By Jihoon Lee and Hyunjoo Jin

SEOUL (Reuters) - Shares in Samsung Electronics (KS:005930), the world's top memory chip maker, fell on Wednesday to their lowest level in more than four years amid worries about the impact of U.S. tariffs under a new Donald Trump administration, analysts said.

The South Korean tech giant is the worst performing stock among global chipmakers like TSMC and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) this year, as it has lagged behind rivals in tapping booming demand for artificial intelligence chips.

Trump's potential tariffs on Chinese imports are seen dealing a bigger blow to Samsung, which has a higher reliance on Chinese customers than its local rival SK Hynix, said Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities.

Hynix has been increasing sales of high-end AI server chips to U.S. customers like Nvidia.

Trump has threatened to impose a universal 10% tariff on imports and 60% on Chinese goods, which would reduce demand for electronics products that use chips, said Greg Noh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor (OTC:HYMTF) Securities.

Last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also raised concerns that Trump's threat of steep tariffs on Chinese imports could prompt Chinese rivals to slash export prices and undercut Korean chip firms overseas.

Samsung shares are down 34% in the year-to-date and on course to post their worst annual performance in more than two decades. Shares in SK Hynix have risen 32% so far this year, and U.S. chipmaker Nvidia has gained 199%.

Samsung shares, South Korea's most valuable stock, extended declines to a fourth straight session, down 2.1% as of 0126 GMT, after falling as much as 2.5% to 51,700 won, the lowest since June 24, 2020, while the broader KOSPI market fell 1.5%.

SK Hynix rose as much as 2%, after falling for two consecutive sessions.

Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures fell in evening deals on Tuesday as a rally in Wall Street, following Donald Trump’s election victory, fizzled out as caution kicked in ahead of key inflation data. 

Sentiment was also rattled by some hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials, who warned that any increases in inflation could elicit a hold on interest rates. 

Losses in futures came after Wall Street indexes retreated from recent peaks during Tuesday’s session.

S&P 500 Futures fell 0.1% to 6,005.0 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.2% to 21,146.75 points by 18:38 ET (23:38 GMT). Dow Jones Futures fell 0.1% to 44,034.0 points. 

Trump-fueled rally fizzles as CPI data looms 

Investors were seen locking in some profits after Trump’s election victory sparked sharp stock gains over the past week.

This rally also appeared to have paused as investors sought more clarity on what a second Trump presidency will look like, given that the president-elect has maintained a protectionist stance towards trade and immigration. 

A Trump presidency is also expected to potentially push up inflation in the long term.

These doubts grew ahead of key consumer price index inflation data, which is due on Wednesday. The reading is expected to show inflation remained steady in October, sparking some doubts over just how much impetus the Fed has to keep cutting interest rates.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari warned on Tuesday that any surprises in inflation could see the Fed keep rates steady in December. His comments saw traders pricing in a 59.8% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points in December, and a 40.2% chance rates will remain unchanged, according to CME Fedwatch. 

The central bank had last week cut rates by 25 bps and reiterated its data-drive approach to further easing.

Wall St retreats from record highs 

Wall Street indexes fell from record highs on Tuesday as investors locked in a measure of recent gains. Caution before the CPI reading also weighed, as the dollar and Treasury yields appreciated sharply. 

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 5,983.99 points, while the NASDAQ Composite fell 0.1% to 19,282.76 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.9% to 43,910.98 points. 

Among major aftermarket movers, Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) surged over 8% after the electric vehicle maker and Volkswagen AG (ETR:VOWG) announced an increased investment by the German automaker in a joint venture.

Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) rose 7% after it clocked strong subscriber growth for the September quarter while issuing a solid forecast for the year.

By Ann Saphir

(Reuters) -The Federal Reserve's policy rate continues to act as a brake on the resilient labor market and on inflation that is still above the 2% target, two U.S. central bankers said on Tuesday, a view that appears to argue for more interest rate cuts, even as both signaled they were not ready to judge how fast or by how much.

"In my judgment we are still in a modestly contractionary stance, but ultimately the economy will guide us, in terms of how far we are needing to go" in cutting the Fed's benchmark for short-term borrowing costs, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said at a Yahoo Finance event.

Speaking earlier, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin called the current level of rates "somewhat less restrictive" than it had been, and said he could see scenarios where demand rises and the central bank needs to focus on containing inflation, and others where businesses start laying off workers and it needs to turn more to protecting the job market.

"With the economy now in a good place and interest rates off their recent peak but also off their historic lows, the Fed is in position to respond appropriately regardless of how the economy evolves," Barkin said at an event in Baltimore. 

The Fed cut its policy rate last week by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4.50%-4.75% range. Short-term borrowing costs are now 75 basis points below where they were two months ago, just before the central bank started reducing rates to bring them more in line with falling inflation and what appeared to be a quickly cooling labor market.

In September, Fed policymaker projections were consistent with another quarter-percentage-point rate cut in December, and four more like-sized reductions next year, bringing the policy rate to the 3.25%-3.50% range.  

Since then, a lot has happened that could complicate the central bank's next steps.

Inflation by the Fed's targeted measure was 2.1% in September, just above its target, but measures of underlying inflation that strip out volatile energy and food prices have been stuck higher, with little sign of recent progress. Economists expect more of the same when the U.S. Labor Department releases the consumer price index for October on Wednesday.

Monthly job gains have dropped, but unemployment, at 4.1%, is low by historical standards. Policymakers are watching for signs of further weakening - which would suggest the need for more rate cuts - or of continued resilience, and they will get just one more monthly employment report before their Dec. 17-18 meeting.

NEW ADMINISTRATION

Republican President-elect Donald Trump's victory in last week's election also creates fresh uncertainty. Trump, who will take over from Democratic President Joe Biden in January, has promised to cut taxes, impose new tariffs on imports, and deport a record number of immigrants. While financial markets have generally moved to price in faster economic growth and fewer interest rate cuts as a result, central bankers say they can't plan a response until it's clear exactly what policies will be enacted.

Asked what could prompt the Fed to pause rate cuts at the December meeting, Kashkari said he feels there is too little time between now and then for the data to show a reheating of the labor market.

"I think there'd have to be a surprise on the inflation front to change the outlook so dramatically," Kashkari said. "The bigger question long run is where are we going to settle?"

Kashkari said he believes the level of borrowing costs that neither stimulates nor restricts the economy - the so-called neutral rate - is likely higher than in the past, perhaps because productivity has increased. 

Although a higher neutral rate could be one argument for fewer rate cuts ahead, Kashkari steered clear of making predictions, as did Barkin. 

"I think we all agree we are above neutral now," Kashkari said. "But over the course of the next year, we're going to get a lot more information about where neutral is."

(Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing two sources.

Noem, once seen as a possible running mate for Republican Trump, is currently serving her second four-year term as South Dakota's governor after a landslide reelection victory in 2022. She rose to national prominence after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Noem had a turbulent few months politically this year.

She faced widespread backlash in April this year when she wrote in a memoir that she shot to death an "untrainable" dog that she "hated" on her family farm, following which some Trump advisers said they believed that Noem's stock had fallen in the former president's eyes at the time when she was still a VP contender.

Both Trump's campaign and Noem's office did not respond to requests for comments outside regular business hours.

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for everything from border protection and immigration to disaster response and the U.S. Secret Service.

Trump on Monday appointed Tom Homan as his administration's incoming "border czar". Homan said he will prioritize deporting illegal immigrants who pose threats to public safety and national security.

Sources told Reuters on Monday that Trump was expected to tap U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state.

(This Nov. 8 story has been refiled to drop the repetition of Xi's title and to correct the spelling of his given name, in paragraph 6)

By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru and China will sign an updated free-trade agreement during President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to the Andean nation that would boost commerce by at least 50% between the countries, Peru's foreign minister said on Friday.

In an interview with Reuters, Minister Elmer Schialer said the Chinese president would travel to Peru with a delegation of 400 business people interested in investing in infrastructure and technology projects in the country.

The free-trade agreement was originally signed in 2009 and the "optimized" version will be signed alongside 30 other agreements designed to improve cooperation between the countries.

"China is our main trading partner, experts say this will increase that dynamism by at least 50%," Schialer said. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached nearly $36 billion last year according to data from the Peruvian Ministry of Commerce.

China has large mining and infrastructure projects in the country, including the Chancay mega port by Cosco Shipping Port.

"The port will launch Peru to another level of trade," Schialer said. The port will be "virtually" inaugurated by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Xi from the government palace in Lima on Nov. 14.

Schialer added that Peru's portfolio of mining projects totals $54 billion while its infrastructure projects yet to be developed total $157 billion. He noted that "China is particularly interested" in these projects.

The minister said he doesn't expect changes with the United States given the recent election of President-elect Donald Trump.

"The only thing we hope for and are sure that will happen is an expansion of the United States' presence in investments," he said, adding that both the outgoing and incoming US administration have "given us clear signals of interest" in terms of investment.

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks eased while the dollar held at four-month highs on Tuesday, though all the excitement was centred on bitcoin as it soared to a record peak underpinned by investor bets on assets that are likely to benefit from Donald Trump's election win.

Investors anticipate Trump's second four-year term in office will bring equities-boosting tax cuts and looser regulations, lifting the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, to an all-time high of $89,637.

But the threat of possible tariffs from the new White House administration has put the euro under pressure, with the single currency touching near seven-month lows of $1.0687 overnight. It was last at $1.0658 in Asian hours on Tuesday. [FRX/]

The dollar on the other hand is expected to benefit from some of the policies that will likely keep U.S. interest rates relatively higher for longer. The dollar index, which measures the greenback versus six peers, was at 105.57, just shy of the 4-month high hit on Monday.

Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at OCBC, said the decisive win by Trump and the Republican party removes the overhang of an unclear or a contested U.S. election outcome.

"The medium-term outlook could become cloudier if Trump pursues aggressive tariff hikes ... This could fuel inflation eventually and stop the Fed from cutting rates. Tariffs also carry the risk of retaliation from the major trading partners."

"But this is a story for another time and Trump’s victory has unleashed the animal spirit in markets for now," Menon said.

Data provider DDHQ projected on Monday that Trump's Republican Party had won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, signalling a majority for Republicans in both chambers of Congress.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1%, with Taiwan shares sliding 2% and South Korean stocks 1% lower.

Chip stocks in the region have been reeling this week after Reuters reported that the U.S. ordered Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers that are often used in AI applications.

Japan's Nikkei was an outlier in the region and was up 0.5% on a weak yen, which was hovering close to more than three-month lows and last fetched 153.93 per dollar.

Overnight, Wall Street's main indexes notched record high closes, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gaining around 9% after touching $1 trillion in market value on Friday on bets that the automaker would benefit from CEO Elon Musk's backing of Trump.

Trump's victory and the election of pro-crypto candidates to Congress have supercharged a bitcoin rally to record highs closer to 90,000, and targeting $100,000 next. It was last at $88,709.

"After such a performance, one could ask whether the Trump trades are already played out? Our take is 'No', as we think these trades still have plenty more legs," said Manish Kabra, lead U.S. equities & multi-asset strategist at Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) in a note.

Meanwhile, Chinese shares inched higher, while Hong Kong stocks slid 1%. Sentiment remained largely downbeat after Beijing's latest stimulus package failed to deliver the direct spending aimed at consumers that investors have been expecting.

On the macro side, investor focus will be on U.S. consumer price inflation data on Wednesday, with a parade of Federal Reserve speakers also due to speak this week, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday.

Markets are pricing in 87% chance of the Fed cutting rates in December by 25 basis points.

In commodities, oil prices were little changed in early trading as China's stimulus plan and oversupply concerns took the wind out of markets in prior sessions.

Brent crude futures was at $71.88 a barrel, up 0.06% while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures inched 0.09% higher to $68.10 a barrel. [O/R]

Spot gold was steady in Asian hours at $2,624 per ounce after touching its lowest level in a month on Monday. [GOL/]

Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures steadied in evening deals on Monday after Wall Street hit a series of record highs on optimism over Donald Trump’s election victory, with focus now turning to upcoming inflation data this week.

Futures steadied as a rally on Wall Street now appeared to be slowing, although benchmark indexes still eked out record highs. Wall Street has been on a tear after Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election last week.

S&P 500 Futures fell slightly to 6,028.00 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures steadied at 21,208.75 points by 18:41 ET (23:41 GMT). Dow Jones Futures fell 0.1% to 44,394.0 points. 

Trading volumes were slower on Monday on account of the Veterans Day holiday. 

CPI data, Fedspeak awaited 

Wall Street’s rally now appeared to be cooling as investors grew wary before key consumer price index inflation data due on Wednesday.

Inflation is expected to have remained steady in October from the prior month amid continued resilience in the U.S. economy. But sticky inflation stands to potentially delay the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates further. 

The Fed had cut rates by 25 basis points last week, and reiterated that it would maintain a data-driven approach to further easing. 

Recent signs of sticky inflation spurred some doubts over just how much further interest rates will fall. Traders were seen pricing in a 70.7% chance for another 25 bps cut in December, and a 29.3% chance rates will remain unchanged, CME Fedwatch showed.

Beyond the CPI data, focus this week is also on addresses from a slew of Fed officials for more insight into the central bank’s plans for rates.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin are set to speak on Tuesday. 

Wall St steadies as Trump rally cools 

Wall Street indexes still eked out record highs on Monday. But their pace of gains now appeared to be cooling, as investors sought more insight into what a second Trump presidency will entail for the economy. 

Trump is widely expected to enact more protectionist policies, especially in trade and immigration. Analysts warned that these could push up inflation in the long term, keeping interest rates relatively high. 

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 6,001.35 points on Monday, closing above 6,000 points for the first time ever. The NASDAQ Composite rose 0.1% to 19,303.57 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 44,293.13 points. 

The Dow benefited greatly from positioning in economically sensitive sectors, as investors looked to more expansionary policies from Trump. 

(Reuters) -Donald Trump's sweep to victory in the U.S. presidential election has ignited the so-called "Trump trade", with the dollar, crypto and U.S. stocks all surging, as investors assess the global implications of his return to power.

Germany is grappling with a political crisis, Britain's finance minister delivers a key speech and policymakers head to Baku for a climate summit.

Here's a look at the week-ahead for markets from Kevin Buckland in Tokyo, Lewis (JO:LEWJ) Krauskopf in New York, Sinead Cruise, Dhara Ranasinghe and Karin Strohecker in London.

1/ WATCHING THE USA

    Focus turns to U.S. inflation data on Nov. 13, as markets wait to see if President-elect Trump will push ahead with economic policies that could be inflationary.

    Economists expect the consumer price index to have climbed 0.2% for October. September's 2.4% annual increase was the smallest in more than 3-1/2 years, reinforcing Federal Reserve rate-cut bets.

    But the central bank may have been thrown a curveball with Trump's election, since the Republican's plans to raise tariffs could fuel price rises. Following the Fed's 25 bps rate cut on Thursday, Chair Jerome Powell gave little guidance on how fast and far rates will now fall.

Markets are also watching whether "Trump trades" - including a stronger dollar and buying shares of banks and small-cap companies - will continue as investors assess the impact of the election result.

2/ OVER IN BEIJING

A closely watched gathering of China's top legislative body wrapped up on Friday with the announcement of a 6 trillion yuan ($835 billion) spending package aimed at cleaning up off-the-book debt at local governments.

For investors who had been hoping for extra spending to counter the potential impact of a Trump-led trade war, that was a massive let-down. Hong Kong-traded mainland property shares tumbled as much as 4.6% on Monday (NASDAQ:MNDY). The yuan fell, and commodities from crude to copper sold off.

Some analysts had warned it would be too early for Beijing to formalise a strategy only days after Trump's election victory. Macquarie, for one, said the goal of the stimulus is achieving the around-5% growth target for 2024, and "not to reflate the economy in any meaningful way".

With Trump's threatened 60% tariffs dwarfing those from eight years ago, meeting that growth target may be the least of Beijing concerns.

3/ POLITIK CHAOS

A collapse in Germany's ruling coalition puts a crisis in Europe's biggest economy in the spotlight just after Trump's win.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's decision to fire his finance minister, from coalition partner the Free Democrats, points to a vote of no confidence in January and possible snap elections in March.

Scholz's Social Democrats now rule with remaining coalition ally the Greens in a minority government but face pressure to hold a no-confidence vote sooner. A contentious draft budget also needs to be finalised.

The timing is unfortunate. Germany has just dodged recession after a series of setbacks, while higher tariffs may loom under Trump.

Uncertainty could hurt business investment and slow M&A. As an election-packed year globally winds down, Germany could be gearing up to hold a poll of its own.

4/ COP-ING MECHANISMS

Policymakers and climate activists head to Azerbaijan's capital Baku from Nov. 11 for the 29th annual United Nations Climate Summit, known as COP29.

The summit has been dubbed the "climate finance COP" for its central goal: to agree on how much money should go each year to helping developing countries cope with climate-related costs.

Governments are also eager to resolve rules for trading carbon credits earned through the preservation of forests and other natural carbon sinks.

But coming just days after the U.S. elections and amid rising geopolitical tensions, the meeting is expected to be a subdued affair. Trump, a climate denier, wants to ramp up fossil fuel production and pull out of the Paris Climate Accords, a framework for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

5/ PENSION POTS

UK finance minister Rachel Reeves will serve up her latest plans to reinvigorate Britain's sluggish capital markets in her first Mansion House speech on Thursday, with a slew of pension fund reforms topping industry wish-lists.

UK defined benefit retirement schemes, most of which are closed to new members, are collectively sitting on an estimated 300 billion pounds of cash that could be funnelled into housing, infrastructure, unlisted company investments and unloved stocks for the greater good of the UK economy, industry sources say.

But while change is broadly welcome, the idea of mandating pension fund investment in so-called UK productive finance has been criticised because of the risk that good intentions may not always lead to good outcomes for retirement savers, particularly as UK equities continue to perform poorly against global peers.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's semiconductor index leapt close to a three-year high on Monday (NASDAQ:MNDY) on bets a U.S. order halting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers could accelerate Beijing's self-reliance efforts.

TSMC will from Monday suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Analysts said that while the move might lead to some short-term pain for Chinese firms involved in designing chips for artificial intelligence accelerators and graphics processing units, it could benefit the domestic chipmaking sector as companies would have few alternatives.

The CSI Semiconductor Index jumped more than 6% during trading on Monday to the highest since Dec. 20, 2021, while the CSI Integrated Circuits Index rose 5%. Shares in SMIC, China's largest foundry and the country's main alternative to TSMC, rose more than 4%.

"In the medium and long term it will force the reorganization of the supply chain, increase the demand for domestic advanced process production capacity, and promote technological breakthroughs in upstream semiconductor equipment and materials," Chinese brokerage Cinda Securities said in a note published on Sunday.

Several Chinese technology firms and chip designers have in recent years sought to design their own advanced processors after the U.S. sanctioned Huawei Technologies and barred the likes of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) from selling their most sophisticated chips to China.

Many rely on Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's leading contract chipmaker, for production. In the third quarter, 11% of TSMC's revenue came from China, the company said.

By Simon Jessop, Karin Strohecker and Katy Daigle

BAKU (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank will increase its climate-related lending by up to $7.2 billion after the United States and Japan agreed to underwrite risk for some existing loans, an ADB executive said, marking the first ever sovereign guarantees for climate finance.

The new strategy, shared exclusively with Reuters, offers a potential template for other development banks to follow as the U.N.'s COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, starting this week focuses on ramping up the amount of finance available to developing nations.

The ADB has set a long-term cumulative climate finance lending target of $100 billion between 2019 and 2030. In 2023, it lent $9.8 billion.

The U.S. election victory last week of Donald Trump, who has vowed to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate, has overshadowed the start of the Baku talks, adding pressure on Europe and China to help get a strong result, negotiators said last week.

Under the ADB plan, the world's richest country would guarantee up to $1 billion of existing loans from Asia's top development institution, while Japan would underwrite $600 million – freeing the bank to lend more for climate-related projects.

"The structure is a fantastic way of extending a multilateral development bank's (MDB) lending capacity without going through the politically difficult situation of a general capital increase," which would need to come from fresh country donations, Jacob Sorensen, director of partner funds at the ADB, told Reuters.

An ADB spokesperson declined to comment on whether the deals, which were finalised last week, would be affected by the incoming Trump administration.

The extra lending headroom the guarantees generate will be deployed over the next five years, while the duration of the guarantees themselves will be 25 years, according to the ADB.

COOKING OIL TO JET FUEL

One of the first beneficiaries from this new ADB push will be a project in Pakistan to generate sustainable aviation fuel from cooking oil, Sorensen said. About half of the $90 million needed would come from the ADB scheme with the deal expected to be signed on Nov. 20, the bank said.

The ADB, based in the Philippines, has spent three years developing the guarantee deal with a group of Western governments and hopes other countries will follow soon, he added.

It has also been sharing its experience with the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and European Investment Bank as part of broader, collaborative efforts to scale up climate-related lending.

"We have been extensively in consultation with multiple other MDBs," Sorensen said.

While the deals mark the first use of sovereign guarantees for climate finance, they have previously been used to fund other areas of lending such as education.

Public lending institutions have also begun to guarantee other, third-party investments for climate projects. Earlier this year, the World Bank launched a platform to house all such guarantees for loans and investments from across the various branches of the organisation, in an effort to expand their use.

The programme was going "very well", having guaranteed more than $10 billion through the programme in 2023 with a goal of doubling that annual figure by 2030, Axel van Trotsenburg, the bank's senior managing director told Reuters last month in Washington.

As climate change increases the threat of extreme weather and disaster worldwide, developing countries are forecast to need more than $2 trillion a year by 2030 to transition to clean energy and prepare for the conditions of a warmer planet.

Rich nations are hoping that a financing deal at COP29 goes beyond relying on donations from them for climate finance, and instead looks to development banks as well as private investors for the bulk of the world's climate cash.