Oil Prices Slip as U.S.-Iran Talks Ease Middle East Tensions 
Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
RBI Holds Repo Rate at 5.25% as India’s Growth Outlook Strengthens After U.S. Trade Deal 
Lee Seung-heon Signals Caution on Rate Hikes, Supports Higher Property Taxes to Cool Korea’s Housing Market 
UK Starting Salaries See Strongest Growth in 18 Months as Hiring Sentiment Improves 
Trump’s Inflation Claims Clash With Voters’ Cost-of-Living Reality 
Indian Refiners Scale Back Russian Oil Imports as U.S.-India Trade Deal Advances 
Australian Pension Funds Boost Currency Hedging as Aussie Dollar Strengthens 
Gold and Silver Prices Climb in Asian Trade as Markets Eye Key U.S. Economic Data 
Japan Economy Poised for Q4 2025 Growth as Investment and Consumption Hold Firm 
The Australian government bonds traded lower on Thursday as markets are hopeful of a resolution from the U.S.-China trade talks scheduled to be held later today.
The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, climbed 1 basis point to 0.898 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond surged nearly 1-1/2 basis points to 1.497 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year traded flat at 0.638 percent by 05:15GMT.
Fed minutes from the September meeting suggested that members are increasingly divided rather than united in their views on the rate path ahead, but agreed they would soon need to discuss whether to increase its balance sheet size following the repo market volatility, OCBC treasury Research reported.
Meanwhile, optimism of a partial US-China trade deal continued to wax and wane on the back of a FT report that suggested China will offer to increase annual purchases of US agricultural goods by $10 billion and make changes to non-tariff barriers, whereas SCMP later reported that deputy-level trade talks saw no progress, the report added.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index slipped -0.40 percent to 6,528.50 by 05:20GMT.
