Daily briefing

Morning Briefing

Friday, 25 September 2026

Compiled before the Asia market open on Friday, drawing on reporting from the 48 hours to Thursday 24 September Hong Kong time; US and HK price levels reflect Thursday's close, while bond, oil and crypto series update on a short lag as noted below.

World newspast 48 hours

Mainland Chinatop 3

Hong Kong SARtop 3

Marketspast 24 hours

US stocks were rattled this week by a sharp jump in bond yields. The 10-year Treasury yield spiked about 15 basis points on Wednesday to 5.11%, its highest since 2007, after stronger-than-expected US business-activity surveys, hawkish comments from a Fed official and weak demand at a five-year note auction. That pushed the S&P 500 down 0.75% and the Nasdaq down 1.1% on Wednesday; Thursday brought a further, milder retreat, with the S&P 500 off 0.51%, the Dow down 0.32% and the Nasdaq down 0.78% as the 10-year held near its highs and oil stayed elevated.

Chip and AI-infrastructure names were the standout movers. AMD closed Thursday at $629.26, up more than 15% over the past week and briefly pushing the company's market value above $1 trillion, as investors kept digesting its supply deal with OpenAI (6 gigawatts of Instinct GPUs, with warrants for up to 160 million AMD shares) and a Raymond James upgrade tied to the new MI450 chip and an Oracle tie-up. Micron extended its run to a record $1,080.53, up almost 17% in ten days, ahead of fiscal fourth-quarter results due 30 September, with the stock up roughly 256% this year on surging demand for AI memory. TSMC also touched fresh highs, closing at $451.15 after August revenue rose 53.3% year-on-year. Nvidia and Broadcom lagged the group, slipping to $224.58 and $350.36 respectively as some investors rotated out of the highest-flying names even as Nvidia's planned $100 billion staged investment in OpenAI's build-out continued to draw attention.

Hong Kong and mainland China shares fell as the Trump-Xi summit failed to excite investors. The Hang Seng Index dropped about 1% (254 points) on Wednesday to 24,834, ending a three-session winning streak, while the CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite fell 1.7% and 1.2% respectively in their worst one-day showings in a month — investors had hoped for a longer trade-truce rollover than the two-month extension Washington and Beijing ultimately announced.

Bitcoin eased to $84,378 as of Wednesday, down from a $86,595 peak on Monday, and ether slipped to $2,684 from $2,776 over the same stretch. Gold, tracked here via the GLD ETF, fell to $391.69 on Thursday, well off the roughly $428 level it touched in late August, as higher Treasury yields dulled the appeal of non-yielding assets.

Oil and rates data in our series run a day or two behind equities. The last available WTI print, for Tuesday, showed crude at $96.41, down from a mid-September spike above $107; subsequent reporting indicates oil rebounded back above $103 a barrel this week on continued uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz before easing on hopes of a phased US-Iran deal. Similarly, the 5.11% 10-year Treasury yield cited above is Wednesday's reading, the most recent in our feed.

NameLast1 dayMoveVolumeAs of
Equities & semis
NVDANvidia$224.58-0.41%0.6x avg09-24
AVGOBroadcom$350.36-1.30%0.8x avg09-24
MSFTMicrosoft$497.93-0.53%0.8x avg09-24
PLTRPalantir$192.59+0.42%0.8x avg09-24
TSMTSMC$451.15+1.03%0.8x avg09-24
MUMicron$1,081+0.81%0.8x avg09-24
XYZBlock$76.74+2.76%0.9x avg09-24
SOFISoFi$16.80+1.51%1.1x avg09-24
AMDAMD$629.26+2.38%1.2x avg09-24
Crypto
BTCBitcoin$84,378-2.11%1.2x avg09-23
ETHEthereum$2,684-2.52%1.2x avg09-23
Commodities & rates
XAUGold (GLD ETF)$391.69-0.30%0.6x avg09-24
WTICrude oil (WTI)$96.41-0.58%—09-22
US10YUS 10-year yield5.11%+15 bp—09-23

Charts30 sessions · price and volume

NVDA Nvidia $224.58 -0.41% 30d -0.3%~11/18 vol 76M · 0.6× avg
AVGO Broadcom $350.36 -1.30% 30d -16.1%~12/10 FY vol 21M · 0.8× avg
MSFT Microsoft $497.93 -0.53% 30d +0.2%~10/28 vol 17M · 0.8× avg
PLTR Palantir $192.59 +0.42% 30d +7.6%~11/02 vol 23M · 0.8× avg
TSM TSMC $451.15 +1.03% 30d +4.8%~11/13 vol 7M · 0.8× avg
MU Micron $1,081 +0.81% 30d +13.8% vol 22M · 0.8× avg
XYZ Block $76.74 +2.76% 30d -7.6% vol 4M · 0.9× avg
SOFI SoFi $16.80 +1.51% 30d -8.8% vol 50M · 1.1× avg
AMD AMD $629.26 +2.38% 30d +30.3% vol 25M · 1.2× avg
BTC Bitcoin $84,378 -2.11% 30d +7.5% vol 8K · 1.2× avg
ETH Ethereum $2,684 -2.52% 30d +9.9% vol 127K · 1.2× avg
XAU Gold (GLD ETF) $391.69 -0.30% 30d -1.8% vol 7M · 0.6× avg
WTI Crude oil (WTI) $96.41 -0.58% 30d +13.7%
US10Y US 10-year yield 5.11% +15 bp 30d +43 bp

Earnings aheadnext reporting dates

NameReportsWhenPeriodConsensus EPS
MSFTMicrosoftWed 28 Oct est.in 5 weeksQ1 FY2027—
PLTRPalantirMon 2 Nov est.in 5 weeksQ3 FY2026—
TSMTSMCFri 13 Nov est.in 7 weeksQ3 FY2026—
NVDANvidiaWed 18 Nov est.in 8 weeksQ3 FY2027—
AVGOBroadcomThu 10 Dec est.in 2 monthsQ4 FY2026 + full year—

Dates marked est. are projected from the same quarter last year because the company has not confirmed one yet. "+ full year" means the release carries annual results, not just the quarter.

AI industrypast 48 hours

Coverage gaps, stated not hidden. The Japan 10-year JGB yield is not carried by this data source and appears in the written Markets section only. BESI (Euronext) and ASMPT (HKEX 0522) are non-US listings outside the free data tier, so they are omitted rather than approximated. Intraday data is a paid endpoint, so the panels show daily closes over 30 sessions rather than a single session's tick action.