Asian stock markets were trading in the green on Friday, influenced by positive cues from Wall Street overnight and amid growing expectations that major central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, may lower interest rates in the first quarter.

This optimism follows comments by US President Donald Trump, who expressed his intention to “demand that interest rates drop immediately” to boost U.S. domestic growth.

However, uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policies and tariff threats limited the upside in markets. On Thursday, Asian markets also ended on a mixed note.

During his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump reiterated his earlier promises, including tax cuts, tariffs on trading partners, and increased energy production.

Nikkei in green as BOJ raise interest rates

The Japanese market is also seeing gains on Friday, continuing the positive trend of the last four sessions.

The Nikkei 225 Index is nearing the 40,200 level, buoyed by Wall Street’s overnight performance.

At the morning session’s close, the Nikkei 225 stood at 40,192.85, up 233.98 points or 0.59 percent, after touching a high of 40,254.64 earlier.

Among individual stocks, market heavyweight SoftBank Group is down by almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is up by 0.4 percent. In the automobile sector, Toyota is down by 0.2 percent, and Honda remains flat.

Japan’s core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food but includes fuel costs, increased by 3 percent year-on-year in December 2024.

This marks the highest level since August 2023 and exceeds the 2.7 percent rise seen in November, matching market expectations.

Reflecting its growing optimism about wages and inflation, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised its short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%, as expected.

The move, which was approved by an 8-1 vote, suggests the BOJ’s confidence in sustaining inflation around its 2% target.

Hong Kong, China stocks surge on Friday

Hong Kong stocks rose, following a rally on Wall Street on Thursday.

The positive sentiment was bolstered by President Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum, which hinted at the possibility of improved US-China relations.

The Hang Seng Index gained around 2% to 20,061.26. The Hang Seng Tech Index saw a 3.1% rise.

Apple supplier Sunny Optical led the gainers, rising 6%. WuXi AppTec climbed 5.1%, while travel platform Trip.com advanced 4.7%.

China’s CSI 300 Index rose 0.9%, and the Shanghai Composite Index increased by 0.7%.

Trump expressed optimism about US-China relations, calling them “very good,” while also warning of tariffs on companies that do not manufacture in the US.

Other regional markets

The Australian stock market is notably higher on Friday, bouncing back from the losses of the previous session.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is trading above the 8,400 level, driven by gains in financial and technology stocks, which were partially offset by weakness in mining and energy sectors.

Positive sentiment from Wall Street’s performance on Thursday added to the upbeat momentum.

South Korea’s KOSPI also rebounded strongly on Friday. The Kospi added 16.89 points, or 0.67%, to 2,532.38.

Wall Street’s record session on Thursday

US stocks mostly moved higher on Thursday, continuing the strong upward momentum observed in recent sessions.

The S&P 500 closed higher for the seventh time in the past eight sessions, setting a new record closing high.

The major averages reached new highs toward the end of the trading day.

The Dow surged 408.34 points, or 0.9%, to 44,565.07, while the S&P 500 rose 32.34 points, or 0.5%, to 6,118.71. The Nasdaq increased by 44.34 points, or 0.2%, closing at 20,051.68.

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Amazon stock price surged to a record high this week, continuing a trend that has been going on for over two decades. AMZN soared to a record high of $235.5, giving it a market cap of over $2.45 trillion, making it the fourth-biggest company in the world after NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft. So, can the AMZN stock price continue soaring this year?

Amazon growth momentum continues

Amazon stock price has surged to a record high this year. This growth happened as its revenue jumped from over $280 billion in 2019 to $620 billion in the trailing twelve months (TTM). 

The company has become highly profitably as its net profit rose from over $11.5 billion in 2019 to almost $50 billion in the TTM. 

This growth happened as the company invested heavily on its retail and cloud computing business, where it is now the market leader.

The most recent results showed that Amazon’s net sales jumped by 11% in the third quarter to $158.9 billion. Most of this growth came from its cloud computing business, whose revenue rose by 19% to $27.5 billion.

It was followed by the international segment whose revenue rose by 12% to $35.9 billion and its North America business that made $95.5 bullion. As has been the case for a long time, while AWS makes the least amount of money in terms of revenue, it is the engine that powers Amazon. 

Its operating income in the third quarter was $10.4 billion, higher than the North America and international segments, combined, 

AMZN earnings next

The next important catalyst for the Amazon stock price will be its fourth-quarter and annual financial results on January 31st. These numbers will provide more information about how Amazon’s business did in Q4 and what to expect this year. 

Amazon’s guidance was that its revenue would jump to between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion this year or between 7% and 11% growth. 

The average estimate of the 46 analysts that track the company is that its quarterly revenue will be $187.26 billion, bringing the full-year figure to over $637 billion. Amazon has a long history of beating the analyst estimates, meaning that its numbers will likely be better than expected. 

The key catalyst for Amazon stock after earnings is usually its cloud computing business and whether it is continuing to grow. 

At the same time, there are concerns about the company’s valuation since it is one of the most overvalued names in the Magnificent 7 group. It has a forward P/E ratio of 45.6, much higher than the sector median of 20. In contrast, Google stock has a forward P/E ratio of 25, while Microsoft has a multiple of 34. 

Amazon stock price analysis

The monthly chart shows that the AMZN share price has been in a strong bullish trend this year. It has risen in the last five consecutive months. It jumped above the key resistance point at $188.70, its highest swing in November 2021. 

The stock remains above all 50-month and 100-month moving averages. Also, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved to the overbought point at 75. It is also nearing the extreme overshoot point at $250. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the stock will pull back as it moves towards mean reversion.

Mean reversion is a situation where a stock or a financial asset moves back to the averages. In this case, the stock will likely drop to the support at $188, and then resume the uptrend. This is known as a break-and-retest pattern, a popular continuation sign.

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India’s Adani Green Energy has announced the appointment of independent law firms to review allegations in the US indictment of founder Gautam Adani, Executive Director Sagar Adani, and Managing Director Vineet S Jain over claims of $265 million in bribes for securing power contracts.

The announcement was included in a regulatory filing released on Thursday, where Adani Green maintained its compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The names of the appointed law firms were not disclosed.

Allegations and Adani Group’s response

In November, US authorities indicted Adani and other top executives, alleging that they paid bribes to secure power supply contracts in India and misled US investors during fundraising efforts.

The Adani Group has strongly denied the charges, calling them “baseless.”

A focal point of the US investigation is a 2021 solar energy deal in Andhra Pradesh, where the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded a major renewables contract.

The deal was reportedly fast-tracked within 57 days despite concerns raised by finance and energy officials, ultimately benefiting Adani Green Energy.

Adani Green clarified that the company itself has not been named as a defendant in the indictment or civil complaint. It stated that it has previously disclosed all material information, including in bond offering circulars.

However, the bribery allegations against the Adani Group have caused unease among some investors and partners.

Andhra Pradesh is said to be reviewing its power deal with the conglomerate, while TotalEnergies SE has paused further investments in the Adani Group.

Shares of Adani Green Energy, already under pressure since the indictment, have fallen over 27%. On Friday, the stock was trading over 1% lower in the late hours of trading on Friday.

Adani Green Q3 earnings

The company also filed its earnings for the December quarter on Thursday.

Adani Green Energy reported a major jump in its Q3 consolidated net profit, which surged over 85% to ₹474 crore, compared to ₹256 crore in the same quarter last year.

Revenue from operations increased marginally by 2.3%, reaching ₹2,365 crore in the December quarter, compared to ₹2,311 crore in the corresponding period last year.

However, the company witnessed a 4% decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which stood at ₹1,601 crore, down from ₹1,666 crore a year ago.

Consequently, the EBITDA margin contracted to 67.7%, compared to 72.1% in the same period last year.

Post the December quarter results, brokerage firm Investec has reiterated its ‘buy’ rating on Adani Green Energy, assigning a target price of ₹2,515.

The target represents a potential upside of about 145% from the current market price of ₹1,017.

The brokerage highlighted AGEL’s consistent capacity expansion, robust operational performance, and its long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) as key factors supporting sustained growth in the renewable energy sector.

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US President Donald Trump reiterated his commitment to making America a leader in emerging technologies as he spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In particular, his focus currently is on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.

Trump’s broader agenda could prove to be a meaningful tailwind for a bunch of investment assets, including the up-and-coming meme coin, iDEGEN.

Why? Because it’s a cryptocurrency at its core and it uses artificial intelligence to learn from what’s being posted and talked about on social media website X.

iDEGEN could benefit from Trump’s AI initiative

Stargate – a joint venture with SoftBank, Oracle and OpenAI that President Trump announced this week aims at investing billions in artificial intelligence in the US.

Executives have pledged to start with $100 billion and pour in another $400 billion through 2028 to boost domestic computing capacity.

And as the government continues to invest in AI, investors will likely follow suit and park more of their capital in artificial intelligence focused investments.

Some of that capital, particularly from capital restrained investors, could flow into iDEGEN and help the price of its native token climb in 2025.

You can dive deeper and learn more about iDEGEN on this link.

Trump’s crypto executive order could boost iDEGEN

Donald Trump has already signed a crypto executive order only days after his inauguration on January 20.

He has formed a Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets tasked with creating a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Trump’s announcement reiterates that the overall backdrop will likely be more accommodative of the cryptocurrencies in 2025, which could help unlock significant upside in a bunch of them, including iDEGEN.

The government’s focus will add another layer of legitimacy to cryptocurrencies, potentially inviting more investments into them that could increase the price of iDEGEN over time.

Click here to explore ways to invest in the native iDEGEN token now.

What lower interest rates may mean for iDEGEN

In a recent statement, Donald Trump also announced plans of demanding that interest rates be lowered.

“With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately, and likewise they should be dropping all over the world,” Trump stated.

That’s another commitment which could prove as a tailwind for iDEGEN.

When interest rates are cut, investors typically turn to risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies in search of better returns than savings accounts, and fixed-income investments.

Note that the iDEGEN token is currently priced at $0.0133 only, which means you don’t need a huge sum of money to build a sizable early position in this AI enabled meme coin.

The potential tailwinds have already helped it raise more than $17 million during the presale. You can find out more about iDEGEN on its website.

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Apple stock price has pulled back this year as concerns about its innovation, growth, and valuation continued. AAPL crashed to $220, about 15% below its highest level in 2024, bringing its market cap to about $3.36 trillion, making it the second biggest company in the world after NVIDIA. So, is Apple still a good blue-chip Magnificent 7 stock to buy?

Apple is a top overvalued Magnificent 7 stock

Apple’s $3.3 trillion market cap has made it one of the most overvalued technology companies in the Magnificent 7. 

The company has a forward P/E ratio of 30.40, higher than other companies like Google and Microsoft. This multiple also higher than that of the S&P 500 index, which has a forward multiple of 21.

Apple is one of the top blue-chip companies in the world and deserves a premium valuation. However, realistically, this valuation has an issue because Apple is no longer a growing company as it used to be before. 

Its annual revenue moved from $383 billion in 2023 to over $391 billion in 2024, and analysts expect that its annual revenue will be $413 billion this year and $446 billion in 2025. While these numbers are big, they represent a 5.6% and 8% annual growth rate. 

The most recent financial results showed that its fourth-quarter revenue rose by just 6% to $94.9 billion, while the diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose by 12% to $1.64. 

Key challenges remain

The main challenge that Apple faces is that it relies mostly on the iPhone, which has been its cash cow for years. While the iPhone is the best phone today, most people are no longer updating their devices as they did before. To a large extent, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has no major differences with the 16 Pro Max. 

Over time, Apple has introduced other products to complement its offerings, but there is a sense that none can match the iPhone’s success.

Apple Watch has been the most successful launches in the past few years as it has continued to make billions annually. The challenge, however, is that the update cycle has not been all that strong in the past few years. 

Apple’s Vision Pro has not been all that successful as it has become a niche product and not a big cash generator for the firm. 

Apple has also been left behind in the artificial intelligence craze. While its products have received AI features recently, experts doubt whether they are all that useful. 

Meanwhile, there are signs that Apple’s services business is slowing as it faces regulatory challenges. Its services revenue rose from $22.3 billion in $24.9 billion in the fourth quarter of the year.

On the positive side, Apple has continued to reduce its outstanding shares and return funds to investors. Its outstanding shares have fallen from over 17.30 billion in 2020 to 15.1 billion, which has helped to boost its earnings per share. 

However, share buybacks and dividends alone are not enough for the company and its stock price in the future.

Read more: Aapl stock: Apple gets another rating downgrade as analyst sees 13% downside

Apple stock price forecast

The daily chart shows that the AAPL share price has been in a strong downtrend in the past few weeks. It dropped from a high of $260 on December 26 to $220, and is hovering at the 38.2% Fibonacci Retracement point.

The stock has also dropped below the 100-day and 50-day Weighted Moving Averages (WMA) and the lower side of the ascending channel. Also, the MACD and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) have continued falling. 

Therefore, the Apple stock price will likely continue falling ahead of its earnings scheduled on January 30. Further weakness will push it to the 50% retracement at $211.

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