Markets Today: Gold Hits 2-Week Highs, China CPI Accelerates, Diageo Appoints New CEO and FTSE 100 Consolidates. US Government Shutdown in Focus

Most Read: Markets Weekly Outlook – Traders get impatient for the US shutdown to end

Stock prices went up and government bonds (Treasuries) went down because people felt hopeful about a possible deal to end the longest US government shutdown. This good feeling came after a chaotic week where investors worried about whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) company stocks were too expensive.

The major MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained almost 1%, with twice as many stocks rising as falling. Japan's Nikkei stock average also climbed more than 1% on Monday, following the positive feeling from US stock futures because traders hoped the US shutdown would soon be over.

The Nikkei ended the day up 1.26% at $50,911.76.

In Japan, large tech-related companies like Advantest, Tokyo Electron, and SoftBank Group all saw gains. While these big stocks helped push the Nikkei up, a market expert noted they weren't gaining as strongly as they did last month.

However, smaller chip-related stocks surged, showing investors were still very eager for technology shares. For example, Kioxia Holdings jumped over 10%, and Towa rocketed up almost 24% to its daily maximum limit.

Another big mover was Mercari, the flea market app operator, which jumped over 18% after reporting a 70% increase in quarterly profit. On the flip side, Honda Motor fell almost 5% after the automaker sharply cut its yearly profit prediction by 21% on Friday. Its competitor, Toyota Motor, managed to recover from earlier losses and finished the day slightly higher. Overall, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a large majority of stocks (76%) went up.

China's consumer prices (the cost of goods and services for people) went up by 0.2% compared to a year ago in October 2025. This was a surprise, as experts expected no change, and it bounced back after prices fell 0.3% the month before. This increase was the first since June and the fastest rise since January.

The cost of things other than food accelerated its climb (from 0.7% to 0.9%), boosted by government programs encouraging people to trade in old items for new ones and more spending during the Golden Week holiday, which both helped domestic buying. Costs continued to increase for things like housing, clothes, healthcare, and education. Also, the cost of transportation fell less steeply than before.

Regarding food, prices still dropped, but it was the smallest drop in three months (down 2.9% versus down 4.4%). Crucially, Core inflation (which ignores volatile food and energy costs) rose by 1.2%, which is the highest level in 20 months. Looking month-to-month, consumer prices also increased by 0.2%, which is the highest increase in three months.

The FTSE 100 index in Britain is expected to open higher on Monday, with early futures showing a gain of 0.84%. The DAX index was also trading higher, up around 0.5% at the time of writing.

In company news: Diageo, the world's largest spirits company, appointed Dave Lewis (the former head of Tesco) as its new CEO, concluding a long search and bringing in an outsider to lead the company during tough times for the drinks business.

Separately, the mining company Ferrexpo announced that its production and exports have been stopped because recent Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy system damaged the power supply to the miner's operations in a critical area.

Also, the owner of Upper Crust, SSP Group, said that its Chair and director, Mike Clasper, plans to step down after the company's annual meeting in January 2026.

Finally, JTC announced it has accepted the fourth improved offer from the British private equity firm Permira, valuing the company at £2.3 billion (or $3.09 billion).

On the FX front, the value of the US dollar went down on Monday. This happened because investors felt more hopeful after the Senate took steps to potentially reopen the federal government, which overshadowed some recent bad economic news.

The US dollar index dropped slightly, by 0.1%, to 99.643.

Other currencies reacted slightly to this: the euro was a little weaker at 1.1559, and the British pound sterling was also slightly softer at 1.3148.

The offshore Chinese yuan stayed mostly the same against the dollar at 7.1204 during Asian trading.

Meanwhile, the currencies of Australia and New Zealand gained ground: the Australian dollar was up 0.4% at 0.6520, and the New Zealand dollar (kiwi) rose 0.1% to 0.5632.

Currency Power Balance

Oil prices went up on Monday. This rise was mostly due to the hope that the US government shutdown would end soon. If the government reopens, it's expected to increase demand for oil in the US, which is the world's biggest oil user. This positive news helped overcome worries about the fact that global oil supplies are increasing.

Specifically, Brent crude oil futures rose 45 cents (or 0.71%) to trade at 64.08 per barrel. The price for US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil also increased by 48 cents (or 0.80%) to reach 60.23 per barrel.

Gold prices jumped to a two-week high on Monday due to a combination of two major factors.

First, the market expected the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again in December. Lower interest rates make non-interest-paying assets like gold more appealing compared to interest-bearing investments, such as bonds.

Second, a wave of weak economic reports increased global slowdown worries, pushing investors to buy gold because it's traditionally viewed as a safe asset during times of economic uncertainty.

Following this optimism, the price of spot gold climbed 1.8% to reach 4,070.99/oz, and US gold futures for December delivery similarly rose 1.8% to 4,079.70/oz.

For more on Gold prices, read Gold (XAU/USD) Price Slips 1.5% as $4000/oz Handle Remains Elusive. What Comes Next?

On Sunday, the US Senate took a step toward ending the 40-day federal government shutdown and getting federal workers back to work. This shutdown has stopped paychecks for government employees, slowed down food aid, and caused problems with air travel.

In a key vote, the senators advanced a bill that originally came from the House of Representatives. This bill will be changed to fund the government until January 30th and will also include three complete, long-term spending bills. The shutdown has been severely hurting the US economy: federal workers in areas like airports, law enforcement, and the military haven't been paid, and the central bank has been struggling because the government hasn't been releasing much economic data.

Despite all these problems, the overall mood of investors remained hopeful on Monday.

Outside of political news, this week is very quiet for new US economic data. Also, tomorrow is a public holiday, Veterans' Day, in the US The main piece of data that will be released is the NFIB small business optimism index tomorrow. We will also hear from several officials from the Federal Reserve (the Fed) this week.

Currently, the chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 0.25% in December has dropped to 64%. Since there won't be much new US data to change minds, and because Fed officials usually suggest they should be cautious about cutting rates quickly, that probability may drop even lower, close to 50%.

From a technical standpoint, the FTSE 100 is moving lower after market open but remains bullish as the index continues to print higher highs and higher lows.

As things stand the FTSE is trading inside a wedge pattern and a breakout could be the precursor for the next major move.

A wedge breakout could lead to a 220-point rally and needs to be monitored.

For now though, The index is kind of in no mans land.

The period-14 RSI is approaching the 50-neutral. If this level on the RSI holds, this could lead to a retest of the top of the wedge.

Alternatively, a move lower here could bring the lower end of the wedge pattern into focus and potentially the 100-day MA as well which rests at the 9616 handle.

FTSE 100 Index Daily Chart, November 10. 2025

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