Highlights for the morning: Nikkei record, Novartis deal and the new role of bitcoin miners

Japan's Nikkei index crossed the 50,000-point mark for the first time amid optimism in anticipation of U.S.-China talks and a rebound on Wall Street. Novartis buys biotech Avidity Biosciences for $12 billion, strengthening its position in RNAi therapeutics. HSBC pledges $1.1 billion in reserves after a failed Madoff judgment in Luxembourg. These and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of October 27.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index surpassed the 50,000-point mark for the first time ever ahead of a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and amid strong momentum on Wall Street, CNBC reported.

Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is also preparing for talks with Trump. They are expected to discuss measures to expand domestic demand - a step that, according to analysts at Crédit Agricole, could finally lift the country out of deflationary stagnation.

HSBC said it will record a $1.1 billion provision in its third-quarter financial statements following a court ruling in Luxembourg on a lawsuit brought by Herald Fund SPC related to Bernard Madoff's case of the largest investment fraud in U.S. history, CNBC reports. The court rejected an appeal by HSBC's Luxembourg unit on the securities recovery portion, but granted an appeal on the cash refund. The bank is preparing a second appeal.

According to HSBC, Herald's total claims could reach $5.6 billion including interest. The provision created will reduce the capital adequacy ratio (CET1) by 15 basis points to about 14.4%. Analysts believe that this loss will not affect the operational stability of the bank, but may temporarily weaken investor confidence, notes CNBC.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has announced it will acquire small US biotech Avidity Biosciences for $12 billion - at $72 per share, up 46% from the closing price on Friday, October 24, CNBC writes. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, after Avidity spins off a portion of its business, including early-stage cardiology projects.

Avidity is developing innovative next-generation RNAi therapeutics to target gene expression to treat inherited diseases. According to Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, Avidity's technologies provide "industry-leading results for the delivery of RNAi therapeutics to muscle tissues".

Novartis raised its forecast for compound annual sales growth to 6% over 2024-2029 on the back of the deal. The company is actively expanding R&D, investing $23 bln in US infrastructure and entering into new agreements, including with Anthos Therapeutics and Regulus Therapeutics to develop drugs for cardiovascular and renal diseases.

Bitcoin miners are massively shifting capacity to serve the growing demand for artificial intelligence, Yahoo Finance reports. IREN, Riot, TeraWulf and Cipher Mining have signed long-term contracts, providing land, power and data centers for high-performance computing and cloud-based AI loads. Analysts note that AI returns are significantly higher than classic mining, especially after the recent decline in profits and the upcoming "halving" (reducing the reward for bitcoin mining).

Bernstein estimates that grid-connected mining facilities can reduce the deployment time of AI centers by up to 75%, and their infrastructure is closer to the requirements of AI clusters than traditional data centers. Companies like Riot, CleanSpark and TeraWulf are already converting their sites into hybrid bitcoin and HPC centers. TeraWulf's stock is up 150% since the beginning of the year, while IREN is up more than 500% after purchasing 4,200 Nvidia Blackwell chips.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 1.6 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was up 2.29 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index jumped 2.23%, while the Kosdaq added 1.85%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.41%.

- Nasdaq Composite futures rose 1.1 percent, S&P 500 exchange-traded contracts added 0.9 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor