US stocks soar on trade truce & Qualcomm AI optimism; Asian markets pull back ahead of Trump-Xi summit. Gold slips below a key level.
US stock indices rallied towards record highs, gold slips below US$4,000
Key takeaways
- US stocks hit record highs as easing US-China trade tensions and renewed AI optimism, boosted by Qualcomm’s new AI accelerator chips, drove strong gains led by the Nasdaq 100 (+1.8%).
- Asian markets saw profit-taking, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pulling back ahead of the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting at the APEC summit.
- Gold (XAU/USD) turned bearish, breaking below key support at US$4,056 and the US$4,000 level amid renewed downside momentum.
The US stock market extended its gains on Monday, 27 October, on the backdrop of easing US trade tensions as US Secretary Scott Bessent highlighted that Trump’s earlier threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods is “effectively off the table” and China may defer its rare-earth export restrictions for a year.
In addition, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) optimism theme also added fuel to the bullish tone as Qualcomm unveiled its new AI200 and AI250 chip-based accelerator cards for the AI data centre market.
All the major US stock indices rocketed to fresh all-time closing highs, with the Nasdaq 100 leading the pack with a gain of 1.8%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied by 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. The small-cap Russell 2000 trailed behind with a modest return of 0.3%.
Most Asian Pacific stock indices saw profit-taking today ahead of the US President Trump and Chinese President Xi meeting on Thursday, 30 October, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 retreated by 0.6%, after two consecutive sessions of gains that saw a fresh all-time high of 50,550 on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped by 0.7%, ending a three-day winning streak in line with intraday weakness seen in China’s CSI 300, which dropped by 0.5%.
Today’s outlier in the FX market is the Japanese yen, where it is the top intraday gainer against the US dollar among the major currencies. The JPY rallied by 0.5% against the US dollar at the time of writing, reinforced by US Treasury Secretary Bessent calling for “sound monetary policy” in a swipe at Japan’s slow pace of rate hikes while discussing currency volatility with newly appointed Japanese Finance Minister Katayama.
Gold (XAU/USD) has lost its shine after failing to break above its immediate resistance level of US$4,155. Short-term downside momentum resurfaces after gold breached below the US$4,056 key support and 20-day moving average. It ended Monday’s US session with a loss of 3.2% that overshadowed the losses seen in the prior three sessions.
In today’s Asia session, gold extended its intraday decline by 1.3% to US$3,930, trading below the psychological US$4,000 level at the time of writing.
Our YouTube video above contains more insights and the latest intraday technical analysis on our Charts of the Day, USD/JPY, and Gold (XAU/USD).
