Global market wrap: Asian stocks trade mixed ahead of Trump-Xi talks; Brent crude oil below $100/barrel

We are back with quick updates on global developments around stock markets, commodities and companies that are creating buzz today.

Asian stocks were trading mixed on Wednesday as investors remained cautious ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow.

South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.5% to 7,052 on Wednesday. China’s Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,940. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was also down 0.9% to 24,864. Japan’s markets were closed for a holiday.

Singapore’s Straits Times inched up 0.2% to 5,733, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was trading marginally higher by 0.1% at 8,769.

US stock futures were trading flat on Wednesday after Nasdaq hit fresh record highs. S&P 500 futures, futures tied to the Dow and Nasdaq 100 futures were all trading almost unchanged from their previous close.

In the regular trading session on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 closed flat 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.36%, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.45% on the back of a solid rally in tech stocks.

Oil prices declined on Wednesday on hopes of improvements in US-Iran relationships after Trump said that US officials held a “very good” three-hour meeting with Iranian representatives in New York.

The US crude oil futures for November delivery lost 1.3% to $89.31 per barrel at 0107 EDT, while Brent futures for November delivery fell 0.7% to $98.60 per barrel.

Gold prices also dropped on Wednesday as the US dollar strengthened. US gold futures for ​December delivery inched down 0.1% to $4,371 per ounce, while spot gold was down 0.6% to $4,335 per ounce by 0527 GMT.

Here’s a look at the other key developments of the day:

Anthropic, OpenAI launch cheaper models

Artificial intelligence (AI) giants Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday announced new, less costly models amidst intense competition in the space.

OpenAI introduced GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, reducing the API prices by 50% compared with GPT-5.6 promotional pricing. Sol is meant for more complex workloads like coding, while Luna is geared toward “high-volume tasks” such as extracting information or summarizing documents.

Anthropic also unveiled Claude Opus 5.5 as a more token-efficient version that will cost around 40% less to run than the company’s Opus 5.

Donald Trump discloses July trades in SpaceX

US President Donald Trump purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 in shares of Elon Musk-led SpaceX on July 10, revealed the financial disclosures signed by him earlier this month. The president sold between $1,001 and $15,000 in the company on 17 July, the same disclosure shows.

The Office of Government Ethics posted the disclosure form on its website on Tuesday. The transactions were part of more than 1,000 trades Trump made in July.

Notably, SpaceX operates as a US military contractor and regularly seeks approvals from federal agencies.

SoftBank Group Corp. is offering record yields on one of the largest corporate junk bond sales ever to help fund its AI investments, according to a report.

The report said that SoftBank has started marketing the multi-part deal, with price talk underway for the dollar portion. The group aims to raise the equivalent of more than $11 billion in the offering that includes a $10 billion dollar part and a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) euro portion.

South Korean solar stocks rally as US curbs on China firms likely to continue

Shares of South Korean solar companies rallied on Wednesday as US restrictions on Chinese solar products came into focus ahead of the Trump-Xi summit.

Shares of Hanwha Solutions and OCI Holdings jumped more than 8% as analysts believed that it was highly unlikely that the US would ease restrictions on Chinese solar products as part of the talks.

The two leaders are set to meet in Washington this week, with trade expected to be among the key issues discussed.

Singapore’s core inflation climbs to 2.2% in August

Singapore’s core inflation rose in August, driven by higher inflation for food, services, retail and other goods.

The Singapore Department of Statistics said on Wednesday that core inflation came in at 2.2% in August compared with 2% in July. Core inflation excludes private transport and accommodation to better reflect household expenses.

Overall inflation increased to 2.3% in August from 2.2% in July, as higher core inflation more than offset lower private transport inflation.