Overview

• European equities trade mostly lower, with the Stoxx 600 edging down as defense and mining shares lag while investors track Gaza peace developments and ongoing political uncertainty in France.
• Asia closes largely in the red, but South Korea’s Kospi jumps 1.73% to a record on sharp gains in Samsung and SK Hynix after a $2 billion funding round for Reflection AI and recent partnerships with OpenAI.
• U.S. markets face a tenth day of a federal shutdown, leaving futures little changed as investors await the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer-sentiment and inflation-expectations readings and remarks from Federal Reserve officials.
• In Brazil, producer prices fell 0.20% in August for a seventh straight monthly decline, while the Ibovespa ticks higher on support from Vale and slightly lower local interest-rate futures.
• Recent corporate shocks continue to shadow risk appetite in Europe after HSBC’s roughly $13.6 billion bid to buy out Hang Seng Bank minorities and Ferrari’s sharp selloff following underwhelming long-term targets.