Rates edge higher abroad, Apple beats and Binance bleeds

Rates still pointing upward

Australia's central bank raised interest rates in the early hours of Tuesday, London time, taking them to an 18-year high. CNBC described the decision plainly as a move to fight inflation.

In Britain the same argument is gathering weight. This is Money reported on Monday that manufacturers have been battered by rising costs, and that pressure is mounting on the Bank of England to raise rates. The paper cited warnings that inflation will hit 5% this winter. Lenders appear to be positioning already. City A.M. described banks battling for mortgage business ahead of what it called a looming interest rate hike, a contest to write loans before borrowing costs move. On trade, the BBC reported that the UK and EU have agreed a draft deal to scrap Brexit red tape on food exports.

Bond markets took a different cue on Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported that US Treasury and European government bond yields fell as oil prices dropped. Cheaper oil also helped equities in New York, where the Dow rebounded after Friday's selloff. The recovery was not uniform. The Nasdaq fell on the day, and Apple's shares slipped after its results.

The same paper ran a column taking issue with a bond-based measure that suggests stocks are cheap. Its headline told readers not to believe it.

Apple, Anthropic and the cost of AI

Apple reported on Monday evening, its first set of quarterly results under its new chief executive, John Ternus. The Guardian said revenue came in stronger than expected.

The reception was cooler than the numbers. Euronews had billed the release as an earnings test for the new chief, with rising chip costs clouding the outlook. On Tuesday morning it reported that the beat had not settled investors' worries about those costs. The WSJ's live coverage carried the headline that Apple stock slipped after earnings as the Nasdaq fell.

Spending on artificial intelligence ran through much of the rest of the day's coverage. City A.M. reported that Anthropic's growth has slowed ahead of its planned flotation, as the AI spending bill nears $900bn. The WSJ said some Anthropic investors are pushing for a more cautious valuation, closer to $1.5tn. Oracle, according to the same paper, is looking to raise $20bn to fund its AI ambitions. The WSJ also examined how state and local elections could bear on America's multi-trillion-dollar AI buildout, a vote it said Wall Street is watching.

Elsewhere the tone was mixed. Elliott, the hedge fund, warned of what it called FOGO, a fear of getting obliterated in the market. Nick Train's flagship fund, by contrast, posted the best month in its history, City A.M. reported, as a bet on software began to pay off. In banking, the same paper described layoffs at Barclays and NatWest as the start of an AI-driven job squeeze.

Binance, Beijing and tokens

The Binance hack continued to drain the exchange. The Guardian reported on Sunday that investors had pulled billions in funds after the record $6.3bn theft. On Tuesday the BBC reported that North Korea has denied being behind it.

In London, City A.M. reported that finance chiefs have warned the Treasury against delaying its crypto strategy.

Hong Kong supplied a more orderly side of digital finance. HashKey has adopted a tokenised deposit for cross-market treasury and liquidity management on Standard Chartered's blockchain platform, according to a sponsored feature carried by the South China Morning Post. The same paper reported separately on a tokenised gold bar intended to advance the city's ambitions as a digital and metals trading hub.

Mainland equities were the weaker story. The SCMP reported that Beijing has launched a barrage of measures to stabilise its stock market after a sell-off. The WSJ said China's forward earnings outlook continues to soften. Hong Kong's listings pipeline is also in question. The SCMP asked whether the city's IPO boom has hit a wall or whether a year-end rush is still to come, and previewed a Hong Kong summit it expected to test Wall Street sentiment amid geopolitical strains and volatility in technology shares. Official support and softer forecasts arrived within the same few days, and for now neither has answered the other.