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Global stocks were mixed Thursday while oil prices bounced higher as markets looked ahead to key US employment data expected to influence monetary policy.The geopolitical outlook remained a major uncertainty for traders after the United States toppled Venezuela’s president, and as China targeted Japanese imports following Tokyo voicing support for Taiwan.US defense stocks saw some sharp gains after President Donald Trump called for a 50-percent hike of the US defense budget next year. But US indices overall were indecisive, with the Dow advancing, the Nasdaq retreating and the S&P 500 ending flat.Investors were awaiting the release of US data on non-farm payrolls Friday, a crucial guide for Federal Reserve decision-makers. They meet at the end of the month amid debate on whether they will cut interest rates for a fourth successive time.”With a March rate cut essentially priced in as a coin-toss, tomorrow’s jobs report does provide the basis for a potential market-moving event if we see any particularly strong deviation from expectations,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Analysts expect the US economy added 55,000 jobs in December, while unemployment dipped to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in November.Equity markets in Asia struggled Thursday, with Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo all closing lower.Tokyo stocks were weighed down after China announced an anti-dumping probe into imports from Japan of a key chemical used to make semiconductors.The move comes with the two Asian giants at loggerheads since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan may react militarily in any attack on Taiwan.Seoul edged higher to another record close, though tech giant Samsung fell back after saying it expected its fourth-quarter profit to reach a record $13.8 billion.Oil prices rebounded after suffering a second steep fall in a row Wednesday on Trump’s comments that Venezuela would turn over millions of barrels to the United States following its ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.Traders will also be keeping an eye on a US Supreme Court ruling, which could come as soon as Friday, on the legality of many of Trump’s punishing tariffs.- Key figures at around 2115 GMT – New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 49,266.11 (close)New York – S&P 500: FLAT at 6,921.46 (close)New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.4 percent at 23,480.02 (close)London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 10,044.69 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 8,243.47 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: FLAT at 25,127.46 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 51,117.26 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 26,149.31 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,082.98 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1661 from $1.1675 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3437 from $1.3458Dollar/yen: UP at 156.95 yen from 156.76 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.70 from 86.74 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 3.4 percent at $61.99 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 3.2 percent at $57.76 per barrelburs-jmb/jgc

Stock markets mostly pulled back Thursday as an early year rally ran out of steam, but a solid start to Wall Street trading helped European markets pare losses.The geopolitical outlook remained a major uncertainty for traders after the United States toppled Venezuela’s president, and as China targeted Japanese imports following Tokyo’s voicing support for Taiwan.Defence stocks, however, saw some sharp gains after President Donald Trump called for a 50-percent hike of the US defence budget next year.Top American defence companies such as Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop saw their stock rise by up to around five percent in US trading.In Europe, Britain’s BAE Systems jumped around six percent, while Germany’s Rheinmetall and Italy’s Leonardo also bucked the overall weaker trend.Investors were awaiting the release of US data on non-farm payrolls Friday, a crucial guide for Federal Reserve decision-makers. They meet at the end of the month amid debate on whether they will cut interest rates for a fourth successive time.”With a March rate cut essentially priced in as a coin-toss, tomorrow’s jobs report does provide the basis for a potential market-moving event if we see any particularly strong deviation from expectations,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Equity markets in Asia struggled Thursday, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo all closing lower.Tokyo stocks were weighed down after China announced an anti-dumping probe into imports from Japan of a key chemical used to make semiconductors.The move comes with the two Asian giants at loggerheads since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan may react militarily in any attack on Taiwan.Seoul edged higher to another record close, though tech giant Samsung fell back after saying it expected its fourth-quarter profit to reach a record $13.8 billion.Oil prices rebounded after suffering a second steep fall in a row Wednesday on Trump’s comments that Venezuela would turn over millions of barrels to the United States following its ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.Traders will also be keeping an eye on a US Supreme Court ruling due Friday on the legality of Trump’s punishing tariffs.The landmark case on his unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global levies strikes at the heart of his economic agenda. A tariffs reversal could further upend US trade with countries worldwide.- Key figures at around 1540 GMT – New York – Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 49,224.97 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 6,914.99New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.7 percent at 23.431.01London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 10,044.69 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 8,243.47 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: FLAT at 25,127.46 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 51,117.26 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 26,149.31 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,082.98 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1660 from $1.1682 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3430 from $1.3462Dollar/yen: UP at 156.94 yen from 156.60 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 86.78 from 86.80 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 2.0 percent at $61.15 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.8 percent at $57.01 per barrelburs/jh/sbk

Stock markets fell Thursday as an early-year rally ran out of steam, with investors locking in profits ahead of the release of key US jobs data this week.The geopolitical outlook remained a major uncertainty for traders after the US toppled Venezuela’s president and amid simmering tensions between China and Japan.London, Paris and Frankfurt stock markets were all lower in midday trading.European defence stocks, however, gained on the geopolitical concerns, with President Donald Trump calling to hike the US defence budget by 50 percent next year.Britain’s BAE systems jumped five percent, while Germany’s Rheinmetall and Italy’s Leonardo also rose.Investors were also awaiting the release of US data on job openings and unemployment claims later Thursday.They are followed Friday by the closely watched reading on non-farm payrolls, a crucial guide for Federal Reserve decision-makers, who meet at the end of the month amid debate on whether they will cut interest rates for a fourth successive time.”With a March rate cut essentially priced in as a coin-toss, tomorrow’s jobs report does provide the basis for a potential market-moving event if we see any particularly strong deviation from expectations,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets. Equity markets in Asia struggled Thursday, with Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo all closing lower.Tokyo stocks were weighed down after China announced an anti-dumping probe into imports from Japan of a key chemical used in making semiconductors, a day after it banned the export to the country of goods with potential military uses.The move adds to rising diplomatic tensions between the Asian giants since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan may react militarily in any attack on Taiwan.Seoul edged higher to another record close, though tech giant Samsung fell back after saying it expected its fourth-quarter profit to reach a record $13.8 billion.Oil prices rebounded after suffering a second steep fall in a row Wednesday on Trump’s comments that Venezuela would turn over millions of barrels to the United States following its ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.Traders will also be keeping an eye on a US Supreme Court ruling due Friday on the legality of Trump’s punishing tariffs.The landmark case on his unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global levies strikes at the heart of his economic agenda, and a tariffs reversal could further upend US trade with countries worldwide.- Key figures at around 1100 GMT – London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 10,023.97 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,212.88Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 25,086.83Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 51,117.26 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 26,149.31 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,082.98 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at $48,996.08 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1680 from $1.1682 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3450 from $1.3462Dollar/yen: UP at 156.68 yen from 156.60 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.86 from 86.80 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.2 percent at $60.67 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $56.68 per barrel

Accused scam boss Chen Zhi has been extradited to China from Cambodia, Beijing confirmed on Thursday, after he was indicted by the United States over alleged multibillion-dollar fraud.Video released by China’s Ministry of Public Security on Thursday showed Chen in handcuffs as security forces lifted a black bag off his head, after he was escorted off a China Southern plane with black-clad armed guards waiting on a runway.Cambodia said earlier on Thursday that the bank founded by Chen, Prince Bank, had been put into liquidation.The bank is a subsidiary of Chen’s Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, which Washington alleges has served as a front for “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations”.China’s public security ministry said Chen had been brought back to China from Phnom Penh and lauded the “major achievement in China–Cambodia law enforcement cooperation”.Chinese authorities will soon issue arrest warrants for “the first batch of key members of Chen Zhi’s criminal group, and will resolutely apprehend the fugitives”, it said in a statement.The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), the Southeast Asian country’s central bank, said Prince Bank had been placed into liquidation and “suspended from providing new banking services, including accepting deposits and providing credit”.It said in a statement auditor Morisonkak MKA has been appointed as liquidator. Prince Bank has about a billion dollars in assets under management, according to its website.Customers “can withdraw money normally” and borrowers “must continue to fulfill their obligations”, the NBC said.- ‘Building pressure’ -Chinese-born Chen was sanctioned by Washington and London in October for directing alleged cyberfraud run by hundreds of scammers trafficked into compounds in Cambodia.Cambodian authorities said they arrested Chen and two other Chinese nationals this week and extradited them at China’s request.Chinese courts have sentenced people to death over involvement in scams, including more than a dozen people last year for their participation in criminal groups with fraud operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region, which borders China.The US Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.Jacob Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center, said the “vast majority” of the dozens of scam compounds in Cambodia operated with “strong support” from the government”This arrest comes after months of building pressure against the Cambodian government for continuing to harbor and abet a now famous criminal actor,” Sims told AFP.A change in status quo could only happen if international pressure on Cambodia’s “scam-invested oligarchs” was sustained, he said.Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down.However, Amnesty International said last year that rights abuses in scam hubs were happening on a “mass scale”, and the government’s poor response suggested its complicity.Chen was charged by US authorities of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges involving approximately 127,271 seized bitcoin, worth more than $11 billion at current prices.Prince Group has denied the allegations.Prince Bank and a law firm that issued a statement on the group’s behalf in November did not respond immediately to AFP requests for comment.- Former adviser -US prosecutors accused Chen of presiding over compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers carried out cryptocurrency fraud schemes that netted billions.Victims were targeted through “pig butchering” scams — investment schemes that build trust over time before stealing funds. The operations have caused billions in global losses.Scam centres across Cambodia, Myanmar and the region lure foreign nationals — many Chinese — with fake job ads, then force them under threat of violence to commit online fraud.Amnesty International has identified at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia alone, where rights groups say criminal networks perpetrate human trafficking, forced labour, torture and slavery.Experts estimate tens of thousands of people work in the multibillion-dollar industry, some willingly and others trafficked.Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries since 2015 under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, US prosecutors have said.Prince Bank opened in 2015 as a microfinance institution and became a commercial bank in 2018.In Cambodia, Chen served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former leader Hun Sen, but his Cambodian nationality was revoked in December.

Leading Chinese artificial intelligence startup Zhipu AI soared as it went public in Hong Kong on Thursday, a day before rival MiniMax also makes its market debut in a litmus test for the country’s rapidly developing sector.Shares in Zhipu AI, which runs the Z.ai tool, rose more than 12 percent on Thursday after its oversubscribed initial public offering raised HK$4.35 billion (US$558 million).This week’s flotations come before any IPO announcements from top US startups OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, known for its Claude chatbot.But analysts said profits were unlikely any time soon from either company — the first two IPOs among China’s so-called “six tigers”, generative AI providers competing with tech giants such as Alibaba and ByteDance.”Zhipu is honoured to stand at this historic juncture as a representative of China’s large model sector,” company chairman Liu Debing said at Thursday’s listing ceremony.Zhipu AI was founded in 2019 and is a major provider of large language model (LLM) services to businesses and government clients in the world’s second-largest economy.Proceeds from the IPO will go towards developing general-purpose large AI models, including key algorithms and system infrastructure, the firm said.MiniMax, established in 2022, targets the consumer market, particularly outside China, with its generative AI tools for speech, music and video, as well as text.”Once the market matures through full competition, more people will understand the capabilities, performance and pricing of these models reaching a state of equilibrium,” Liu told Bloomberg Television Thursday.He added that Zhipu AI has seen a trend of computing costs for AI development “gradually decreasing”.China tech analyst Poe Zhao, founder of the Hello China Tech newsletter, told AFP that the two IPOs “demonstrate both the revenue potential and the fundamental challenges facing this new generation of LLM companies”.”The high demand definitely reflects broader optimism about Chinese AI,” he said.An AI boom has helped push tech stocks to record highs in recent months, but they are also volatile as global investors watch intently for any signs of a bubble.”Do I think there’s a bubble? Yes. But I want to distinguish between ‘bubble’ and ‘bubble risk’. These companies need capital intensity,” Zhao said.- Disney lawsuit -The LLM market in China is estimated to grow to 101.1 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) by 2030, according to consultancy Frost and Sullivan.In January 2025, Chinese startup DeepSeek shook the tech world with a low-cost, high-performance reasoning model that upended assumptions of US dominance in the sensitive sector.A year ago, Washington put Zhipu, backed by conglomerate Tencent, on its export control blacklist over national security concerns.And Disney along with other US entertainment outfits including Universal is suing MiniMax for copyright infringement.Zhao said he did not expect Zhipu or MiniMax to be profitable “any time soon”.”That depends on two industry-wide shifts: significantly lower computing costs and much larger AI demand to spread those costs across,” he explained.Beijing has reportedly been encouraging tech firms to use homegrown microchips owing to Washington’s on-and-off restrictions on top-end Nvidia chips, used to train and run AI systems.Investor faith in the potential of China’s chip industry to challenge US powerhouse Nvidia last month sent shares in semiconductor companies Moore Threads and MetaX skyrocketing on their market debuts.Earlier this month, Baidu, the operator of China’s top search engine, said its AI chip unit Kunlunxin has filed a listing application in Hong Kong.For chatbot providers, the picture is nuanced, said Shengyun Lu, founder of LSY Consulting.”To run a foundational model company, it costs a lot and takes a lot of time,” he cautioned.”IPOs allow the companies to raise money for financing their future research activities, but on the other hand, the initial investors are seeking an exit.”

Japanese retail giant Fast Retailing lifted its 2025-26 annual net profit forecast on Thursday, buoyed by a strong performance in mainland China.The parent company of Uniqlo “reported significant increases in both revenue and profit in the first quarter” of its fiscal year which runs from September, according to its financial statement.In particular, Uniqlo International saw “a rise in revenue and double-digit year-on-year profit growth” in mainland China due in part to cold October weather.As a result, Fast Retailing now expects a full-year net profit of 450 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the fiscal year ending in August, compared with the previous estimate of 435 billion yen.

Equity markets mostly fell Thursday as the rally that has characterised the start of the year paused with investors looking ahead to the release of key US jobs data this week.Traders were also taking stock as they assessed the geopolitical outlook after the US toppling of Venezuela’s president and simmering tensions between China and Japan.A tepid lead from Wall Street, where the Dow and S&P 500 came off record highs, saw Asia players step back and take a breather before the US release of data on job openings and unemployment claims later in the day.They are followed Friday by the closely watched reading on non-farm payrolls, a crucial guide for Fed decision-makers, who meet at the end of the month amid debate on whether they will cut interest rates for a fourth successive time.”Attention is fixed squarely ahead, with Friday’s jobs report sitting dead centre in the crosshairs,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.”A very strong number forces markets to rethink timing. A very weak one reopens recession debates. Anything in between simply prolongs the range and keeps this market drifting sideways at altitude.”Equity markets in Asia struggled, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta were all down.Sydney and Manila rose, while Wellington was flat.London opened on the back foot at the open with Paris, while Frankfurt was flat.Seoul edged marginally higher to another record, though tech giant Samsung sank even after saying it expected its fourth-quarter profit to reach a record $13.8 billion.Tokyo stocks were weighed after China announced an anti-dumping probe into imports from Japan of a key chemical used in making semiconductors, a day after it banned the export to the country of goods with potential military uses.The move adds to rising diplomatic tensions between the Asian giants since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that her country may react militarily in any attack on Taiwan.Oil prices edged up after suffering a second successive steep fall Wednesday on the back of news that Venezuela would send the United States millions of barrels of crude following the latter’s ouster of President Nicolas Maduro at the weekend.Traders will also be keeping an eye on a Supreme Court ruling due Friday on the legality of Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs.The landmark case on the US president’s unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global levies strikes at the heart of his economic agenda.- Key figures at around 0815 GMT – Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 51,117.26 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 26,149.31 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,082.98 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 10,023.82 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1675 from $1.1682 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3441 from $1.3462Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.52 yen from 156.60 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.85 from 86.80 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $56.10 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $60.09 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.94 percent at $48,996.08 (close)

A Cambodian bank founded by accused scam boss Chen Zhi, who has been indicted by the United States over multibillion-dollar fraud and extradited to China, was ordered liquidated Thursday, Cambodia’s central bank said.Prince Bank “has been placed under liquidation in accordance with the laws” of the country, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) said in a statement.Prince Bank has been “suspended from providing new banking services, including accepting deposits and providing credit”, it added.The NBC said it had appointed auditor Morisonkak MKA as the liquidator.Prince Bank is a subsidiary of Chen’s Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s largest conglomerates, which Washington has said served as a front for “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations”.Customers who have deposits at Prince Bank “can withdraw money normally by preparing documents for withdrawal”, and borrowers “must continue to fulfill their obligations as normal”, the NBC added.Outside a Prince Bank location in the capital Phnom Penh, among 36 branches nationwide, an AFP journalist did not see any customers on Thursday morning.The bank has about a billion dollars in assets under management, according to its website.- ‘Building pressure’ -Chinese-born Chen was sanctioned by Washington and London in October for directing alleged cyberfraud run by hundreds of scammers trafficked into compounds in Cambodia.Cambodian authorities said they arrested Chen and two other Chinese nationals and extradited them to China on Tuesday.The operation was carried out according to a request from Chinese authorities following months of “investigative cooperation”, Cambodia’s interior ministry said.Chinese authorities have not commented on Chen’s arrest since it was announced on Wednesday.The US Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.”This arrest comes after months of building pressure against the Cambodian government for continuing to harbor and abet a now famous criminal actor,” said Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center.The “vast majority” of the dozens of scam compounds in Cambodia operated with “strong support” from the government, Sims told AFP, adding that a change in status quo could only happen if international pressure on the nation’s “scam-invested oligarchs” was sustained.Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down.But Amnesty International said last year that rights abuses in scam hubs were happening on a “mass scale”, and the government’s poor response suggested its complicity.Chen faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted in the United States on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges involving approximately 127,271 bitcoin seized by the United States, worth more than $11 billion at current prices.Prince Group has denied the allegations.- Former adviser -US prosecutors in October unsealed an indictment accusing Chen of presiding over compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers carried out cryptocurrency fraud schemes that netted billions.Victims were targeted through so-called “pig butchering” scams — investment schemes that build trust over time before stealing funds. The operations have caused billions in global losses.Scam centres across Cambodia, Myanmar and the region lure foreign nationals — many Chinese — with fake job ads, then force them under threat of violence to commit online fraud.Amnesty International has identified at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia alone, where rights groups say criminal networks perpetrate human trafficking, forced labour, torture and slavery.Experts estimate tens of thousands of people work in the multibillion-dollar industry, some willingly and others trafficked.Since around 2015, Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, US prosecutors have said. Chen and top executives allegedly used political influence and bribed officials in multiple countries to shield illicit operations.In Cambodia, Chen served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former leader Hun Sen. His Cambodian nationality was revoked in December, the interior ministry said.

Asian markets were mixed Thursday as the rally that has characterised the start of the year paused with investors looking ahead to the release of key US jobs data this week.Traders were also taking stock as they assessed the geopolitical outlook after the US toppling of Venezuela’s president and simmering tensions between China and Japan.A tepid lead from Wall Street, where the Dow and S&P 500 came off record highs, saw Asia players step back and take a breather before the US release of data on job openings and unemployment claims later in the day.They are followed Friday by the closely watched reading on non-farm payrolls, a crucial guide for Fed decision-makers, who meet at the end of the month amid debate on whether they will cut interest rates for a fourth successive time.”Attention is fixed squarely ahead, with Friday’s jobs report sitting dead centre in the crosshairs,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.”A very strong number forces markets to rethink timing. A very weak one reopens recession debates. Anything in between simply prolongs the range and keeps this market drifting sideways at altitude.”Equity markets in Asia struggled, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta all down.Shanghai, Sydney, Taipei and Manila edged up.Seoul continued its rise to multiple records, though tech giant Samsung dipped even after saying it expected its fourth-quarter profit to reach a record $13.8 billion.Tokyo stocks were weighed after China announced an anti-dumping probe into imports from Japan of a key chemical used in making semiconductors, a day after it banned the export to the country of goods with potential military uses.The move adds to rising diplomatic tensions between the Asian giants since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that her country may react militarily in any attack on Taiwan.Oil prices edged up after suffering a second successive steep fall Wednesday on the back of news that Venezuela would send the United States millions of barrels of crude following the latter’s ouster of President Nicolas Maduro at the weekend.Traders will also be keeping an eye on a Supreme Court ruling due Friday on the legality of Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs.The landmark case on the US president’s unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global levies strikes at the heart of his economic agenda.- Key figures at around 0320 GMT – Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 51,660.50 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 26,132.26Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 4089.17Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1680 from $1.1682 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3462 from $1.3463Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.67 yen from 156.77 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.77 pence from 86.76 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $56.17 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $60.16 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.94 percent at $48,996.08 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.74 percent at $10,048.21 (close)

Wall Street stock indices pulled back from records on Wednesday ahead of key US labor data, while oil prices fell further after US President Donald Trump said Venezuela would turn over millions of barrels to the United States.Both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated from Tuesday’s all-time records as markets digested reports showing a fall in US job openings in November and a lower-than-expected rise in private-sector hiring in December.More upbeat was a services sector survey by the Institute for Supply Management that showed healthier growth in December compared with November.The jobs data was not great, but did not “trigger changes to perceptions about future Fed rate cuts,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.”We attempted to follow through from the rallies of the last couple of days, and so far we haven’t been able to,” Sosnick said.The Dow finished down 0.9 percent, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent after both indices surged to new peaks amid bullish investor sentiment to start the 2026 trading year. The tech-focused Nasdaq edged up 0.2 percent. Futures markets expect the Fed to hold interest rates steady later this month, but concerns of a sharp slowdown in hiring could prompt a rethink. Analysts say Friday’s Labor Department report for December will be a critical input to the US central bank.In Europe, Frankfurt hit a record high above 25,000 points.Paris traded flat and London slid from a record high set on Tuesday as lower oil prices dragged on British heavyweights BP and Shell, which both fell more than three percent. Both main oil contracts dropped on Wednesday, having already lost ground a day earlier, after Trump’s latest statement on Venezuela.US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that Washington will control sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely”. Venezuela’s state petroleum firm said only that it was negotiating the sale of crude oil to the United States. Analysts said the shipments lowered the risk that Caracas would have to cut output owing to its limited storage capacity, easing supply concerns.But they added that the outlook for the commodity pointed to lower prices, as the market remains well stocked after OPEC+ agreed to boost output.Elsewhere, US defense stocks tumbled after Trump threatened to cap executive pay at major US defense contractors and ban shareholder dividends and stock buybacks. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and RTX all lost 2.5 percent or more.Shares in Warner Bros. Discovery edged higher after its board urged shareholders to reject an improved hostile takeover bid by rival Paramount, saying it was still inferior to Netflix’s offer.Shares in Netflix rose a scant 0.1 percent while Paramount fell 0.9 percent.- Key figures at around 2130 GMT – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.0 percent at $55.99 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.2 percent at $59.96 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at 48,996.08 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,920.93 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 23,584.28 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.7 percent at 10,048.21 (close)Paris – CAC 40: FLAT at 8,233.92 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.9 percent at 25,122.26 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 51,961.98 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.9 percent at 26,458.95 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 4,085.77 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1682 from $1.1689 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3463 from $1.3501Dollar/yen: UP at 156.77 yen from 156.65 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.76 pence from 86.57 penceburs-jmb/aha