(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a

columnist for Reuters.)

By Mike Dolan

Oct 29 (Reuters) - What matters in U.S. and global

markets today

By Mike Dolan, Editor-At-Large, Finance and Markets

Perhaps because many of the positive twists this week were

already priced in, markets have been slightly underwhelmed by

the blizzard of top level trade, central bank and corporate

developments over the past 24 hours.

The Federal Reserve delivered an expected quarter point rate cut

on Wednesday and an end to its "quantitative tightening" this

year. But Chair Jerome Powell ruffled bond market feathers by

saying another cut in December was not a "foregone conclusion".

"Far from it", he added.

Treasury yields and the dollar firmed heading into Thursday's

trading day, with markets now seeing only a 70% chance of

another Fed cut by year-end. Wall Street indexes stalled after

the Fed move and futures remained subdued overnight.

The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, deferred any further interest rate

rises for now - knocking the yen back to eight-month lows

despite pressure from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

earlier this week for the BOJ to keep on tightening.

In South Korea, President Donald Trump hailed his summit with

Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Busan as "amazing" and gave it

a 12 out of 10 rating. But markets seemed less impressed,

initially at least.

The two sides laid out a 12-month agreement that removes the

cliff edge of 100% U.S. tariffs next week, seeing Washington

halve fentanyl-related tariffs on China to 10% in return for

Beijing freeing up rare earth exports and pledging to buy more

U.S. soya beans. No mention was made of allowing China to import

Nvidia's cutting-edge AI chip Blackwell, despite Trump

indicating on Wednesday that it would be on the agenda.

China's stocks and yuan fell back as readouts from the

meeting unfolded.

Just before the summit, Trump threw another geopolitical curve

ball by ordering the U.S. military to immediately resume testing

nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years.

Meantime, the market reaction to this week's first sweep of

megacap tech earnings was also something of a mixed bag.

With AI-related investments still booming despite ongoing fears

of a bubble in valuations, Alphabet outshone Microsoft and Meta

and its stock jumped 7% ahead of today's bell on another beat -

lifting its capex plan for the year to $91-93 billion.

Microsoft and Meta shares went the other direction, however,

dropping 3% and 7% respectively overnight. Meta's copybook was

blotted by a hefty $16 billion tax charge and Microsoft's

forecast of rising spending seemed to unnerve those wary of the

cost of sustaining the boom. An outage on Thursday in its Azure

cloud computing platform didn't help, even though it appears to

have been resolved overnight.

Next up on the corporate diary are Apple and Amazon results

after Thursday's close.

Elsewhere, the European Central Bank is expected to leave its

key interest rates unchanged at 2% today, with euro zone GDP

growth for the third quarter coming in slightly ahead of

forecasts thanks to an unexpected French beat. And after

Wednesday's election, the next Dutch government looks likely to

exclude the far right after support surged for the centrist D66

party.

Sterling's eye-catching slide to its lowest in more than two

years against the euro is ostensibly on rising speculation of

another Bank of England rate cut this year and possible income

tax rises at next month's budget. Prime Minister Keir Starmer

rejected calls for a probe into finance minister Rachel Reeves'

failure to secure the correct paperwork for a house rental.

In today's column, I discuss Treasury Secretary Bessent's

pressure on Japan to keep lifting interest rates and prevent yen

volatility as a sign of how sensitive the Trump administration

will be to any renewed dollar appreciation.

Today's Market Minute

* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed

with

President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for

Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming

U.S. soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing.

* The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates by a

quarter

of a percentage point, as expected. However, a policy divide

within the U.S. central bank and a lack of federal government

data may put another interest rate cut out of reach this year,

the Fed Chair indicated.

* The centrist D66 party made huge gains in Dutch elections

likely

giving it the lead in the formation of the next government, as

the party of far-right leader Geert Wilders lost support.

* The U.S. labor market has been characterized as a 'no

hire, no

fire' landscape for much of the past year. But, writes ROI

markets columnist Jamie McGeever, 'no hire, more fire'

increasingly looks more accurate.

* A new wave of Western sanctions on Russia's oil industry

has

roiled the diesel market, sending refining margins soaring, but

global supplies are unlikely to be severely disrupted for long.

Read the latest from ROI energy columnist Ron Bousso.

Chart of the day

Of the three tech giants' reporting overnight, investors seemed

most impressed by Alphabet's ability to balance its soaring

expenses with strong cash flow. Alphabet's capital expenditure

of $23.95 billion in the September quarter was 49% of its cash

generated from operations. The percentage for Meta, however, is

64.6%, with Microsoft even higher at 77.5%.

Today's events to watch

* European Central Bank interest rate decision (9:15 AM EDT)

and press conference

* Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman

and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan

* U.S. corporate earnings: Apple, Amazon, Eli Lilly, Comcast,

Coinbase, Mastercard, Fox, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biogen,

International Paper, Intercontinental Exchange, S&P Global,

Gilead Sciences, Weyerhaeuser, Estee Lauder, Cigna, Kellanova,

Kimberly-Clark, Edwards Lifesciences, Southern, Howmet, Altria,

Dexcom, Ameriprise, Western Digital, Huntington Ingalls,

Ingersoll Rand, First Solar, Stryker, Hershey, GoDaddy etc

Want to receive the Morning Bid in your inbox every weekday

morning? Sign up for the newsletter

here

. You can find ROI on the

Reuters website

, and you can follow us on

LinkedIn

and

X.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect

the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is

committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.