Singapore's PM to chair AI council as yen tanks 545 pips

USD/JPY crashed from 159.25 to around 154 after Japanese officials issued their strongest warnings yet, with FX chief Mimura calling it a "final warning." The problem: no one can confirm actual intervention occurred. Bank of America noted no BoJ indications and trading volumes stayed unusually low for such a sharp move. Tokyo has perfected the art of currency management through threats alone, but this rally risks fading fast without real money backing it. The Fed meets Thursday, and if Powell sounds dovish, dollar weakness could do Japan's work for them.

Asian investment-grade bond spreads have reached historic lows, with the JACI IG index posting 1.08% returns year-to-date as spreads barely widened 9 basis points. The compression reflects genuine strength in Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore, but peripheral sovereigns like Indonesia are underperforming on domestic political concerns. Eastspring argues the region offers comparable yields to developed markets while enabling diversification, but with 58% of Asian corporate debt held by companies sporting debt-to-EBITDA ratios above 4, something has to give. Either fundamentals are genuinely this good, or spreads are pricing in a world that doesn't exist.

The antidepressant maker priced its IPO at the top of the range, targeting a $912 million valuation for technology that promises oral bioavailability without the liver damage typical of neuropsychiatric drugs. Seaport's lead candidate SPT-300 advances into Phase 2b studies for major depression, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan underwriting the deal despite the company being barely two years old. The Glyph platform's ability to bypass first-pass metabolism could be genuinely disruptive, or it could be another biotech betting that novel delivery mechanisms will overcome the industry's 90% failure rate. Investors clearly believe the former, but Phase 2b data will settle the question.

The collaboration software maker beat revenue estimates with $1.79 billion in Q3, up 32% year-over-year, and raised full-year growth forecasts from 22% to 24%. Rovo, Atlassian's AI search agent, now has over 5 million monthly active users and is driving enterprise sales that had been stagnating. The stock had fallen 57% year-to-date before this jump, making it one of the more dramatic AI validation stories. The question now is whether other software companies can replicate Atlassian's model of using AI to accelerate existing workflows rather than replace them entirely.