In Japan, Sanae Takaichi won a key vote in parliament and will now become the country's first female prime minister. Apple shares hit an all-time high thanks to record sales of the iPhone 17. Australian rare earth producers soared after an $8.5 billion U.S.-Australia mineral deal, and Wall Street posted its best rally since June amid strong corporate earnings and expectations of easing trade tensions with China. On these and other topics - in the review of key events for the morning of October 21.

Sanae Takaichi has taken over the leadership of Japan

Sanae Takaichi made history by becoming Japan's first female prime minister after winning a parliamentary vote, CNBC writes. She won 237 votes out of 465, avoiding a runoff. Takaichi's victory was secured by the alliance of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Innovation Party of Japan, which agreed on a joint program including tax relief and education reform.

Markets welcomed her rise to power: the Nikkei 225 index hit an all-time high in trading on October 21, and analysts called it the "Takaichi trade" - a bet on looser monetary policy and massive fiscal stimulus. Japanese government bond yields fell slightly and the yen weakened.

The iPhone 17 has pushed Apple's stock to a record high

Apple shares rose nearly 4% to a record high after a Counterpoint Research report: iPhone 17 sales in the U.S. and China exceeded iPhone 16 sales by 14% in the first 10 days, Yahoo Finance reports. The base model, which analysts call the best value for money, is being bought especially aggressively.

The series gets an improved processor, screen, more memory and a new front camera without raising the price. In China, sales are supported by discounts and coupons, and the premium iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are in demand thanks to operator subsidies.

Despite the successes, the market is still waiting for the promised release of the AI version of voice assistant Siri, which Apple has postponed due to performance issues, while Google and Samsung are already actively pushing their AI features.

An $8.5 billion rare earth metals deal has sent Australian stocks soaring

Shares of Australia's largest rare earth and critical metals companies rose sharply on Tuesday after the announcement of a deal between the U.S. and Australia worth up to $8.5 billion, CNBC writes. The agreement, signed by Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albaniz, aims to strengthen the supply of strategic materials for the defense and energy industries.

On the back of the news, Lynas shares rose by 4.7%, Iluka Resources by 9% and Pilbara Minerals by 5%. Among smaller players, VHM added about 30%, Northern Minerals - 16%, and Latrobe Magnesium jumped almost 47%. US-based Alcoa, which is developing a gallium processing project in Western Australia, rose 10% after its project was prioritized.

Rare earth elements and critical metals are needed to produce electronics, electric vehicles and defense equipment. Amid China's trade restrictions, the U.S. and Australia are stepping up cooperation, with the White House announcing more than $3 billion in investments and $2.2 billion in loan guarantees to boost projects in the coming months.

AWS outage paralyzed the internet for 15 hours

Amazon Web Services has fixed a glitch that disrupted its services for nearly 15 hours: it showed how much the Internet depends on a single player, Bloomberg reports. The problems affected hundreds of sites and apps - from Venmo, Robinhood and Zoom to McDonald's, Epic Games and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant.

The outage was caused by a faulty digital catalog in one of AWS's databases, triggering a chain reaction of failures. The company said it had fully recovered all systems by 6pm New York time (midnight CET).

The incident reemphasized the vulnerability of global infrastructure: a single failure at a major cloud provider can cause disruptions across the globe, from fintech to entertainment, Bloomberg noted.

Confident reports and hopes for a deal with China warmed up Wall Street

U.S. stock markets rose amid strong corporate reports and hopes of easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, Bloomberg reports. About 85% of companies in the S&P 500 index have already beaten earnings forecasts, helping the index post its best two-day rally since June. The 10-year bond yield fell to 3.98% and gold rose.

Investors are optimistic about the stability of American companies and expect growth to continue by the end of the year. Analysts of JPMorgan and UBS note that the market has passed to the phase of growth based on profit, and high activity of private investors and expectations of reduction of FRS rates create conditions for new rise. Especially strong quarter is predicted for small companies - profit on Russell 2000 can grow by more than 35%.

Despite the risks, experts see signs of a "golden mean" for the US economy - soft enough to cut rates, but steady enough to avoid recession. Investors are waiting for inflation data for September, which will help the Fed determine further steps on monetary policy.

What's in the markets

- The broad Japanese Topix index was growing by 0.31%. Benchmark Nikkei 225 - by 0.79%.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 0.57%, while the Kosdaq was falling 0.26%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.65 percent.

- Futures on the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed.

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

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