Trade Secrets

WTF Dailies September 19, 2025

US stock futures crept up as Wall Street readied for President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping to hold a call following a record-breaking day on Wall Street.

Sage Kakkat

18 Sep 2025 — 5 min read

US stock futures crept up as Wall Street readied for President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping to hold a call following a record-breaking day on Wall Street.
Trump on Thursday set high expectations for his conversation with Xi, which is set to take place at 9:00 a.m. ET Friday. The president described a TikTok deal as all but completed and emphasized he is hopeful the two countries can negotiate over trade.
On a much bigger scale, we're pretty close to a deal," Trump said about talks with China. The president tempered expectations of a conclusive trade agreement, though, when he said the US may end up extending the tariff truce currently in place between the two countries, adding that he thinks the pause has "pretty good terms."
Asian stock markets remained upbeat on Friday, tracking overnight record closes on Wall Street, while Japan’s Nikkei reversed early gains after the Bank of Japan held interest rates steady but said it would sell its holdings in ETFs and REITs.
The Bank of Japan left its short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.5% on Friday and announced it will begin selling its holdings of ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and REITs, a shift that kicked off concerns among investors.
Financial markets had anticipated the BOJ’s decision to hold rates steady, given slowing exports and global uncertainties, even as policymakers monitor wage growth and the persistence of price pressures.
However, Japan’s Nikkei 225 reversed early gains, sliding 1% after climbing nearly the same amount to a fresh record high of 45,852.75 points earlier in the session.
This was because the BOJ has been a reliable large-scale buyer of ETFs, effectively providing sustained demand support under major indices.
Before the decision, Morgan Stanley estimated BOJ’s ETF book at 79.5 trillion yen, out of which about 53.4 trillion yen of those assets are in TOPIX-linked ETFs and 24.6 trillion yen in Nikkei-tracked funds, meaning any sales could ripple across the entire market.
Investors also noted that two BOJ board members dissented from the decision to maintain rates, a signal of rising hawkish tilt.
The broader TOPIX index edged 0.3% lower after rising to a new record high of 3,187.98 points earlier in the session.
In other news, data on Friday showed Japan’s core consumer price index rose 2.7% in August from a year earlier, slowing from 3.1% in July but staying above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for the 30th consecutive month.
Inflation excluding both fresh food and energy stood at 3.3%, down slightly from July, underscoring gradual moderation.
China’s blue chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 gained 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite index traded marginally lower, after losses in the previous session.
Chinese tech stocks paused their rally on Thursday as investors gauged fragile trade relations with the U.S. ahead of President Donald Trump’s talks on call with his counterpart, Xi Jinping.
However, chip stocks extended their rally on Friday over reports that China’s internet regulator has instructed domestic technology firms to stop buying all of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips and terminate their existing orders.
Hong Kong-listed Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (HK:0981), and Hua Hong Semiconductor (HK:1347) were among the top gainers.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2%.
The broader rally also drew strength from the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to lower interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 4.00%–4.25%, its first cut since December.
The Fed signalled two more quarter-point reductions this year and another in 2026, while Chair Jerome Powell stressed that further easing will be data-dependent.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.7%, while South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.5% after hitting a record high of 3,467.89 points earlier in the session.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was largely steady, while India’s Nifty 50 edged 0.2% lower at market open.

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