Westpac shares slide after CPI surprise in Australia as rate bets stay in focus

The yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury briefly climbed to about 4.88% on Friday, its highest since early September, before easing back as buyers returned in the first trading session of 2026. The benchmark 10-year yield held around 4.15%.

South African shares ended their last session of 2025 slightly lower, with the FTSE/JSE All Share index down 0.57% at 115,832.28 points. The benchmark traded between 115,304.62 and 116,011.95 on Dec. 31 and finished the year about 37% higher, leaving it roughly 1.4% below its 52-week high, market data showed. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day. Investing.com+1

India’s finance ministry kept interest rates unchanged on a range of post office small-savings schemes for the January–March 2026 quarter, a decision that preserves returns on some of the country’s most widely held household savings products. Public Provident Fund stays at 7.1%, while the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi Account remain at 8.2%, the ministry said. The Economic Times