Category: 3. Business

(Bloomberg) — Asian equities tracked gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and Chair Jerome Powell voiced optimism that the US economy will strengthen as the inflationary impact from tariffs fades away.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was up 0.5% after the S&P 500 rose 0.7% on Wednesday, just short of all-time highs, and the Russell 2000 gauge of small-caps jumped to a record. Bonds rallied as the Fed’s quarter-point rate reduction was accompanied by the authorization of fresh Treasury bill purchases to rebuild bank reserves.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.5% in early Asia trading after the bullish broader sentiment was dealt a blow by disappointing results from Oracle Corp. as markets closed in New York. Shares of the company, whose fate is deeply tied to the artificial intelligence boom, plunged in post-market trading. Nvidia Corp.’s stock also edged lower.

Delivering a third consecutive cut, Powell suggested the Fed had now acted sufficiently to help stabilize the labor market while leaving rates high enough to continue weighing on price pressures. The reduction and the Fed’s tone matched Wall Street expectations for a “hawkish cut” as officials left intact their outlook for a single cut in 2026. They upgraded their median estimate for growth.

“The combination of stronger growth expectations and softer inflation forecasts has increased market expectations for Fed rate cuts,” said Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco Asset Management Japan Ltd. “In Asia, I anticipate a positive tone for equities and currency appreciation. Export-oriented stocks should benefit from improved US growth prospects.”

The US 10-year yield edged one basis point lower on Thursday. It dropped around four basis points in the previous session, stalling a prior run up in yields that pushed one global gauge to its highest since 2009. The policy-sensitive two-year yield fell eight basis points on Wednesday.

In Asia, traders will be watching an auction of 20-year Japanese government bonds today as well as an interest-rate decision in the Philippines, where the central bank is predicted to cut its key interest rate for a fifth straight meeting.

Meanwhile, Mexican lawmakers gave final approval for new tariffs on Asian imports, broadly aligning with US efforts to tighten trade barriers against China, as President Claudia Sheinbaum seeks to protect local industry.

Elsewhere in markets, a gauge of the dollar edged lower after falling 0.4% on Wednesday. In commodities, gold held gains after the Fed cut while silver pushed to new highs. Oil extended an advance after the US seized a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela, deterring more shipments from the South American producer and raising the risk of a conflict.

In Australia, the Aussie dollar dipped while bonds and stocks extended gains after data showing the economy unexpectedly shed jobs in November was seen weakening the case for rate hikes.

Nine out of 12 voters on the Fed’s rate-setting committee supported the decision to lower rates. Powell also underscored the importance of upcoming economic reports while advising caution on assessing household jobs readouts, given technical distortions after a government shutdown caused a data blackout.

The impact of President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff offensive has been a key consideration in how the Fed approaches efforts to bring inflation back down to its 2% target. Without the levies, inflation is probably “in the low 2s” right now, Powell said at the press conference following the decision. And their impact is likely to weaken in the second half of next year.

Nick Twidale, chief analyst at AT Global Markets in Sydney, said he is “hesitant” on how much momentum the Fed’s cut will bring to global markets as “the forward guidance was probably less dovish than most investors were hoping for.”

“We may see some fairly choppy markets in the sessions ahead as the market digests what Jerome Powell had to say,” he said.

Corporate News

SK Hynix Inc. fell after South Korea’s main bourse issued a higher-level warning on investing in the stock following strong gains sparked by expectations of a listing in New York. President Donald Trump signaled he’ll oppose a Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. deal that doesn’t include new ownership of CNN, a potential wrinkle for the bid from Netflix Inc. Japan’s stock market is witnessing a record wave of large private transactions known as block trades, stemming from companies reducing cross-shareholdings to improve corporate governance. Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips that are banned in the country to develop an upcoming AI model, according to a new report in The Information. Coca-Cola Co. said Chief Executive Officer James Quincey is stepping down and will be replaced at the end of March by Henrique Braun, the company’s chief operating officer. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures fell 0.3% as of 10:43 a.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix fell 0.2% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.9% The Shanghai Composite was little changed Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1703 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 155.68 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0571 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6672 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 1.5% to $90,990.76 Ether fell 2.2% to $3,266.04 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.14% Japan’s 10-year yield declined 1.5 basis points to 1.940% Australia’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 4.74% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.7% to $58.89 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.2% to $4,237.14 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Winnie Hsu and Richard Henderson.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Canon requests removal of toner cartridges from Amazon.com, including Toner Bank brand cartridges sold by Inkqueen

TOKYO, December 11, 2025—Canon Inc. today announced that it has reported to Amazon that certain toner cartridges sold on Amazon infringe Canon’s patents and requested the removal of such listings from Amazon.com.

In its reports to Amazon, Canon identified, among others, the product offerings shown in the table below and alleged that the cartridges sold under these offerings infringe Canon’s U.S. Patent No. 12,321,128. Canon requested that Amazon remove these product offerings from Amazon.com.

At the time of this announcement, the product offerings listed above were no longer available on Amazon.com.

Canon engages in extensive research and development so that it can deliver innovative and valuable products to customers all over the world. Through its research and development efforts, Canon has obtained a large and robust portfolio of patents. In order to protect its many innovations, Canon enforces its patents against various toner cartridge designs that Canon believes infringe its patent rights.

Throughout the development, sales and marketing process, Canon respects the intellectual property of other companies and individuals and expects others to similarly respect Canon’s intellectual property rights. Canon remains committed to pursuing legal enforcement against those who do not respect Canon’s intellectual property.

By Tomi Kilgore

Retention was stronger than expected, boosting key Autoship numbers, after the annual fee for Chewy+ subscription rose to $79 from $49

Chewy sees Autoship sales continuing to increase as a percentage of total sales, helped by growth in the Chewy+ subscription program.

Chewy on Wednesday reported fiscal third-quarter sales that rose above expectations, as more people than expected stayed with the online pet-products retailer’s Chewy+ subscription program despite a sharp price hike.

And that fueled continued growth in a key sales metric that the company values because it helps keep customers “pegged” to Chewy rather than moving to competitors.

The company (CHWY) reported fiscal third-quarter Autoship customer sales, which are set to automatically repeat, with a discount, that jumped 13.6% from a year ago to $2.64 billion, above the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of $2.59 billion.

And Autoship sales as a percentage of overall sales increased to 83.9% from 83% in the previous quarter and from 80% a year ago, to mark the seventh straight quarter-over-quarter increase.

Autoship sales are valued because they are “highly predictable” and allow for planning to cut costs and improve profitability, Chief Executive Sumit Singh explained on the post-earnings call with analysts, according to an AlphaSense transcript. The program also helps the company retain its more loyal customers.

“Autoship is a rinse and repeat product merchandise program that has high reliability and accuracy, both in terms of planning, in terms of delivery, and high satisfaction rating,” an executive said on the call.

With more than 80% of its members “now pegged” to the Autoship program, the company believes it will continue to scale and become more efficient.

Meanwhile, Chewy’s stock seesawed during the day but closed up 1.5%.

But perhaps better than the growth of Autoship sales, Singh said the Chewy+ membership program “continues to outperform expectations” and is driving higher order frequency, broader category engagement and higher adoption of the mobile app. It’s also helping boost Autoship participation.

The company launched Chewy+ at an introductory annual price of $49, with a 30-day free trial, then raised the price to $79 a year at the end of October. While some subscriber drop-off after the price increase was expected, Singh said early data shows “continued growth and strong conversion” from free to paid memberships at a rate that was higher than forecast.

Overall sales for the quarter, which ran through Nov. 2, increased 8.3% from last year to $3.12 billion, just above the FactSet consensus of $3.10 billion.

Net income rose to $59 million from $4.2 million, while earnings per share of 14 cents beat the FactSet consensus of 12 cents.

If there was a negative to the earnings report, the company said it expects revenue for the current fourth quarter of $3.24 billion to $3.26 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $3.261 billion.

The stock has gained 3.7% in 2025, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 16.3%.

-Tomi Kilgore

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  12-10-25 1924ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

(Bloomberg) — Asian equities echoed gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and Chair Jerome Powell voiced optimism that the US economy will strengthen as the inflationary impact from tariffs fades away.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5% in early trade, led by the tech and financial sectors. That’s after the S&P 500 closed up 0.7% on Wednesday, just short of all-time highs, while the Russell 2000 gauge of small-caps jumped 1.3% to a record. Bonds rallied as the Fed’s quarter-point rate reduction was accompanied by the authorization of fresh Treasury bill purchases to rebuild bank reserves.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.3% early in Asia as disappointing results from Oracle Corp. dealt the bullish sentiment a partial blow as markets closed in New York. Shares of the company, whose fate is deeply tied to the artificial intelligence boom, plunged in post-market trading. Nvidia Corp.’s stock also edged lower.

Delivering a third consecutive cut, Powell suggested the Fed had now done enough to help stabilize the threat to employment while leaving rates high enough to continue weighing on price pressures. Officials maintained their outlook for just one cut in 2026 and upgraded their median outlook for growth.

“The combination of stronger growth expectations and softer inflation forecasts has increased market expectations for Fed rate cuts,” said Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco Asset Management Japan Ltd. “In Asia, I anticipate a positive tone for equities and currency appreciation. Export-oriented stocks should benefit from improved US growth prospects.”

Nine out of 12 voters on the Fed’s rate-setting committee supported the decision to lower rates. The reduction and the Fed’s tone matched Wall Street expectations for a “hawkish cut” while officials left intact their outlook for a single cut in 2026.

The US 10-year yield fell around four basis points Wednesday, stalling a prior run up in yields that pushed one global gauge to its highest since 2009, while the policy-sensitive two-year yield fell eight basis points. The dollar weakened.

In Asia, traders will be watching an auction of 20-year Japanese government bonds and an interest-rate decision in the Philippines today.

Earlier, Bank of Canada held rates steady, saying current borrowing costs were appropriate to mitigate the trade war damage.

In commodities, gold held gains after the Fed cut while silver pushed to new highs. Oil extended an advance after the US seized a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela, deterring more shipments from the South American producer and raising the risk of a conflict.

The impact of President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff offensive has been a key consideration in how the Fed approaches efforts to bring inflation back down to its 2% target. Without the levies, inflation is probably “in the low 2s” right now, Powell said at the press conference following the decision. And their impact is likely to weaken in the second half of next year.

Powell also underscored the importance of upcoming economic reports while advising caution on assessing household jobs readouts, given technical distortions after a government shutdown caused a data blackout.

“The Fed emphasized that future moves will be data-dependent, shifting firmly to a meeting-by-meeting approach,” said Daniel Siluk, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors. “Chair Powell reinforced this stance in his press conference, noting that the Committee sees today’s cut as a ‘prudent adjustment’ rather than the start of a new cycle.”

Corporate News

SK Hynix Inc. fell after South Korea’s main bourse issued a higher-level warning on investing in the stock following strong gains sparked by expectations of a listing in New York. President Donald Trump signaled he’ll oppose a Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. deal that doesn’t include new ownership of CNN, a potential wrinkle for the bid from Netflix Inc. Japan’s stock market is witnessing a record wave of large private transactions known as block trades, stemming from companies reducing cross-shareholdings to improve corporate governance. Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips that are banned in the country to develop an upcoming AI model, according to a new report in The Information. Coca-Cola Co. said Chief Executive Officer James Quincey is stepping down and will be replaced at the end of March by Henrique Braun, the company’s chief operating officer. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures fell 0.1% as of 9:29 a.m. Tokyo time Hang Seng futures rose 0.3% Japan’s Topix rose 0.1% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1700 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 155.65 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0574 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6672 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $91,784.62 Ether fell 0.8% to $3,313.66 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.14% Japan’s 10-year yield declined 1.5 basis points to 1.940% Australia’s 10-year yield declined nine basis points to 4.72% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $58.83 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.3% to $4,240.47 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Winnie Hsu.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Markets reacted positively after the Fed cut interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday.

And part of the optimism seems to be around the Fed’s outlook for the economy, which it sees growing at a 2.3% rate in 2026 after this year’s 1.7% GDP growth.

“The take on productivity and growth is very risk-friendly,” Evercore ISI’s Krishna Guha wrote in a note on Wednesday. “The Fed chair suggests productivity may be running about 2%, allowing the economy to grow faster without generating excess inflation.”

In essence, lower rates, falling inflation, and faster economic growth is a recipe for higher corporate profits, a stabilization in the labor market, and as evidenced on Wednesday, higher stock prices.

Fed officials expected to make one more rate cut next year, the same number projected in September. As of Wednesday afternoon, markets were pricing in additional rate cuts in April and June.

Guha said Powell sounded “very upbeat on productivity and growth, including AI effects,” during his press conference on Wednesday.

Adding Powell came across with a “calm rather than edgy in tone, suggesting he is comfortable and in charge rather than on the ropes as in October.”

AFP via Getty Images

AFP via Getty Images

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Raistone, one of the largest middlemen in First Brands’ financings, is nearing a deal to sell itself to investment firm Marblegate Asset Management, according to people familiar with the matter.

Raistone, which runs a technology platform that helped connect the car parts company with larger investors, became heavily dependent on arranging financing for First Brands, which has since filed for bankruptcy.

Seaport Global, an investment banking and trading firm that also owns a stake in Raistone, has been running a sales process.

A spokesperson for Greenwich, Connecticut-based Marblegate declined to comment. Raistone did not immediately respond.

The deal had yet to be finalised and could still collapse, the people said.

Lawyers representing First Brands in bankruptcy have disclosed that billions of dollars of borrowings by the car parts company, secured through off-balance sheet financings from groups such as Raistone, cannot be accounted for.

They have told a judge that the borrowings were in many cases tied to assets that never existed or were already pledged to other creditors.

First Brands’ new management has since accused founder and owner Patrick James of engaging in “fraudulent conduct” and investors expect to take painful losses on some $12bn of debt the company has amassed. James has denied the allegations.

Raistone alleged in October that as much as $2.3bn had “simply vanished”, as it pushed for the appointment of an outside examiner as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. In its complaint, it said it was owed at least $172mn.

Filings show Raistone also helped arrange hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, which investors are claiming they are owed in the bankruptcy.

Raistone founder David Skirzenski at a conference last week said “a lot of people made a lot of money” lending to the bankrupt car parts maker, as they chased the high yields that it paid on its debt.

Skirzenski said that Raistone had “adjusted staff” levels and was still busy on deals. The Financial Times earlier reported that Raistone had laid off 60 people as a result of the First Brands debacle, keeping 40 in total.

A UBS investment vehicle holds an equity stake in Raistone, the FT previously reported. Soros Fund Management, the $25bn family office of billionaire investor George Soros, also holds a small minority stake, according to people familiar with the matter.

Marblegate is known for going after thorny investment opportunities, typically in mid-sized distressed debt situations.

The firm is the biggest owner of New York City’s taxi medallion loans — which at one point were worth more than $1mn each — and bought up hundreds of millions worth before the pandemic. It eventually partnered with New York City and the taxi driver advocacy group on a bailout package, amid falling medallion prices.

Andrew Milgram, who founded Marblegate in 2008, has been a vocal critic of excessive risk taking in private credit. He told the FT in an interview earlier this year that there had been a “grudging recognition” on Wall Street that a series of credit problems “could be dangerous to the overall economy”.