Overnight US stocks | The three major indices closed higher as Trump announced that the equivalent tariff on South Korea will be increased from 15% to 25%.

On Monday, the three major stock indexes closed higher. Companies such as Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, and Microsoft Corporation all saw increases, as these companies are all set to release their earnings reports this week. After the closing bell, US President Trump took to social media to express his dissatisfaction with the South Korean parliament for not fulfilling the agreement reached with the US. He announced that he would increase tariffs on South Korean cars, lumber, pharmaceuticals, and other goods from 15% to 25% due to the parliament's failure to approve the historic trade deal between the two countries. [US Stocks] The Dow rose 313.69 points, or 0.64%, to 49,412.4 points; the Nasdaq rose 100.11 points, or 0.43%, to 23,601.36 points; the S&P 500 rose 34.62 points, or 0.5%, to 6,950.23 points. Apple Inc.(AAPL.US) rose by 2.97%, Meta Platforms(META.US) rose by 2.06%, Microsoft Corporation(MSFT.US) rose by 0.93%, and Tesla, Inc.(TSLA.US) fell by 3.09%. [European Stocks] The Germany DAX 30 index rose 74.48 points, or 0.30%, to 24,933.84 points; the UK FTSE 100 index rose 5.37 points, or 0.05%, to 10,148.81 points; the France CAC 40 index fell 11.90 points, or 0.15%, to 8,131.15 points; the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 7.16 points, or 0.12%, to 5,955.36 points; the Spain IBEX 35 index rose 132.52 points, or 0.76%, to 17,676.92 points; the Italy FTSE MIB index rose 99.90 points, or 0.22%, to 44,931.50 points. [Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin hovered around $88,000, dropping to $87,016 at its lowest point; Ethereum rose by 0.94% to $2,926.30. [US Dollar Index] The US dollar index, which measures the dollar against six major currencies, fell by 0.57% to close at 97.035 in the forex market. At the close of the New York forex market, 1 euro exchanged for $1.1875, higher than the previous trading day's $1.1789; 1 pound exchanged for $1.3679, higher than the previous trading day's $1.3605. 1 dollar exchanged for 154.18 yen, lower than the previous trading day's 156.14 yen; 1 dollar exchanged for 0.7768 Swiss francs, lower than the previous trading day's 0.7858 Swiss francs; 1 dollar exchanged for 1.3720 Canadian dollars, higher than the previous trading day's 1.3718 Canadian dollars; 1 dollar exchanged for 8.9368 Swedish kronor, lower than the previous trading day's 8.9783 Swedish kronor. [Metals] Gold and silver hit historic highs and then experienced a slight drop. After reaching a new high of $5,111.17, spot gold's increase narrowed to 0.41%, closing at $5,008.66. Spot silver erased all intraday gains at the end of the US session, rising over 14% at one point, closing at $103.7 per ounce, having reached as high as $117.74 per ounce. Morgan Stanley predicts that gold prices are likely to rise to $5,700 per ounce in the second half of the year due to political uncertainty in GEO Group Inc., continued central bank gold purchases, and strong ETF demand. The report indicates that central banks of various countries, such as Poland, are still increasing their gold reserves despite the high gold prices. If the Federal Reserve starts lowering interest rates in 2026, it may further support strong physical gold demand. [Oil] Light crude oil futures for delivery in March on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by 44 cents to close at $60.63 per barrel, a decrease of 0.72%; Brent crude oil futures for delivery in March on the London Mercantile Exchange fell by 29 cents to close at $65.59 per barrel, a decrease of 0.44%. [Macroeconomic News] US durable goods orders in November saw the largest increase in six months. Durable goods orders in the US in November recorded the largest increase in six months, mainly driven by orders for commercial aircraft and other capital equipment. According to the US Department of Commerce report, durable goods orders increased by 5.3%, revised from a 2.1% decrease the previous month. Data released on Monday also showed that core capital goods orders, excluding aircraft and defense equipment (reflecting business equipment investment), increased by 0.7% on a monthly basis, exceeding expectations. US natural gas prices break $7 mark, some spot prices exceed $200. Due to severe cold weather in many parts of the United States, heating demand has surged, and supply interruptions have also occurred, leading to a continuous rise in natural gas prices. At 12:45 PM local time in the US on Monday, the near-month natural gas contract broke through $7 per million British thermal units, the first time since 2022, representing a 40% increase from the closing price on the previous Friday. Meanwhile, traders reported that natural gas spot prices at the Henry Hub delivery point in Louisiana reached as high as $53 per million British thermal units. In the cold northeastern region, the spot price at the Iso-New York Region 2 Hub Group, Inc. Class A exceeded $200 per million British thermal units. This winter storm is estimated to have caused interruptions in 12% of US natural gas production. Traders are closely monitoring how long this storm-induced interruption in US natural gas production will last. [Stock News] Trump proposes to maintain rates paid by health insurers under Medicare unchanged. The Trump administration has proposed keeping rates for federal Medicare largely unchanged next year, a move that is significantly below Wall Street's expectations. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and White House officials, under the proposal, payments to various plans are expected to increase by an average of 0.09% by 2027. CMS plans to announce this news on Monday, which could put pressure on insurance giants that have a large presence in the federal Medicare space, including UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH.US), Humana(HUM.US), and CVS Health Corporation (CVS.US). Healthcare stocks in the US fell after hours, with CVS Health Corporation dropping over 10%, Humana dropping over 13%, and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated dropping over 9%. Microsoft Corporation launches latest AI chip to reduce dependence on NVIDIA Corporation. Microsoft Corporation(MSFT.US) has introduced its second-generation AI chip, which is a key part of the company's efforts to support its services more efficiently and provide an alternative to NVIDIA Corporation's products. The "Maia 200" chip, produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, is now shipping to Microsoft Corporation's data centers in Iowa and will be deployed in the Phoenix area. Microsoft Corporation invited developers on Monday to start using the control software for Maia 200, but it is currently unclear when users of the company's Azure cloud services will be able to use servers powered by this chip. Scott Guthrie, Microsoft Corporation's Chief Cloud and AI Officer, stated that the initial batch of chips will be sent to Microsoft Corporation's superintelligence team to generate data to optimize next-generation AI models, cloud services, and AI systems. These chips will also be used to power the "Copilot" assistant for enterprise services and various AI models rented to cloud customers by Microsoft Corporation, including the latest version of OpenAI. NVIDIA Corporation strengthens collaboration with CoreWeave to accelerate AI factory construction. NVIDIA Corporation(NVDA.US) and AI cloud computing company CoreWeave(CRWV.US) announced an expansion of their long-standing complementary partnership to help CoreWeave accelerate the construction of a mega-scale AI factory exceeding 5 gigawatts by 2030, driving the scalable application of AI globally. In addition, NVIDIA Corporation has invested $2 billion to purchase CoreWeave's Class A common stock, priced at $87.2 per share. This investment reflects NVIDIA Corporation's confidence in CoreWeave as a cloud platform built on NVIDIA Corporation's infrastructure in its business, team, and growth strategy. NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang stated that AI is entering the next frontier and driving the largest infrastructure build in human history. CoreWeave's deep expertise in AI factory operations, platform software, and unmatched execution speed has been recognized in the industry. We are working together to meet the market demand for NVIDIA Corporation AI factories. USA Rare Earth signs memorandum of understanding with US government to secure $1.6 billion in funding. USA Rare Earth (USAR.US) announced today that it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Commerce and formed a partnership with the US Energy Corp. The Department of Commerce plans to provide approximately $1.6 billion in support through the CHIPS Act, with proposed federal funding of $277 million and proposed priority guaranteed loans of $13 billion under the CHIPS Act. At the same time, the company has completed financing through a $1.5 billion private equity offering led by Inflection Point and with participation from large mutual fund companies. The memorandum of understanding with the US government demonstrates the strategic value of USA Rare Earth's entire industry chain platform from mining to magnets, and its important role in bridging the gap in rare earth elements and critical minerals supply for US national security foundational industries such as semiconductors, key technologies, and advanced manufacturing. The memorandum of understanding is subject to further review, final agreement, regular closing conditions, and related approval processes. [Big Bank Ratings] JPMorgan raises Apple Inc. target price Strong iPhone 17 demand and cost control are expected to drive better-than-expected performance. JPMorgan stated that better-than-expected iPhone demand and lower operating expenses could drive Apple Inc.'s performance beyond market expectations. The bank reiterated its "overweight" rating on the tech giant and raised its target price from $305 to $315. Apple Inc. is set to report its Q1 earnings on Thursday. "We believe the positive data signals associated with strong iPhone 17 series demand have been overshadowed by investor concerns over unprecedented memory cost increases impacting gross margins, potential elasticity issues with iPhone demand, and modest concerns over weaker intra-quarter growth data for some App Store services," Chatterjee said. He believes that strong iPhone 17 demand combined with lower operating expenses will result in Apple Inc. exceeding revenue and profit expectations in Q1.