pay to store their wine in lockers in a climate-perfect basement.

The membership-based storage facility also entertains guests in the poshly appointed upstairs with leather divans, velvet chairs and polished knotty-fir under clacking heels and shiny loafers.

On a warmer than usual December evening, people gathered here to swash several French “grower champagnes.” Silver buckets of ice hold several sparkling offerings — blancs and rosés — to choose from.

“Scoop that caviar up, ladies and gents,” cried out Island Nguyen-Ainsworth, co-owner of Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen.

She’s doling out house-made chicken nuggets loaded down with creme fraiche and caviar.

The Northwest is increasingly home to new and interesting sparkling wine options. The Washington State Wine Commission reports the sparkling industry is seeing sparks of growth, especially in the $16 to $20 a bottle price range.

Northwest fizz with styles

There are several types of fizz being made in the region: “farmer fizz,” forced carbonation wines, Pét-nat and traditional method sparkling wines.

• French grower champagne or Northwest farmer fizz are wines made by the people who grew the grapes. They are estate-grown. Although only wines produced in Champagne, France, can be called champagne.
• “Pét-nat” is short for Pétillant Naturel, meaning a wine that is only fermented once in the bottle, many times without using added yeast and sulfites. It’s topped with a metal crown cap instead of a cork. Oftentimes, it’s not riddled or disgorged, so it might have a bit of yeasty cloudiness to the wine.
• Then there’s traditional method sparkling. This is a wine fermented until it’s dry, then a bit of sugar and yeast are added before putting it in a bottle. This wine is opened briefly after it’s been in the bottle for a while and turned upside down. The neck of the bottle is frozen, and a frozen plug of the lees is ejected, leaving the clear wine. Then more wine tops it off and the bottle gets a cork.

Someone who’s making traditional method and labor-intense sparkling wine is Corey Braunel, of Dusted Valley winery.

Braunel said there is a lot that can go wrong in the years it takes to finish about 200 cases of traditional method sparkling wine made available to purchase each year.

To make traditional method, some parts of the process have been automated, like the riddling, or hand-shifting bottles so the yeast falls into the neck of the bottle.

“Here are all of our babies,” he said, touching a metal cage packed with unlabeled, shiny bottles laying on their sides. This winery uses machines to do the riddling, but there’s still a lot to do — from picking and crushing the grapes to disgorging the bottles. That’s when winemakers remove an ice plug from the bottles’ necks with the yeast, or lees, from each bottle.

“All this work is done by hand,” Braunel said. “This is really and truly a labor of love. All of this is a labor of love.”

High-quality bubbles

Over in Prosser, Washington, is Northwest winemaker Andrew Gerow. He is the co-owner of Tirriddis sparkling winery. He said consumers should look for high-quality bubbles.

“A finer bubble. So, a smaller bubble,” Gerow said. “Sometimes you’ll have a sparkling wine that when you put it into your mouth the wine turns to foam. Because the bubbles are so aggressive and they’re not comfortable in the solution.

“Or sometimes you will pour a glass of sparkling and there is a little bit of sediment in it, and that sediment, all those pieces of sediment are like little microscopic mentos and so the bubbles froth out. It’s not a sparkling wine if there are no bubbles in it. The importance for a high quality bubble is the fineness of the bubble. And how long it lasts in the glass. How long it lasts in the bottle when it’s been opened.”

“

You would never see a sparkling malbec in France. They think I’m, like, nuts! But actually it’s turned out beautiful, so why not?”

— Gilles Nicault, winemaker

Another Walla Walla winemaker — Gilles Nicault of Long Shadows and Nine Hats — is from France. But he’s been in Washington making top wines for more than 30 vintages now. He said old world wines set the bar and are many times high quality, but they also follow rigid rules.

“When you buy champagne, you know what to expect to some extent,” Nicault said. “When you get some sparkling wine, it can be all kinds of things. Like the sparkling rosé I am making is malbec. French people are probably going crazy over it. You would never see a sparkling malbec in France. They think I’m, like, nuts! But actually it’s turned out beautiful, so why not?”

‘Wine that could go wrong’

Kaleigh Brook, an advanced sommelier — often shortened to som — said she’s in agreement. She also co-owns Tavern Ancestrale. Brook said there are some fresh, daring bubble bandits in the Northwest. People who are experimenting with different methods and varieties of winegrapes.

“It’s easy to make safe wine,” she said. “It’s not so easy to make wine that could go wrong.”

She also said she hunts out “honest wines.” While there are a lot of wineries struggling because sales are down, she said, small local producers are bottling interesting wines that are worth spending time with.

“Look for wineries that are being transparent about the way they grow their grapes, the way they make their wines and their story,” Brook said. “If you start asking for transparency and asking for honesty in wines, you’ll find honest wines. And in the end, you’ll drink better.”

Nuggets, friends and family

One thing is agreed; bubbles go great with nuggets, friends and family.

“‘Cause wine is about community, right?” said Brook. “It’s about sharing. It’s about bringing community together.”

“What I love is that it’s festive and bright and vibrant and always very enjoyable anywhere from brunch to dinner,” said Nicault.

Gerow smiled and said his favorite part of the sparkling wine making process is when someone opens his bottles in front of him, “You know, that’s why you make wine — is to share!”

And Braunel said any day is a sparkling day, “I like to joke around that I’m looking for more reasons to open bottles. Instead of more reasons to not open bottles if you know what I mean?”

Some Northwest wineries making sparkling:

Washington

Oregon

Is your Northwest favorite not on this list? Send an email to news@nwpb.org.

Anna King is a reporter with Northwest Public Broadcasting. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

A Northern Colorado company, based in Berthoud, is helping major brands around the world produce more eco-friendly packaging and products. Living Ink Technologies, founded by Colorado State University graduates, is continuing to grow its operation in the region.

“Living Ink is a waste-to-value company. So, we take biomass waste, we do our thermal treatment, and we make an alternative to carbon black,” said Scott Fulbright, CEO and cofounder of the company.

Carbon black is found in most products and packaging that contain black ink. Fulbright said carbon black requires petroleum to create and is less eco-friendly than the alternative ink they are creating.

To create an alternative option, Living Ink has found a method to create black ink from waste created by other companies and humans, via biomass.

“Biomass like algae, like spent yeast from breweries and things like that,” Fulbright said.

Living Ink Technologies has partnered with companies like those that produce Budweiser beer. The company sends Living Ink their spent yeast, and then the team in Berthoud helps flip the product into a sustainable and reliable black ink.

Living Ink’s product has already been used in major brands like Nike and Patagonia.

Currently, Fulbright admits that his product does come at a more expensive cost than carbon black ink. However, he said they are working on a trajectory that would make it more affordable and appealing to companies beyond their branding of being eco-friendly.

“We do think we can compete, and potentially undercut traditional carbon black, as we use these different waste streams in our process,” Fulbright said.

Fulbright said his team has moved around Colorado, but found home in Berthoud thanks to the talent pool in the region.

“We ended up in Berthoud because there is a great talent pool in Fort Collins, and there is a great talent pool in Denver and Loveland,” Fulbright said.

Fulbright said his company hopes to one day be able to work, in part, out of the Budweiser facility in Fort Collins. He said, by working directly in the facility, they could make a more cost-efficient way of flipping the company’s spent yeast and turning it into the ink on their packaging, all in-house.

“So, we are working with their Fort Collins facility right now, and we are taking some of their spent grain and yeast from their process as our feedstock,” Fulbright said. “Ideally, making them more profitable and sustainable in their overall manufacturing cost.”

While overall casino gambling revenue was down slightly in November compared with October, revenue from sports betting set an all-time record.

According to the latest report from the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, the state’s five racetrack casinos brought in just over $1.5 million in total sports betting revenue in November. That was about 25% higher than the previous record of $1.2 million set in November 2024.

As is the case just about every month, the WarHorse casinos in Omaha and Lincoln accounted for most of that revenue, about $1.2 million, but other casinos also saw strong sports betting interest.

Grand Island Casino Resort topped $200,000 in monthly sports betting revenue for the first time ever in November, a number that was nearly 80% higher than a year ago.

Vince Fiala, general manager of the Grand Island Casino Resort, said this time of year college football is the big driver of sports betting interest.

“I can tell you that during the fall … we take a lot of bets on college football,” Fiala said.

He said that by far the most popular football bet is a parlay, where bettors try to predict the outcomes of several games.

“Here for us, the parlays are probably the biggest thing, when you bet two or three different things, because the odds of winning are a little bit higher, but the payouts are a lot higher, too,” Fiala said.

He also credited the rise in sports betting revenue to more casinos in the state and expanded sports betting operations. For example, when the previous record was set in November 2024, Lake Mac Casino & Resort in Ogallala didn’t exist, and some other casinos were still operating in temporary spaces or in spaces that were still being built out.

Grand Island Casino Resort, for instance, didn’t open its fully expanded casino until this past April.

“You know, for us, we opened a new full resort on April 10 of 2025, and with that, we increased the size of our sports book, and we have just two walls of TVs. So that has made a big difference for us,” Fiala said.

Overall, the five casinos had total revenue of $24.1 million last month, making it the third best month ever behind October, which set the all-time record with $24.6 million in revenue, and May, which had $24.2 million.

Total revenue for the year, which stood at nearly $236 million as of the end of November, is on track to end up around $260 million. That would be a nearly 80% increase over the $145.7 million in casino revenue for all of 2024. About $8.1 million of that revenue is from sports betting, up from $4.7 million for all of last year.

[co-author: James Wells]

On 8 December 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation paper (CP25/36) proposing significant changes to the UK’s client categorisation rules in the FCA’s Conduct of Business sourcebook (COBS), as well as streamlining the FCA’s conflicts of interest rules in the Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls sourcebook (SYSC).

The aims of CP25/36 are to better distinguish clients who do not require retail protections, strengthen safeguards where protections are given up, and remove duplication in conflicts rules without changing substantive standards.

Background

CP25/36 follows the FCA’s 2024 Call for Input on Handbook simplification post‑Consumer Duty and the discussion chapter in CP24/24 on potential reforms to EU-derived conduct and organisational requirements. In July 2025, the FCA announced a review of client categorisation and, in September 2025, committed to resetting how wholesale firms distinguish between retail and professional clients. CP25/36 seeks to rebalance risk to support competitiveness while reducing harm from poor practices, such as mis-categorisation.

Client categorisation

Elective Professional Clients

The FCA proposes two routes to elective professional client (EPC) status (excluding local authorities):

1. a wealth‑only route for clients with at least £10 million in investable assets (designated investments and/or cash), requiring informed, signed opt‑out but no qualitative assessment; and
2. a strengthened qualitative route requiring a holistic assessment against specified “Relevant Factors” (including occupational experience, investment history, financial resilience) and prohibiting reliance on self‑certification, click‑through questionnaires, or tick‑box tools. The mandatory quantitative test in COBS 3.5.3R(2) would be removed.

The FCA proposes that clients must actively request EPC status and provide informed consent, with clear disclosure of lost protections and sufficient time to consider implications. In addition, under the proposals firms may only initiate discussions about opting out where there is a reasonable basis to believe the client meets the professional threshold and must not incentivise or pressure clients.

Per Se Professional Clients

The FCA proposes to replace the list of entity types in COBS 3.5.2R(1) with a single concept covering any entity authorised or regulated in the UK or a third country to operate in financial markets and harmonise thresholds for large undertakings across Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and non-MiFID business. Special purpose vehicles controlled by authorised firms will be expressly included.

Conflicts of interest

SYSC 10 would be streamlined across the UK’s MiFID, Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities and Alternative Investment Fund Managers regimes to reduce duplication, with core duties to identify, prevent and manage conflicts unchanged. Key features include a general proportionality provision, harmonised terminology, a universal gifts and benefits policy, and reinforced guidance that disclosure is a last resort.

Insurance distribution provisions in SYSC 3.3 would be deleted so all distributors follow the streamlined SYSC 10; equivalent changes for full‑scope UK Alternative Investment Fund Managers will commence when HM Treasury revokes the relevant Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive Level 2 provisions.

The FCA also proposes a technical fix to non‑MiFID personal account dealing (COBS 11.7) to align fund exclusions with UK policy and is considering further technical consolidation of personal account dealing rules.

Next steps

The FCA has asked for feedback on CP25/36 by 2 February 2026.

CP25/36 is available here.

Riverfront homes now sell for six times the city median after recording a staggering 29 per cent price jump in one year, highlighting the premium high-end buyers will pay to secure a stake in Brisbane’s dwindling waterfront property.

Place Advisory’s Brisbane Riverfront Property Market Report revealed riverfront home sales in Brisbane averaged $5.8m after the city officially joined the “ultra-prime” club in 2024, recording its first two sales above $20m.

The report analysed the 12 months to October 2025, showing how scarcity and high-net-worth demand had reshaped real estate’s top end.

Hawthorne stood out as one of Australia’s strongest-performing waterfront suburbs, with recent sales averaging more than $12m, including two $20m-plus deals.

Other frontrunners Bulimba and Yeronga had average sale prices of $6.25m and $5.86m respectively.

Sarah Hackett of Place New Farm said the findings reinforced the exclusivity of Brisbane’s blue-chip waterfront belt.

“Buyers know opportunities are incredibly limited, and when quality homes come to market, competition is immediate and decisive,” Ms Hackett said.

The agency had a swelling list of more than 9,000 buyers waiting to secure their slice of the wet stuff, she said, while just 76 detached house sales with river or water frontage were recorded in the 12 months to December 2025.

The city’s residential record was shattered last month with a riverfront knockdown in New Farm changing hands for $25m.

The eye-watering sum was three times what owner Rob Gray, a local developer, had paid for the 688 sqm property just three years prior, with no improvements to it since.

Mr Gray said the site’s five-storey zoning contributed to the high sale.

The co-director of design and build firm Graya said he was already hunting for another riverfront site.

“I genuinely think I am going to regret selling it, because when I look back at this in five, ten years’ time it will look like a cheap sale,” Mr Gray said.

“Even though now the sale looks so big, I still think there is so much more growth to come in inner-city riverfront blocks.

“I’ve been looking to acquire another one in the last year, and noone is willing to sell which really highlights just how scarce those protected view corridors and ridge lines really are.”

Ms Hackett said riverfront homes were attracting a very broad buyer pool, from local families upgrading long-term to interstate buyers who saw Brisbane as exceptional value compared to Sydney and Melbourne.

“There’s a confidence in this part of the market that hasn’t wavered. Even when broader conditions fluctuate, prestige riverfront homes continue to set their own benchmarks.

“Even both of my $20m-plus sales received competitive bidding. I have never seen such a tightly held market with such growing demand,” she said.

Auctioneer Justin Nickerson, of Apollo Auctions, said properties along Brisbane’s inner-east river bends were marked by short campaigns and very high clearance rates.

Historically, waterfront properties attracted 80–120 per cent premiums over non-waterfront homes, with Brisbane’s riverfront now firmly in line with this elite category in company with Sydney Harbour and other coveted global markets.

“It is a given that people are attracted to living by the water, and particularly in Queensland being a state with an active, outdoor lifestyle we find buyers will always gravitate to waterfront properties when they come to auction,” Mr Nickerson said.

“In Brisbane, that means the river since you don’t have beachfront, so those properties do attract a lot of interest and the demand is heightened when they are close to amenities like cafes.”

Place Advisory’s Damian Hackett said no new vacant riverfront land sales were recorded in 2024, confirming the corridor was effectively built out.

“What’s driving resilience is scarcity. There is virtually no new detached riverfront supply coming online, and most future stock will only emerge through knockdown-rebuilds or complex redevelopment,” Mr Hackett said.

“Even if broader transaction volumes moderate, our data suggests pricing for high-quality riverfront homes is likely to remain resilient, supported by long-term demand and absolute land scarcity.”

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The supply pipeline for true riverfront remained constrained, with rising construction costs and funding hurdles slowing project timelines.

New stock would largely be delivered via capital-intensive infill redevelopment, including large-scale apartment projects at Newstead and Bulimba Barracks.

“With Brisbane house prices up strongly over 2025 and the city tracking towards the 2032 Olympic Games, the underlying drivers of prestige riverfront demand remain in place: interstate migration, upgrading local households, and high-net-worth buyers consolidating in scarce absolute frontage,” Mr Hackett said.

BEIJING  –  China has achieved breakthroughs in industrial technological innovation in 2025, with the core artificial intelligence (AI) industry exceeding 1 trillion yuan (about 142 billion US dollars) in scale, according to a national conference on industry and information technology held on Friday. As part of its 2026 agenda, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasised cultivating and expanding emerging and future industries, as well as supporting AI research and development, according to the conference.

Efforts will be made to develop new pillar industries, including integrated circuits, new display technologies, new materials, aerospace, low-altitude economy, and biomedicine.

The ministry expected the total added value of large industrial enterprises to grow 5.9 percent year on year in 2025.

From January to November this year, the value added of large high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing enterprises increased by 9.2 percent and 9.3 percent year on year, respectively, according to official data.

China has cultivated more than 600,000 technology and innovation-driven small and medium-sized enterprises, and the number of high-tech enterprises has reached 504,000.

Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology, said that efforts should be made to consolidate the steady, positive momentum of the industrial economy and to enhance the independent, controllable development of industrial chains.

Millions of people across the globe celebrated Christmas on Thursday. And once presents are opened and decorations come down, families are left with overflowing trash bags. 

Miriam Holsinger, co-president and COO of Eureka Recycling, says taking the extra time and care when tossing holiday trash can make a big difference.

“So often when we’re in a hurry and we’re exhausted from the family gatherings, and we’re just like, ‘Can we just throw it all out for once,’ and you know, anyone who we can convince like no, it really does make a difference if you just take a little extra time to put those boxes and those bottles and cans in the blue bin,” Holsinger said.

She says to recycle like normal, but keep an eye out for things like holiday lights and electronics.

“No old electronics or toys,” Holsinger said. “Holiday lights [are] not something that should go in your recycling cart. With that wrapping paper, anything that’s got those sparkles or the metals or the glitter, those are also items that we’re not able to recycle.”

She also says ribbons cannot be recycled because they can cause processing machines to malfunction. WCCO also spoke with Abigail Sztein of the American Forest and Paper Association, who echoed Holsinger’s ribbon guidance and also warned against trying to recycle bows and tinsel.

“Some places will even call them ‘tanglers.’ We would prefer you take those out, put those in the trash or reuse them,” Sztein said.

Sztein also gives the green light to recycle cardboard boxes and mailers — even if covered in labels and tape — as well as tissue paper and some types of wrapping paper.

“If you scrunch the paper up and it stays scrunched, that is paper and it can go in the bin. If it expands again, that should go in the trash,” Sztein said.

As for plastic bags, Sztein said grocery stores typically have bins for recycling them.  

Trees and greenery

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is also urging proper disposal of your holiday trees and greenery to mitigate the spread of disease and invasive species like boxwood blight, elongate hemlock scale and roundleaf bittersweet. 

Follow these tips:

• Use a curbside tree collection service or a designated drop-off site.
• Contact your waste disposal company, city or county for their services.
• Never throw your trees and greenery into wooded areas.
• Check the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s map of yard waste compost locations, and confirm if your location accepts trees and greenery.
• You can toss decorative greens and wreaths in your trash bin if need be.
• And if all else fails, you can burn your trees and greenery — but first check the current fire danger conditions and your community’s local burn rules.

State officials are asking anyone who believes their trees or greeneries are infested or diseased to call their Report a Pest line at 1-888-545-6684.

Erin Hassanzadeh and

Stephen Swanson

contributed to this report.