Overnight US stocks | All three major indices closed higher; CoreWeave (CRWV.US) surged over 24%; spot gold fell below the US$4,000 mark.

Wednesday, boosted by CoreWeave's earnings data, the AI sector rebounded sharply, and all three major indices closed higher. AI lab Anthropic said in an updated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it will issue 825 million shares in its planned initial public offering next week, potentially valuing the five-year-old company at up to US$1.4 trillion. [US Stocks] At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.60 points, or 0.49%, to 52,486.49; the S&P 500 rose 98.48 points, or 1.31%, to 7,619.41; the Nasdaq Composite rose 400.31 points, or 1.60%, to 25,466.19. CoreWeave (CRWV.US) rose more than 24%, SanDisk (SNDK.US) rose 13%, Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) rose 11.8%, Intel Corporation (INTC.US) rose more than 7%, SK Hynix (SKHY.US) rose 9.7%, and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) rose 2.8%. Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) rose 2% to a record high. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.8%, while iQIYI, Inc. Sponsored ADR Class A (IQ.US) rose 9%. [European Stocks] Germany's DAX30 rose 279.34 points, or 1.06%, to 26,669.56; the UK's FTSE 100 rose 83.46 points, or 0.78%, to 10,835.05; France's CAC40 rose 54.28 points, or 0.66%, to 8,332.87; the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 68.58 points, or 1.08%, to 6,396.45; Spain's IBEX35 rose 62.02 points, or 0.31%, to 20,021.92; Italy's FTSE MIB rose 199.42 points, or 0.39%, to 51,954.50. [Forex] The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, rose 0.66% on the day and closed at 102.908 in late foreign exchange trading. As of late New York trading, 1 euro traded at US$1.1091, down from US$1.1166 the previous trading day; 1 pound traded at US$1.3278, down from US$1.3348 the previous trading day. 1 dollar traded at 159.86 yen, up from 158.78 yen the previous trading day; 1 dollar traded at 0.8331 Swiss francs, up from 0.8250 Swiss francs the previous trading day; 1 dollar traded at 1.4248 Canadian dollars, up from 1.4182 Canadian dollars the previous trading day; 1 dollar traded at 9.9770 Swedish kronor, up from 9.8742 Swedish kronor the previous trading day. [Cryptocurrencies] Bitcoin recovered above the US$74,000 mark, at US$74,309.35 as of press time; Ethereum rose 0.86% to US$2,068.07. [Precious Metals] Affected by U.S. inflation data coming in above expectations and hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials, the market further strengthened expectations for a Fed rate hike in December, and spot gold fell below the US$4,000 mark. At the close, spot gold fell 1.12% to US$3,987.89; spot silver rose 0.25% to US$51.674 per ounce. [Crude Oil] Light crude oil futures for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 49 cents to settle at US$86.53 per barrel, a gain of 0.57%; London Brent crude oil futures for January delivery rose US$1.27 to settle at US$92.76 per barrel, a gain of 1.39%. [Macro News] Media: Vance seeks face-to-face talks with Rezaei, has received relevant authorization from Trump. According to media reports citing U.S. and Middle Eastern officials, Trump is open to Vice President Vance restarting negotiations with Iran and has authorized him to lead the consultations. Vance is considering direct talks with Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Rezaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard; no date has been set, and Doha is seen as a potential venue. U.S. officials stressed that discussions about sending Vance to meet directly with Iranian officials are still at an preliminary stage. Vance's role in Iran diplomacy has recently surpassed that of special envoy Witkoff and Kushner. The report noted that leading the negotiations carries political risk for Vance: if the talks fail, he could become the face of a diplomatic setback; if he successfully ends the war, he could gain political capital. Trump had previously privately questioned the June memorandum of understanding reached with Vance's involvement, believing the agreement gave Iran time to rebuild its strength; the White House denied this. Differences between the two sides remain focused on lifting the maritime blockade, releasing frozen assets and easing oil sanctions. Currently, Iranian diplomats and some Middle Eastern mediators are skeptical about the prospects for negotiations. Trump previously said the United States will maintain the blockade and send additional aircraft carriers to the region; Secretary of State Rubio said there is currently no need for large-scale military action and that economic pressure is working. LME aluminum cash premium hits more than 30-year high; inventories fall to lowest since 1990. According to media reports, the London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminum cash price on Wednesday at one point carried a premium of US$147 per ton over the three-month futures, the highest in more than 30 years; LME warehouse inventories fell to the lowest level since 1990, and the backwardation structure reached its most severe level since the late 1980s. Exchange data showed that as of Monday, long positions in warrants and cash contracts held by two trading entities were equivalent to 60% to 80% of the available inventory in the LME warehouse network, further exacerbating the supply concentration problem. Meanwhile, the Tom/Next spread, which reflects the cost of deferred delivery, at one point rose to US$31.73 per ton, the highest since 2021, indicating increased pressure in the market to compete for existing inventory. The Middle East conflict has disrupted aluminum exports from the Gulf region, raising shipping costs and risks, and some smelters are still repairing damaged facilities. At the same time, trade barriers are restricting supply in European and American markets. Although new capacity in Indonesia is being released, its aluminum products have not yet obtained LME delivery eligibility, making it difficult to ease the inventory tightness in the short term. The LME said it will use large-position management rules to prevent the market from being excessively controlled. The futures price curve shows that supply pressure has extended to 2028. [Company News] Microsoft Corporation commits to bearing the power costs of its AI computing expansion itself. Noel Walsh, head of Microsoft Corporation's (MSFT.US) cloud operations and innovation division, said the company will bear the electricity costs brought by data center expansion itself, not rely on government subsidies, and not pass the costs on to other electricity consumers. Microsoft Corporation plans to invest US$117 billion this year to build computing power for AI and cloud services. The company is working with Chevron Corporation (CVX.N) and investment institution EngineNo.1 to advance a large data center and supporting power project, Project Kilby, in West Texas. Although the project was previously affected by a local moratorium on data center approvals, construction is still planned to begin in 2028 and full operations in 2031. Chevron Corporation said the project will create local jobs and stable tax revenue, while Microsoft Corporation emphasized that data center construction must bring net benefits to the communities where it is located, otherwise it will be difficult to continue advancing. Alphabet Inc. Class C to integrate the Gemini voice assistant into Apple Inc. CarPlay, expanding into in-car AI. Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG.US) announced that it will integrate the Gemini AI app into Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) CarPlay. iOS users worldwide will gradually be able to use Gemini voice mode through the in-car screen for hands-free conversations, supporting all languages in which voice mode is already available, and chat history will also sync with the Gemini app on iPhone. Users can use voice to ask about restaurants along the route, summarize unread emails and draft replies. Previously, Apple Inc. had gradually opened CarPlay voice features to third-party AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Perplexity. Gemini voice mode was already integrated into Google's Android Auto and cars with built-in Google services last month.