[Morning Briefing] 'Tech Stocks Rally' US Stocks Rise…Trump to Visit China Next Year; Xi Jinping to Visit US

◆ Google-fueled AI optimism…New York stocks rise

The three major US stock indices closed higher as buying centered on tech stocks. On the 24th local time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.44% to 46,448.27, the S&P 500 also rose 1.55% to 6,705.12, and the Nasdaq surged 2.69% to 22,872.01. Although trading is usually light ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, AI optimism sparked by Google's 'Gemini 3.0' drove the rally. Google drew attention for building the Gemini system around its in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPU), significantly reducing the costs of the AI industry. Fueled by tech buying sentiment, not only Google but other AI-related tech stocks also climbed.

◆ Trump to visit China in April next year…Xi to be invited to the US as a state guest

US President Donald Trump will visit China in April next year, and after the China visit he will host Chinese President Xi Jinping in the United States next year in a reciprocal state visit. President Trump said on social media on the 24th local time that "Chairman Xi invited me to visit Beijing and I accepted." The two leaders spoke this time to follow up on agreements reached when they met at the APEC summit in Korea on the 30th of last month, and by arranging these "big events" of mutual visits next year they confirmed the importance of US-China cooperation and communication.

◆ Progress on Ukraine peace plan…"Trump is optimistic"

The White House said on the 24th local time that there are not many differences between the US and Ukraine regarding a peace plan to end the Ukraine-Russia war, and emphasized that an agreement is likely. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a media interview that "the (Trump) president maintains hope and optimism that an agreement can be reached" and "the president wants this war to end." European leaders, including the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, assessed that while some issues remain to be resolved on the Ukraine peace plan, progress has been made on several points.

◆ Effect of tariff negotiation settlement…consumer sentiment highest in 8 years

Consumer economic sentiment was found to be at its highest level in eight years since November 2017 (113.9). According to the Bank of Korea's 'Consumer Survey' released today (25th), the November Consumer Confidence Index, CCSI, was 112.4, up 2.6 points from the previous month. Among the six indices that make up the CCSI, the 'future economic outlook' rose the most, and a Bank of Korea official attributed this to the settlement of US-Korea tariff negotiations and third-quarter GDP growth exceeding expectations.

◆ Early morning thunder and lightning…cloudy with rain and snow

Today, Tuesday, the country will be mostly cloudy with rain or snow accompanied by thunder and lightning in most areas. Expected precipitation amounts are △Gangwon mountains, east coast and Ulleungdo and Dokdo 5~20㎜ △Seoul metropolitan area and inland Gangwon, Chungcheong region, North Jeolla 5~15㎜ △Gwangju, South Jeolla and Jeju 5~10㎜ △Gyeongsang region around 5㎜. Snow of 1~5㎝ is expected in the high mountains of northern Gangwon and Jeju mountain areas, and about 1㎝ in the high mountains of central and southern Gangwon and eastern North Jeolla. Daytime temperatures will be similar to the season at 9~14°C, and fine dust concentrations are forecast to be 'bad' in the Seoul metropolitan area, Gangwon Yeongseo, Chungcheong and Honam, and 'moderate' in other regions.

Bong-gu Kim, Hankyung.com reporter kbk9@hankyung.com