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1. Asian stocks are looking for direction as traders monitored the latest developments in the Middle East and awaited the Federal Reserve’s monetary-policy decision.

Also hurting on sentiment was news that the European Union is refusing to hold an economic meeting with China due to a lack of progress on trade disputes.

That’s adding to geopolitical worries and “raises fears of deeper decoupling beyond the US-China relationship, weighing on sentiment in Hong Kong given its close ties to mainland markets and sensitivity to global investor flows,” said Charu Chanana, a strategist at Saxo Capital Markets.

Investor attention is centered on the Fed’s policy decision, where the US central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged. Chair Jerome Powell’s guidance after the meeting will be closely watched for signals on future moves, especially amid fears that tariffs could cause price shocks.

2. Are investors too bullish right now?

Investors are now “all-in” on equities with the highest stock allocation on record.

3. The trade-off: The U.S.’s biggest stocks are more innovative and profitable, but also far more expensive.

“There’s a rotation going on,” says Jim Caron, chief investment officer of the portfolio solutions group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “Europe’s got monetary policy stimulus, and it’s got fiscal policy stimulus.

It also has a currency tailwind and an appeal to investors looking to diversify away from their highly concentrated U.S. holdings.”

4. Diamonds are not forever anymore.

The diamond industry was always artificial. It operated as an illegal cartel restricting supply and managing demand to artificially inflate the price of a commodity. Two companies , De Beers and Alrosa, control 90% of supply.

The advent of cheap identical lab grown substitutes , as happened with pearls , combined with the decline in marriage and preference switch to coloured stones by the youth were the final nails in the coffin.

5. Novo Nordisk recovering from peak pessimism.

“Following the numerous developments surrounding the obesity market, we have revisited both our Obesity and Diabetes models. While there have been concerns in the financial markets over the size of the GLP-1 market, we still see potential for substantial growth, given the limited penetration of GLP-1s today and the price/ volume related elasticity in the obesity market in particular. To this end, we still see the global GLP-1 market sales increasing from $54bn in 2024 to $160bn in 2030E underpinned by substantial volume growth, in particular outside the US.”

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