U.S. equities finished modestly higher after a choppy Wednesday session, with tech leading gains ahead of Nvidia’s earnings. The results landed after the bell and were emphatically strong:

Q3 revenue surged to $57bn, driven by powerful data-centre growth,
while Q4 guidance of ~$65bn topped forecasts.
Management said demand for Blackwell and cloud GPUs is “off the charts”,
and the company now has visibility to roughly $500bn in next-gen chip revenue through 2026.

Nvidia shares rose more than 5% in late trade after closing the cash session up 2.8%.

The upbeat numbers improved broader equity sentiment and flowed into risk FX, though unevenly. AUD and NZD firmed, while EUR and GBP lagged. The yen remained THE notable underperformer.

BoJ board member Toyoaki Koeda delivered her strongest signal yet that policy normalisation must continue, arguing that rates need to rise further to prevent future distortions. Koeda said underlying inflation is now around 2%, supported by tight labour-market conditions and broadly solid activity. Although she has voted to hold at 0.5% at all five meetings since joining the board in March, her tone was distinctly more hawkish — and some analysts now see a rising probability of a December hike.

The yen, however, showed little reaction and weakened further. Japanese government bonds also sold off sharply, with long-end yields hitting new highs as fiscal worries and currency weakness deepened:

30-yr yield +3bps to 3.37%, a record
20-yr +3.5bps to 2.85%, highest since 1999
10-yr +3.5bps to 1.80%, highest since 2008
2-yr +2bps to 0.945%, highest since 2008
5-yr +4bps to 1.30%, highest since 2008
and by the time you read this yields will have risen even further … 30 year now 3.39%, for example

Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara also weighed in with a sharper warning on FX, describing recent yen moves as “sharp, one-sided” and “excessive”, and flagging speculative activity. Even this more forceful verbal intervention failed to generate support for JPY.

In Australia, RBA Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter said last quarter’s inflation surprise has made prior forecasts obsolete and forced policymakers to reassess their easing bias after three cuts this year. She noted that if growth runs above trend for a sustained period, it could generate new inflation pressures and alter the policy path.

China’s PBoC left Loan Prime Rates unchanged for a sixth month at 3.0% (1-yr) and 3.5% (5-yr), reinforcing its steady-policy stance amid patchy credit demand.

ps. As this wrap was being finalised, Bloomberg reported that the White House is urging Congress to reject legislation imposing stricter limits on Nvidia’s advanced-chip exports to China and other foreign buyers.

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