Newsquawk Daily European Opening News - 16th September 2025

• APAC stocks traded mixed amid some cautiousness ahead of upcoming risk events and despite the fresh record levels on Wall St.


• US Appeals Court declined to allow Trump to remove Federal Reserve Governor Cook; Cook can attend the FOMC's September 16th-17th meeting.


• US Senate voted 48-47 to confirm US President Trump's Fed nominee Miran to join the Fed board.


• European equity futures indicate an uneventful cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 future +0.1% after the cash market closed with gains of 0.9% on Monday.


• DXY is a touch softer, extending on yesterday's downside. JPY marginally outperforms, whilst antipodeans lag.


• Crude futures marginally extended on the prior advances. 10yr UST futures plateaued overnight after catching a bid yesterday


• Looking ahead, highlights include UK Jobs Report (Jul), Italian CPI Final (Aug), EZ Industrial Production (Jul), Labour Costs (Q2), German ZEW Survey (Sep), US Retail Sales (Aug) and Industrial Production (Aug), Import Prices (Aug), Atlanta Fed GDP, Canadian CPI (Aug), RBA's Hauser & ECB’s Escriva, Supply from Germany, UK & US.

SNAPSHOT

US TRADE

EQUITIES

• 
  US stock indexes finished in the green on Monday with outperformance in the Nasdaq, thanks to notable gains in Alphabet (GOOGL) which joined the USD 3 trillion market cap club and Tesla (TSLA) shares rallied on the Musk share purchases. Other mega-cap stocks performed well (AAPL, MSFT, AMZN), but Nvidia (NVDA) losses limited the gains due to China's antitrust investigations. Sectors were more mixed, however, with the heavy-cap sectors (communication, consumer discretionary and tech) outperforming, while consumer staples and health care lagged, and breadth was negative at c. 200 gainers to 300 losers. Elsewhere, T-notes were bid as a downbeat NY Fed Manufacturing survey added to economic concerns, while the attention turns to US Retail Sales on Tuesday and the FOMC on Wednesday.


• 
  SPX +0.47% at 6,615, NDX +0.84% at 24,294, DJI +0.11% at 45,883, RUT +0.34% at 2,405.


• Click here for a detailed summary.

TARIFFS/TRADE

• US President Trump said he is undecided regarding a TikTok stake and he will speak with Chinese President Xi about a significant agreement, while he believes discussions with Xi will confirm key matters.


• US opened an inclusions window for the section 232 on steel and aluminium in which the Bureau of Industry and Security established a process for including additional derivative steel and aluminium articles within the scope of the duties authorised by the President under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.


• 
  Senior US official said the White House was not tracking any announcement to reduce US tariffs on Scotch Whisky ahead of US President Trump's UK visit, in a sign that an agreement was unlikely, according to FT.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• US Senate voted 48-47 to confirm US President Trump's Fed nominee Miran to join the Fed board.


• US Appeals Court declined to allow Trump to remove Federal Reserve Governor Cook, in which it denied the Justice Department's request to put on hold a judge's ruling temporarily blocking Trump from removing Cook, while the ruling for now clears the way for Cook to attend the FOMC's September 16th-17th meeting.


• Former St. Louis Fed President Bullard said he spoke on Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Bessent about the Fed Chair position, while Bullard said he is "very interested" in becoming Fed Chair under the right conditions and noted the Fed must defend the dollar, keep inflation low, and protect independence.


• US President Trump said Congressional Republicans are working on a short-term clean extension of government funding to stop Senate Minority Leader Schumer from shutting down the government.


• 
  US President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force which was said to be a replica of efforts in Washington DC and will include the National Guard. Furthermore, Trump stated they are probably going to go in Chicago next and want to get to New Orleans, while he also commented that they need to save St. Louis.
  


• 
  US reportedly looks to boost national strategic uranium stockpile, according to Bloomberg.

APAC TRADE

EQUITIES

• 
  APAC stocks traded mixed amid some cautiousness ahead of upcoming risk events and despite the fresh record levels on Wall St, where the mega-caps did most of the lifting as Alphabet joined the USD 3tln market cap club.


• 
  ASX 200 marginally gained with the index led by strength in mining, resources and materials, but with gains capped by weakness in defensives.


• 
  Nikkei 225 swung between gains and losses following an early unprecedented climb to above the 45,000 milestone on return from the extended weekend, while the calendar was quiet, although lower US tariffs on Japan took effect.


• 
  Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were subdued despite the recent talks in Madrid where the US and China reached a framework agreement on TikTok although the details were scarce, while US President Trump and Chinese President Xi are scheduled to talk on Friday.


• 
  US equity futures (ES +0.1%, NQ +0.1%) held on to their recent spoils after the fresh record levels seen on Wall St.


• 
  European equity futures indicate an uneventful cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 future +0.1% after the cash market closed with gains of 0.9% on Monday.

FX

• 
  DXY remained subdued after weakening yesterday alongside softer US yields and with the greenback not helped by a drop in the NY Fed Manufacturing Survey. Participants now await Industrial Production and Retail Sales data scheduled later today, while the FOMC will also begin its 2-day policy meeting which will be attended by Fed's Cook and Miran, after a US Appeals Court denied the Justice Department's request to put on hold a judge's ruling temporarily blocking Trump from removing Cook, and the US Senate confirmed Miran to join the Fed board.


• 
  EUR/USD mildly benefitted from recent dollar weakness and after ECB officials reiterated interest rates are in a good place.


• 
  GBP/USD held on to the prior day's spoils after returning to the 1.3600 handle but with further upside capped ahead of UK employment and earnings data, as well as US President Trump's state visit to the UK.


• 
  USD/JPY breached through the previous day's trough amid a softer dollar and as lower US tariffs for Japan took effect.


• 
  Antipodeans were rangebound amid a quiet overnight calendar and after comments from RBA Assistant Governor Hunter provided little to shift the dial, in which she noted they are close to getting inflation to the target and that risks around the outlook are balanced.


• PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1027 vs exp. 7.1159 (Prev. 7.1056).

FIXED INCOME

• 
  10yr UST futures plateaued overnight after it caught a bid yesterday on a weak NY Fed manufacturing survey and with participants now awaiting incoming US data and a 20yr auction, while the FOMC will also kick-start its two-day meeting.


• 
  Bund futures lacked demand ahead of German ZEW data and incoming supply including a EUR 4.5bln Bobl issuance later, followed by EUR 2.5bln of Bund auctions on Wednesday.


• 
  10yr JGB futures briefly wobbled with demand constrained amid a lack of data and as Japanese stock markets extended on record highs.

COMMODITIES

• 
  Crude futures marginally extended on the prior advances following continued Ukraine attacks on Russian oil facilities.


• 
  California lawmakers passed a bill over the weekend to boost oil production, which would allow the construction of thousands of new oil wells annually, according to Reuters.


• 
  Spot gold took a breather after climbing to a fresh record high yesterday as the dollar softened ahead of the FOMC.


• 
  Copper futures gave back some of the prior day's spoils after climbing in tandem with the record highs seen on Wall St.

CRYPTO

• 
  Bitcoin was choppy overnight with prices oscillating above support at the USD 115k level.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

• Japan's Finance Minister Kato reiterated it is not appropriate to lower the consumption tax and he has decided to support Agricultural Minister Koizumi in the LDP leadership race.

GEOPOLITICS

MIDDLE EAST

• US President Trump said Israel won't be attacking Qatar.


• US President Trump posted about Hamas moving hostages above ground to use them as human shields and stated "I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they’re getting into if they do such a thing. This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before. Don’t let this happen or, ALL “BETS” ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!"


• US Secretary of State Rubio said before heading to Qatar, that they hope Qatar will re-engage on Gaza talks despite everything that's happened, while he added that they have a very short window in which a deal on Gaza can happen and that they are on the verge of finalising an enhanced defence cooperation agreement with Qatar.


• 
  Gulf leaders instructed the Joint Defence Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council to convene an urgent meeting in Doha following the Israeli attack, while Gulf leaders called for the activation of the joint defence mechanism. It was also reported that the Doha summit draft communiqué called for a review of diplomatic relations with Israel after the attack on Qatar.
  


• 
  It was initially reported that Israeli PM Netanyahu spoke with US President Trump before Israel bombed Qatar, according to Axios. However, a senior Trump administration official denied the reports in Axios that President Trump could have stopped the attack in Qatar but did not do so.
  


• Leaders of Canada, France, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the UK held a phone call on Monday about the situation in the Middle East, according to the Canadian PM's office.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

• UK government said RAF Typhoons will fly air defence missions over Poland as part of NATO's eastern sentry mission, while UK jets are expected to start flying missions over Poland in the coming days.


• Polish PM Tusk said the state protection service neutralised a drone operating over government buildings and the President's Palace, while two Belarusians were detained.


• 
  Polish government is boosting its cyber security budget to a record EUR 1bn this year, after Russian sabotage attempts targeted hospitals and urban water supplies, according to FT.


• Japanese Finance Minister Kato said Japan pledged to comply with WTO rules, but will consider measures to raise pressure on Russia and coordinate with G7 countries, when asked about US requests to G7 for higher sanctions on India and China for buying Russian oil.

OTHER

• US President Trump said US military forces conducted a second strike against drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists from Venezuela in the SOUTHCOM area on Monday morning, under his orders, and the strike killed 3 male terrorists.


• Venezuelan President Maduro said recent incidents with the US are "aggression" not "tensions".

16 Sep 2025 - 06:21- Fixed IncomeResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk