# Tech Leads Asia Gains, Countdown to Trump-Xi Meeting

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 23 Sep 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/a943cfa4-768a-4dda-a006-b4ce002f2d6c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Asian equities started the day stronger after a rally in US chipmakers drove the Nasdaq 100 Index to its first record since June. Meta Platforms Inc.'s new Muse AI agent was again in the spotlight, with Shopify Inc. shares jumping 7.1% after the companies struck a partnership. Meanwhile, concerns that AI could erode margins and fees at financial brokerages drove US financial stocks lower. We spoke to Sunny Bangia. He covers Asia Equities for Bloomberg. And - President Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday. Trade will be a key focus. Both sides are seeking to extend their tariff truce reached last year. Ahead of the summit, US negotiators are signaling that rare earth flows and critical minerals remain a sticking point. Bloomberg's Shery Ahn spoke to Former US Department of Energy Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Minerals Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios.
[0:04] Speaker 2: Podcasts.
[0:05] Speaker 3: Radio.
[0:06] Speaker 4: News.
[0:11] Speaker 3: Welcome to the Daybreak Asia podcast. I'm Doug Krisner. Tech
[0:14] Speaker 3: stocks in the Asia-Pacific are benefiting today from the AI trade,
[0:18] Speaker 3: which was certainly a driving force in the U.S. session,
[0:21] Speaker 3: where both the Nasdaq Composite and the Nasdaq 100 closed
[0:25] Speaker 3: at fresh record highs. Chip stocks climbed for a sixth
[0:28] Speaker 3: straight session. We had the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 2%.
[0:32] Speaker 3: There was weakness, though, among some of the big banks,
[0:35] Speaker 3: the KBW Bank Index down 2.4%. Now, some of that weakness, interestingly,
[0:41] Speaker 3: was tied to breakthroughs in AI assistance like Meta's Muse.
[0:47] Speaker 3: These agents have shown the potential to disrupt businesses that
[0:50] Speaker 3: benefit from so-called consumer inertia. That's the tendency to keep
[0:54] Speaker 3: buying something out of habit even when better alternatives exist.
[0:58] Speaker 3: Many insurance companies and online travel agencies fall into that category.
[1:03] Speaker 3: For a closer look at market action, let's bring in
[1:06] Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Sunny Bangia. He covers Asia equity markets in the APAC.
[1:10] Speaker 3: Sunny joins us from our studios in Sydney. Thank you
[1:13] Speaker 3: for being here. Talk to me a little bit about
[1:15] Speaker 3: what you're seeing as it relates to this AI trade today.
[1:21] Speaker 2: No, thank you for having me. It has been quite
[1:23] Speaker 2: a day without Japan. And then And then Korea goes
[1:26] Speaker 2: on holidays tomorrow as well. So it will be an
[1:28] Speaker 2: interesting session. But as you rightly pointed out, there is
[1:32] Speaker 2: still a lot happening in markets. And Meta's Muse Assistant
[1:38] Speaker 2: has been very successful in terms of its initial launch.
[1:43] Speaker 2: Downloads have been very successful relative to the downloads of
[1:47] Speaker 2: ChatGPT or other AI consumer apps. And the market's now
[1:53] Speaker 2: starting to think through the implications for the broader, not
[1:58] Speaker 2: only the semiconductor trade, which is benefiting, but is this
[2:02] Speaker 2: a SaaS apocalypse 2.0? And that's sort of been on
[2:05] Speaker 2: the market's mind, particularly in overnight session in Wall Street.
[2:10] Speaker 3: So what about the chip stocks? I mean, they seem
[2:12] Speaker 3: to be one of the outstanding performers during the New
[2:16] Speaker 3: York session.
[2:18] Speaker 2: That's right. These useful agents, and the key term is
[2:24] Speaker 2: being useful, they do require quite a bit of memory,
[2:29] Speaker 2: working memory. So RAM, CPUs. And the way Meta is
[2:35] Speaker 2: rolling them out is they're going to sit on a
[2:37] Speaker 2: virtual machine. And then as these models become, or these agents,
[2:41] Speaker 2: I should say, become more prolifically used, they will end
[2:46] Speaker 2: up consuming a lot of that compute demand. And obviously
[2:49] Speaker 2: Meta's been a big spender in the AI CapEx space
[2:54] Speaker 2: to build this capacity ahead of the demand. So it
[2:57] Speaker 2: is obviously, it bodes well from that standpoint. And memory
[3:01] Speaker 2: and compute, particularly the CPU stocks, were the ones that
[3:06] Speaker 2: led the semiconductor index higher overnight.
[3:09] Speaker 3: It was a very interesting session during New York trading.
[3:12] Speaker 3: We had President Trump addressing the UN General Assembly and
[3:15] Speaker 3: the message that he was sending seemed to be a
[3:17] Speaker 3: little mixed. On one hand, he said that he could
[3:21] Speaker 3: make a deal with Iran. On the other, he kind
[3:23] Speaker 3: of pondered this idea of annihilation of the Islamic Republic,
[3:27] Speaker 3: and he said that he would do so quickly if
[3:28] Speaker 3: he made that choice. Then, later in the day, he
[3:32] Speaker 3: did say that both U.S. and Iranian officials met for
[3:35] Speaker 3: three hours in New York, and he called those talks productive.
[3:39] Speaker 3: Some of that sentiment seemed to kind of filter into
[3:42] Speaker 3: the oil market. There was also a report in Japan
[3:44] Speaker 3: that The Kyoto News Agency was saying that Iran has
[3:48] Speaker 3: proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. were
[3:51] Speaker 3: to lift its naval blockade. Also some indications that Saudi
[3:55] Speaker 3: Arabia is in the early stages of starting up its
[3:58] Speaker 3: east-west pipeline. We were told that flows of crude could
[4:02] Speaker 3: resume maybe as early as Saturday. So with the pullback
[4:06] Speaker 3: that we had in oil, that's only going to kind
[4:08] Speaker 3: of support this positivity and sentiment, right?
[4:11] Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I think, you know, to your point, The administration,
[4:18] Speaker 2: you know, Trump's giving very, very, you know, messages that
[4:22] Speaker 2: might be on one hand, you know, positive for the
[4:27] Speaker 2: peace negotiations and on the other hand, leaves market participants
[4:31] Speaker 2: a bit more uncertain. But I think the direction he's
[4:34] Speaker 2: trying to head towards is some kind of resolution. What
[4:37] Speaker 2: that resolution ends up becoming, we still don't know. And obviously,
[4:41] Speaker 2: the UN, the meetings this week are quite important. But
[4:46] Speaker 2: as you say, rightly, it will support sentiment because the
[4:49] Speaker 2: crude oil price has led the move higher in the
[4:53] Speaker 2: long-end bond yields. And so the question is, do we
[4:57] Speaker 2: get a reversal of when you get the reversal of
[5:00] Speaker 2: the crude price, which we're seeing, does that start to
[5:02] Speaker 2: pull down yields in the long end? And that will
[5:05] Speaker 2: boast quite well for sentiment more broadly across the equity
[5:10] Speaker 2: market space and also spread across into commodities.
[5:13] Speaker 3: I'm curious to get your take on how markets in
[5:16] Speaker 3: the Asia-Pacific are reading this week's summit between Presidents Trump
[5:20] Speaker 3: and Xi. That will take place in the U.S. on Thursday. Obviously,
[5:24] Speaker 3: there's a lot of focus on trying to find some
[5:26] Speaker 3: common ground on things like trade AI, obviously the war
[5:31] Speaker 3: with Iran, and perhaps even the future of Taiwan. What
[5:35] Speaker 3: right now is the feeling in markets in regard to
[5:38] Speaker 3: the summit?
[5:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, and there are unconfirmed reports that potentially, from the
[5:45] Speaker 2: Chinese point of view, that they are not going to
[5:48] Speaker 2: be bringing their business leaders to the US. Look, it's
[5:50] Speaker 2: still early. I think the first element is that expectations
[5:55] Speaker 2: are low from the investor base. So we We've only
[5:59] Speaker 2: got upside from here. And Scott Besson outlined that there's
[6:04] Speaker 2: been some development on the AI security front. Overnight, the
[6:07] Speaker 2: information also reported that China potentially might be probing DeepSeek
[6:12] Speaker 2: and Moonshot in terms of AI security and the claims
[6:17] Speaker 2: that they've been distilling anthropics models. So there's some positivity
[6:23] Speaker 2: coming out from that front from China as well. But
[6:27] Speaker 2: I think the market will be very happy just to
[6:29] Speaker 2: see an extension of, let's say, a truce deal and
[6:33] Speaker 2: more work towards a greater, maybe a greater deal at
[6:37] Speaker 2: some future point would be very positive. And I think
[6:40] Speaker 2: the Trump administration also wants to have a few wins
[6:45] Speaker 2: ahead of the midterm elections.
[6:46] Speaker 3: What else are you seeing in Asia that is kind
[6:49] Speaker 3: of driving some of the price action that we were seeing.
[6:51] Speaker 3: We talked a little bit about the AI trade. We
[6:53] Speaker 3: talked about geopolitics. We talked about oil. Is there anything
[6:57] Speaker 3: else that's influencing the price action today?
[7:02] Speaker 2: The question now becomes with these Chinese models is they've
[7:07] Speaker 2: been quite successful in catching up to the US labs
[7:12] Speaker 2: at the frontier. But I think the market, or particularly
[7:16] Speaker 2: the Chinese market, is looking for more evidence that these
[7:20] Speaker 2: models are going to also be useful for the Chinese consumer. Yesterday,
[7:25] Speaker 2: Alibaba came out with quite interesting forecasts in terms of
[7:32] Speaker 2: its guidelines to how much gigawatt capacity it wants to implement.
[7:37] Speaker 2: They revealed a new chip, an AI chip, which is
[7:41] Speaker 2: meant to be three times more powerful than its predecessor.
[7:44] Speaker 2: And then Tencent had a big move as well, because
[7:46] Speaker 2: I think the market's looking at it as the meta,
[7:50] Speaker 2: the way to play meta in the Asian market context,
[7:54] Speaker 2: given its vast WeChat ecosystem. So I think this race
[7:58] Speaker 2: between the United States and China, it's still very much
[8:01] Speaker 2: in play. And it's obviously playing out through China from
[8:05] Speaker 2: a Chinese context.
[8:07] Speaker 3: Are there data points in China that kind of are
[8:10] Speaker 3: a little concerning, though? I know that the AI trade
[8:13] Speaker 3: has been a huge positive for the overall economy. Domestic demand,
[8:17] Speaker 3: as we both know, continues to be sluggish. And I'm
[8:20] Speaker 3: wondering about any data points that may give the bears
[8:24] Speaker 3: a little bit of fuel.
[8:26] Speaker 2: The large one ultimately is going to come down to
[8:29] Speaker 2: is the property market in China, the largest asset of
[8:34] Speaker 2: the household balance sheet, whether it starts to form a
[8:38] Speaker 2: more stable price declines or starts to bottom out and
[8:42] Speaker 2: actually starts to revive again, that's going to be ultimately
[8:46] Speaker 2: what drives the Chinese consumer to regain confidence and start
[8:50] Speaker 2: to consume again and start to feel more confident in
[8:54] Speaker 2: terms of the wealth effect that house prices bring. And
[8:59] Speaker 2: to that point, we really haven't seen any stabilisation and
[9:02] Speaker 2: We haven't seen the State Council of China bring forward
[9:06] Speaker 2: any more concrete measures. And a part of that might
[9:10] Speaker 2: be that this is something they may wait till next
[9:13] Speaker 2: year in their larger National People's Congress in March. So
[9:18] Speaker 2: I think it's something we just got to wait out
[9:20] Speaker 2: and hold out for whilst the market's still very focused
[9:24] Speaker 2: on the AI trade.
[9:25] Speaker 3: So before I let you go, we know that inflation
[9:27] Speaker 3: globally is still a persistent problem. Next week, we have
[9:31] Speaker 3: a rate decision from the Reserve Bank of Australia. You
[9:33] Speaker 3: are in Sydney right now. What's the feeling on what
[9:36] Speaker 3: the RBA may do next?
[9:39] Speaker 2: The RBA have made it very clear that they do
[9:43] Speaker 2: think inflation is not within their target. And it hasn't
[9:46] Speaker 2: been so for multiple quarters. And it is now to
[9:51] Speaker 2: a point where they are looking to be a little
[9:54] Speaker 2: bit more forceful in bringing it back in and whether
[9:58] Speaker 2: that means that raising rates might take some of that
[10:02] Speaker 2: aggregate demand out of the economy is something that's really
[10:05] Speaker 2: on their minds. Now, they are balancing that with a
[10:09] Speaker 2: weakening property market overall, where property prices are falling across
[10:14] Speaker 2: all major cities. So consumer confidence is getting sapped. So
[10:17] Speaker 2: it's something they're also looking at. But I think for
[10:20] Speaker 2: the moment, they have guided the market for a hike.
[10:22] Speaker 2: I think they will deliver and then may watch how
[10:26] Speaker 2: that sort of transpires into the jobs market and if
[10:29] Speaker 2: that takes away some of that aggregate demand that they're
[10:31] Speaker 2: worried about.
[10:32] Speaker 3: Sonny, we'll leave it there. Thank you so very much.
[10:33] Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Sonny Bangia, he covers equity markets in the APAC,
[10:37] Speaker 3: joining from Sydney here on the Daybreak Asia podcast. Welcome
[10:48] Speaker 3: back to the Daybreak Asian podcast. I'm Doug Krisner. President
[10:51] Speaker 3: Trump is set to meet on Thursday with Chinese President
[10:54] Speaker 3: Xi Jinping in Washington. Obviously, trade will be a key
[10:58] Speaker 3: focal point. Both sides are seeking to extend their tariff
[11:02] Speaker 3: truce reached last year. And ahead of the summit, U.S.
[11:05] Speaker 3: negotiators are signaling that rare earth flows and critical minerals
[11:10] Speaker 3: do remain a sticking point. And that's where we begin
[11:13] Speaker 3: our conversation with Ashley Zumwalt Forbes. Ashley is a former U.S.
[11:17] Speaker 3: Department of Energy Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Minerals,
[11:22] Speaker 3: and she spoke with Bloomberg TV host Sherry Ahn.
[11:25] Speaker 5: What would actually need to happen at these conversations between
[11:29] Speaker 5: President Trump and President Xi to be able to say
[11:32] Speaker 5: that we had some sort of success when it comes
[11:35] Speaker 5: to reestablishing relations, reconnecting and perhaps easing some of those
[11:39] Speaker 5: tensions that we've seen around trade and supply chains?
[11:44] Speaker 4: Yes, thank you so much for having me, Cherie. I
[11:48] Speaker 4: think it's exactly right that these discussions are very much
[11:53] Speaker 4: coming down to rare earths and, more broadly, critical minerals
[11:59] Speaker 4: playing a pivotal role in trade negotiations. I think that's
[12:05] Speaker 4: why we've seen many of the discussions pushed to Thursday's
[12:10] Speaker 4: trade summit. What would need to happen in order to
[12:14] Speaker 4: feel like we have some momentum and some success? Personally,
[12:18] Speaker 4: I would love to see a real process around which
[12:23] Speaker 4: those volumes could flow out of China with reliability. There
[12:29] Speaker 4: have been reports, even though an export process was agreed to,
[12:34] Speaker 4: that You know, volumes are not necessarily showing up in
[12:38] Speaker 4: the quantum and on the.
[12:39] Speaker 1: Timeline, which was agreed.
[12:43] Speaker 4: And so I think success would look like further defining
[12:47] Speaker 4: that timeline, really where the guardrails are and how the
[12:52] Speaker 4: materials can be used.
[12:54] Speaker 1: So which industries?
[12:57] Speaker 5: I mean, Ashley, you've argued that the U.S. cannot simply
[13:00] Speaker 5: just replace those imports coming from China. What parts of
[13:04] Speaker 5: the supply chain can America mitigate for and where are
[13:08] Speaker 5: we seeing the biggest shortages?
[13:12] Speaker 2: Yes.
[13:13] Speaker 4: So I think we've seen some really strong progress out
[13:17] Speaker 4: of the U.S. as well as its allies around deploying
[13:21] Speaker 4: capital across that value chain. And Unfortunately, there's not a
[13:26] Speaker 4: silver bullet here. So it's not just, you know, fund
[13:30] Speaker 4: one mine and all of a sudden the rare earth
[13:33] Speaker 4: problem or the critical mineral problem goes away, you know,
[13:37] Speaker 4: particularly in regards to permanent magnets. You know, you need
[13:41] Speaker 4: to fund mines, you need to fund separation capability, you
[13:46] Speaker 4: need to fund metallization, and then you start on the
[13:50] Speaker 4: very hard IP intensive kind of trade secret protected process
[13:57] Speaker 4: of scaling magnet manufacturing. Importantly, Japan and Germany both have
[14:04] Speaker 4: very strong magnet manufacturing capability. We have seen the recent
[14:09] Speaker 4: transaction with vacuum schmelz coming into more of a vertically
[14:14] Speaker 4: integrated structure within the U.S. And so, you know, very
[14:19] Speaker 4: encouraged by these steps. However, I certainly would not call
[14:24] Speaker 4: the supply chains secure at this juncture. They're is additional
[14:30] Speaker 4: investment that needs to be made. And certainly, it's not
[14:34] Speaker 4: something that's going to happen overnight. It's also not something
[14:37] Speaker 4: that's going to happen in a silo.
[14:41] Speaker 5: Ashley, to your point, Prime Minister Takaichi of Japan speaking
[14:44] Speaker 5: right now at the UN General Assembly, talking about some
[14:47] Speaker 5: of those issues, including critical minerals and the importance of
[14:50] Speaker 5: it and the importance of the international community to come
[14:53] Speaker 5: together on that issue. But Ashley, I got to say,
[14:57] Speaker 5: I mean, this whole issue of critical minerals and some
[15:00] Speaker 5: of those materials, especially that go into components around artificial intelligence,
[15:05] Speaker 5: huge right now because we continue to see the boom,
[15:08] Speaker 5: the infrastructure build out.
[15:11] Speaker 1: What does the U.S.
[15:12] Speaker 5: Have to do in order to solve the critical minerals
[15:15] Speaker 5: problem at a time when we also have just booming
[15:18] Speaker 5: demand around the AI?
[15:22] Speaker 1: Yes.
[15:23] Speaker 4: So in regards to AI, it is actually more of
[15:28] Speaker 4: a copper story than anything else, which is why oftentimes
[15:34] Speaker 4: when people are talking about solving the critical minerals problem,
[15:37] Speaker 4: it It becomes very challenging because, you know.
[15:42] Speaker 1: Based on U.S.
[15:43] Speaker 4: Definitions, there are 60 different critical minerals. So if you're
[15:48] Speaker 4: talking about permanent magnets, which are also very relevant to
[15:51] Speaker 4: AI and data center processes, as well as electronics writ large,
[15:56] Speaker 4: it is the rare earth suite of materials, which we
[16:00] Speaker 4: have talked about kind of the steps in that value chain.
[16:03] Speaker 4: In regards to supplying copper, the U.S. has two active
[16:09] Speaker 4: copper smelters. Again, I do not think you should look
[16:14] Speaker 4: at the U.S. in a vacuum in regards to copper supply. However,
[16:19] Speaker 4: there has been significant Chinese overcapacitization of copper smelters and refiners.
[16:24] Speaker 4: such that merchant smelters globally have really been extremely economically
[16:32] Speaker 4: challenged and many have gone out of business really concentrating
[16:36] Speaker 4: that capacity in China.
[16:38] Speaker 1: So getting access to.
[16:39] Speaker 4: Refined copper will really be a governor on the ability
[16:44] Speaker 4: to build out grids and data centers.
[16:49] Speaker 5: When it comes to trying to support those industries, how
[16:52] Speaker 5: much does it depend on deploying government funds and trying
[16:56] Speaker 5: to make those commercial viable as well so private companies
[17:00] Speaker 5: will get involved? Where's that fine balance? I know that
[17:02] Speaker 5: you've also overseen some of these deployments.
[17:06] Speaker 1: Yes. So there is no perfect answer here.
[17:11] Speaker 4: I think when it comes to government capital, you want
[17:15] Speaker 4: to try within each specific market. And again, there are
[17:20] Speaker 4: 60 different critical mineral markets. You want to try to
[17:24] Speaker 4: identify where that fulcrum point is that allows government capital
[17:29] Speaker 4: to have a multiplication effect. and de-risk a project such
[17:34] Speaker 4: that private capital can then crowd in. That sounds really straightforward.
[17:41] Speaker 4: It's not, particularly in regards to niche materials. So, I
[17:47] Speaker 4: describe niche materials as rare earths, as materials that go
[17:52] Speaker 4: into things like semiconductors. So for example, gallium and germanium.
[17:57] Speaker 4: These types of materials are extremely challenged from a unit
[18:02] Speaker 4: economics perspective. And so just putting in place one government
[18:07] Speaker 4: investment won't necessarily de-risk that project or that market. I
[18:14] Speaker 4: like the approach that the U.S. government has taken recently
[18:18] Speaker 4: around leveraging several different financing tools to best de-risk a
[18:23] Speaker 4: project and allow it to have kind of a commercial
[18:27] Speaker 4: lifespan and for private capital to crowd in. But no
[18:31] Speaker 4: two deals will look alike.
[18:34] Speaker 3: That was Ashley Zumwalt Forbes, former U.S. Department of Energy
[18:37] Speaker 3: Deputy Director of Batteries and Critical Minerals. speaking with Bloomberg
[18:41] Speaker 3: TV host Sherry Ahn, bringing you their conversation here on
[18:45] Speaker 3: the Daybreak Asia podcast. Thanks for listening to today's episode
[18:52] Speaker 3: of the Bloomberg Daybreak Asia edition podcast. Each weekday, we
[18:56] Speaker 3: look at the stories shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in
[19:00] Speaker 3: the Asia Pacific. You can find us on Apple, Spotify,
[19:03] Speaker 3: the Bloomberg podcast YouTube channel, or anywhere else you listen.
[19:07] Speaker 3: Join us again tomorrow for insight on the market moves
[19:10] Speaker 3: from Hong Kong to Singapore and Australia. I'm Doug Krisner,
[19:15] Speaker 3: and this is Bloomberg.

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