Notable market news this past week (27-Sep-26)
Here is the Skeptivest roundup of the latest market headlines for the week
🌍 Trump-Xi meeting drove Asian markets last week, while US rates stay hawkish
Trump-Xi meeting last week resulted in an incremental de-escalation in US-China trade tensions, with both sides agreeing to extend the existing trade truce, which was due to expire in November, by two months and reduce tariffs on aroundUS$30bn of goods. The two countries also agreed to establish bilateral dialogues on AI and investment, while continuing negotiations on critical minerals and supply-chain issues. However, key areas including AI export controls, rare earths, Taiwan and broader technology competition remain unresolved. While the outcome reduces near-term escalation risks and supports US-China risk sentiment, ongoing geopolitical and technology tensions still leave markets sensitive to further US-China headlines. Over the week, the yuan strengthened to ~6.695/USD, its strongest level since January 2023, although the PBOC subsequently moderated its fixing as the week progressed.
US rates remained a key market focus this week, with the Fed’s hawkish stance and resilient economic data reinforcing expectations for higher-for-longer rates. The hawkish tone was further exacerbated by St. Louis Fed President’s comments that further tightening may be needed as resilient demand, higher commodity and import costs keep inflation elevated. Against this backdrop, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to a high of 5.21%, its highest level since 2023. Higher yields and a firmer USD could weigh on equity valuations, particularly long-duration technology stocks, while keeping rates and equity volatility elevated.
☕️ Quick fire happenings to note
🌏 Global macro
- JPY weakened, with USDJPY trading around the 157 level, despite the Bank of Japan raising rates to 1.25%, its highest level in 31 years. The rate differential between a hawkish Fed and relatively less-hawkish BOJ continued to support the USD, while reports of Japanese authorities conducting FX rate checks heightened concerns over potential intervention, keeping USD/JPY particularly sensitive to headlines.
- Vietnam’s reclassification by FTSE Russell to secondary emerging market status took effect on 21 September, marking an important milestone in the country’s capital-market development and integration with global markets. The upgrade could enhance Vietnam’s visibility among international investors and support greater foreign and passive fund flows, while potentially improving market liquidity and investor participation over time.
- ASEAN economies remain exposed to the ongoing energy shock, with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) raising its 2026inflation forecast for developing Southeast Asia to 4.0%, citing higher energy and food prices stemming from the Middle East conflict and climate-related disruptions. While the ADB modestly raised its regional growth forecast to 4.7%, the outlook remains uneven across countries, with elevated input costs and inflationary pressures potentially constraining domestic demand and monetary-policy flexibility.
🏦 Individual stocks/companies
- Meta Platforms Inc (+10.48% past 5D) shares surged, driven by growing investor optimism around Meta’s generative AI roadmap and its clear path toward monetization. The debut of its Muse AI assistant last week served as a key catalyst, reinforcing expectations that Meta can translate its substantial AI capital expenditure into tangible, consumer-facing products. Sentiment was further supported by expectations that integrating advanced AI capabilities across its ecosystem, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, could boost user engagement and ad impressions while creating new premium, direct-to-consumer monetisation opportunities.
- Akamai Technologies Inc (+7.48% past 5D) shares rallied, after announcing a 7-year, US$11.6bn cloud-services contract with Anthropic, marking a significant shift in the company’s positioning from a legacy content delivery network (CDN) towards an AI and distributed cloud provider. While this landmark deal validates Akamai’s ability to support intensive AI workloads and could accelerate revenue growth from 2027, the transition comes with significant near-term costs. Akamai plans to raise capital expenditure to around 40% of revenue to pre-purchase hardware, while pausing share buybacks and accepting near-term margin and cash-flow pressure in pursuit of longer-term AI growth.
- Shopify Inc (+10.25% past 5D) shares rallied, after announcing an agentic AI partnership with Meta Platforms, under which Meta’s new Muse AI shopping agent can browse Shopify merchant catalogues and facilitate automated checkouts via Shop Pay. The partnership helped ease concerns over AI-driven disintermediation by positioning Shopify to benefit from the growing adoption of AI-powered commerce, prompting renewed bullish sentiment and analyst price-target upgrades.
🇸🇬 Singapore related
- Singapore’s inflation accelerated for the third consecutive month, with core and headline inflation rising to 2.2% y/y and 2.3% y/y in August, respectively, their highest levels in almost two years. The pickup reflects firmer prices across key components, while elevated global energy and food costs continue to add to imported inflationary pressures.
