World shares trade mostly higher after Wall Street snaps its 3-day
losing streak
[September 29, 2025] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
Shares were mostly higher Monday in Europe and Asia after Wall Street
broke its three-day losing streak, trimming its losses for last week.
China factory data are due out on Tuesday and a quarterly business
sentiment survey by the Bank of Japan comes on Wednesday.
The next big event for Wall Street could be a looming shutdown of the
U.S. government, with a deadline set for this week. But such political
impasses have had limited impact on the market before.
U.S. jobs data also will be in the spotlight.
The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.5% while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose 0.4%.
In Germany, the DAX edged 0.2% higher to 23,795.28, while the CAC 40 in
Paris also rose 0.2% to 7,885.82. Britain's FTSE picked up 0.5% to
9,328.70.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was the regional outlier, giving up
0.7% to 45,043.75.
Chinese markets advanced, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong adding 0.9% to
26,622.88, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9% to 3,862.53.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9% to 8,862.80, while the Kospi in South
Korea surged 1.3% to 3,431.21.
On Friday, U.S. stocks trimmed their losses for the week after a report
showed that inflation is behaving roughly as economists expected, even
if it’s still high.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Dow industrials gained 0.7%. The Nasdaq
composite added 0.4%. All three indexes pulled closer to the all-time
highs they set at the start of the week.
Stocks got some help from the report showing inflation in the United
States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.6% in July, according to
the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While
that’s above the Fed’s 2% target, it was precisely what economists had
forecast.
That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest
rates in order to give the economy a boost. Without such cuts, growing
criticism that stock prices have become too expensive by rising too
quickly would become even more powerful.
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Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite
Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange
rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the
foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in
Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 The Fed just delivered its first
rate cut of the year last week but is not promising more because
they could worsen inflation.
Another report said sentiment among U.S. consumers was weaker than
economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said
consumers are frustrated with high prices, but their expectations
for inflation over the coming 12 months also ticked down to 4.7%
from 4.8%.
One factor threatening to push inflation higher, adding to consumer
woes, is President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and he announced more
late Thursday. They include taxes on imports of some pharmaceutical
drugs, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, upholstered furniture
and heavy trucks starting on Oct. 1.
Details were sparse about the coming tariffs, as is often the case
with Trump’s pronouncements on his social media network. That left
analysts unsure of their ultimate effects, and the announcement
created ripples in the U.S. stock market instead of huge waves.
Paccar, the company based in Bellevue, Washington, that’s behind the
market-dominant Peterbilt and Kenworth truck brands, revved 5.2%
higher, for example.
Big U.S. pharmaceutical companies nudged higher. Eli Lilly rose
1.4%, and Pfizer added 0.7%.
In other trading early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 87
cents to $64.85 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard,
declined 80 cents to $68.42 per barrel.
Reports that the OPEC plus oil producing nations might raise their
production limits next month have added to worries over oversupply,
analysts said.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 148.50 Japanese yen from 149.51 yen. The
euro rose to $1.1725 from $1.1703.
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