Gold prices were pressured by an uptick in the US dollar on Friday, but remained on track for a weekly gain as uncertainties around incoming President Donald Trump’s policies and renewed bets of further rate cuts lifted bullion above the key $2,700 level.

British treasurer Rachel Reeves said Saturday that London was a “natural home” for Chinese finance during a visit to Beijing in the shadow of bond market turmoil back home.

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles jumped more than 40 percent in China last year, as demand for new energy models continues to surge and the sector remains entrenched in a gruelling price war.

Gold prices retreated from a three-week high on Friday, pressured by a robust dollar, while markets braced for potential economic and trade shifts under US President-elect Donald Trump.

In 2025, the global economy will be in a much better place than at any time since the outbreak of Covid-19. Growth will be solid, and inflation will finally abate.

The dollar slipped on the last trading day of the year on Tuesday but was poised to clock strong gains in 2024 against almost all currencies as investors prepared for fewer US rate cuts and the incoming Trump administration.

Gold prices slipped in thin trade on Monday, as markets awaited next week’s US economic data and the potential impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office on the Federal Reserve’s 2025 outlook.

Japan’s factory activity shrank at a slower pace in December as declines in production and new orders eased, a private-sector survey showed on Monday, edging closer to stabilisation after recent falls.

Tokyo is bustling. Office vacancy rates in the Asian city are around 3 percent, sharply lower than 15 percent for New York and 8 percent for London. Japan’s rising appeal to financiers, tourists and global buyout firms alike, plus its enduring low interest rates, will underpin another strong year for its commercial property market.

A business coalition led by large US banks filed suit Tuesday against the Federal Reserve, criticizing the central bank’s annual stress test implementation as “opaque” and detrimental to economic growth.

In 2025, a competition to master assisted and autonomous driving will begin in earnest. Carmakers like Tesla are chasing a market that McKinsey reckons could be worth $400 billion by 2035. But the benefits may prove elusive.

No sooner had the global economy started to put the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic behind it than a whole new set of challenges opened up for 2025.

India is reviewing a decade-old $30 billion programme requiring coal-fired power plants to install equipment to cut sulphur emissions after government-backed studies showed they had little impact on curbing pollution, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.

Chinese authorities have agreed to issue 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) worth of special treasury bonds next year, two sources said, which would be the highest on record, as Beijing ramps up fiscal stimulus to revive a faltering economy.

Honda and Nissan -- Japan's number two and three automakers after Toyota -- are aiming to finalise a merger deal in June 2025, several media outlets said.

The conservative coalition government defended its "respect for taxpayers' money" as the opposition accused it of feeding a "recessionary fire".

Bangladesh's interim govt has accused Adani Power of breaching a multi-billion-dollar agreement by withholding tax benefits

Powell's explicit - and repeated - references to the need for caution from here on jolted Wall Street, sending stocks sharply lower, bond yields higher and leading investors to dial back estimates of how far borrowing costs are likely to fall over the coming year.

Regulators have long warned that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are high-risk assets, with limited uses in the real world. High volatility has been another barrier to wide adoption as a means of payment.

The talks between Honda and Nissan are aimed at setting up a holding company, said the source, who declined to be identified because the information had not been made public.