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By Dhara Ranasinghe LONDON (Reuters) -World markets found steadier ground on Monday after being whipsawed by broadsides in the U.S.-China trade war, while gold hit new record highs in a sign that uncertainty remained high. While U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened 100% tariffs on China from November 1 and Beijing said it could take countermeasures, he sounded more conciliatory on Sunday, posting that the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China.  European shares were broadly higher, while U.S. stock futures also firmed although trading was subdued by a holiday in Japan and the United States.  France remained in the spotlight with reappointed prime minister Sebastien Lecornu facing pressure to get a budget deal across the line. "The stabilisation in markets is encouraging," said Rory McPherson, chief investment officer at Wren Sterling in London.  "Given everything that is going on with the (U.S. government) shutdown, and political turmoil in France and Japan, markets have been strong. A pullback would be healthy." Beijing defended on Sunday its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment as a response to U.S. aggression, but stopped short of imposing new levies on U.S. products. Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said that while he still expected an extension of the current tariff pause, recent developments suggested a wider range of outcomes was possible. JAPANESE LEADERSHIP NOW IN DOUBT Japanese markets had their own problems with the ascension of new LDP leader Sanae Takaichi to prime minister now in doubt, contributing to a sharp rebound in the yen and a 5% dive in Nikkei futures on Friday. Japan's Nikkei was closed on Monday, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tumbled 1.5%. Chinese blue chips fell 0.5%, though the rare earth and semiconductor sectors both firmed. Data pointed to some resilience in trade with exports rising 8.3%, almost twice the forecast, and imports up strongly. And in a sign that global uncertainties remained strong, gold hit fresh record highs above $4,000 an ounce, while Asia stocks fell sharply.  BofA commodities analysts said in a note on Monday that they had raise their forecast for gold to $5,000 an ounce for next year from $4,400.  U.S. stock futures pointed to a rebound on Wall Street, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq stock futures up more than 1% each. While the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are open for trade on Monday's Columbus Day holiday, bond markets are closed.  Earnings season kicks off this week with major banks reporting, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. S&P 500 companies overall are expected to have increased earnings by 8.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to LSEG IBES, and strong results will be needed to justify the market's high valuations. "Our guess is you might get, at least in the very near term, a more volatile and directionless environment for some of the risky assets. Ultimately, whether or not you go against the market in this environment depends on your conviction," said Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier. FRANCE TURMOIL Politics cast a cloud over Europe as the French presidency announced Lecornu's new cabinet line-up on Sunday, reappointing Roland Lescure, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron, as finance minister. Lecornu will face a no-confidence vote most likely on Thursday and it's unclear if he has the votes needed to survive. France's 10-year bond yield was little changed at around 3.47% and French stocks rallied 0.5% in a sign that investors were holding on to hopes for some near-term political stability. "Even if, very big if, Lecornu now lasts longer in office than on his first attempt, he will face an uphill struggle to get a budget for 2026 through the divided parliament by the end of the year," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg.  Currency markets also saw some stabilisation after Friday's rush into the traditional safe havens of the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. The dollar rallied 0.6% to 152 yen, having slid 1.2% on Friday from a top of 153.29. The euro slipped 0.25% to $1.1586, while the dollar gained 0.5% on the Swiss franc to 0.8038. The dollar index was steady, after losing 0.6% on Friday. In bond markets, cash Treasuries were closed for a holiday, while government bond yields in Europe nudged up.  U.S. and European bond yields had hit multi-week lows in the wake of Trump's tariff threat on Friday , while investors had added to wagers on more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. "Interestingly, the bond market held up on Friday and that was encouraging given the recent selloff in long-dated bonds," said Wren Sterling's McPherson. Futures implied around a 98% chance of a quarter-point cut from the Fed later this month, and a similar probability of another move in December. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has a chance to offer his guidance when he speaks on the economic outlook at the NABE annual meeting on Tuesday.  A host of other Fed members are appearing this week, along with a who's who of central bankers attending an IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington. Oil prices also regained some ground on hopes the U.S. and China would find some compromise on trade to avoid fresh tariffs. [O/R] Brent bounced 1.7% to $63.8 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 1.9% to $60 per barrel. (Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Ros Russell)

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By Saeed Azhar NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs has lost more than a dozen senior investment bankers this year, a higher number than normal, after internal shakeups and a sluggish start to 2025 drove them to seek new opportunities, according to three sources familiar with the situation. Some bankers left because they expected to be passed over for promotions this year, including to Goldman's elite partner class, while others exited because they expected meager bonuses after dealmaking stalled in the first half, according to two of the sources familiar with the situation who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters.  The scale of departures is being reported by Reuters for the first time.  Despite the departures, Goldman still tops Wall Street's league tables for mergers and acquisitions, and its fee volumes have also surged close to levels in 2021. Its broader investment banking net revenue in the nine months of the year rose to the highest since 2021, according to data from Dealogic. The bankers who departed this year joined rivals including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, while others joined boutiques like Evercore. "We always look to run our firm in service of our clients and shareholders," a bank spokesperson said in a statement. "Goldman Sachs succeeds because of our exceptional teams and strength of our franchise." The bank will elevate new partners this year. In 2024, it appointed 95 new partners, including 26 women. It advised Electronic Arts on its $55 billion sale to a consortium of private equity firms and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund this year, and also advised Holcim on the spinoff of its North American business Amrize, now valued at $26 billion.  "There have been fewer deals overall, but larger in size, requiring less headcount," said Stephen Biggar, a banking analyst at Argus Research.  Megadeals across the industry jumped to $1.26 trillion in global mergers and acquisitions during the third quarter, up 40% year over year, according to Dealogic data. But 8,912 deals were signed, down 16% from last year, the worst third-quarter for deal volume in 20 years, according to the data. The surge in investment banking has also boosted Goldman's shares, which are up nearly 38% this year, outperforming the S&P Financial index's 11% rise. LEADERSHIP CHANGES Goldman made major leadership changes this year, introducing co-heads across its major divisions and adding six new members to its management committee. The firm also created a new financing division.  The Wall Street giant also pulled forward annual staffing cuts to the second quarter this year from September. The exercise typically targets a headcount reduction of 3% to 5% based on performance. Headcount fell 2% to 45,900 employees in the second quarter versus the first, according to a company filing. "The expectation for the bigger M&A environment has been in place for some time," said Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. "As such, I believe that Goldman Sachs is well prepared to take advantage of the tailwinds given their franchise and broad-based banking capabilities. Headcount may fluctuate, but not, in my opinion, the productiveness of the firm's banking culture." Below is a list of some of the Goldman bankers who have departed this year. They did not respond to requests for comment. Name New Company Role       Gabe Gelman Baker Brothers  Head of Capital Advisors Solutions Citigroup Managing Director, David Friedland Co-Head of North America Investment Banking Geddes Johnson FIS Head of Strategy and M&A Bennett Blau Evercore Managing Director, Medtech Todd Eagle Jefferies Managing Director, Head of US Real Estate JPMorgan Managing Director, Brett Miller Co-Head of Software Investment Banking JPMorgan Managing Director, Head Eric Quanbeck of Applied Technology JPMorgan Managing Director, Jonathan Business Services Slaughter Devin Wilde Morgan Stanley Managing Director BDT & MSD Managing Director, Ryan Nolan Partners Global Co-Head of Software Chris DiOrio Wells Fargo Managing Director, Head of Industrials M&A Wells Fargo Managing Director, Head Kieran Ryan of Sponsor M&A (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Will Dunham)

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(Reuters) -StubHub Holdings' shares rose nearly 5% in premarket trading on Monday, as Wall Street analysts backed the ticketing platform's potential for long-term growth despite the stock's rocky debut last month. Brokerages began coverage on StubHub on an upbeat note after the end of the industry-mandated quiet period. "We believe through its well-established, dominant position in the secondary ticketing market, StubHub will be able to establish a formidable entry into the materially larger primary ticketing market," Evercore ISI analysts said, assigning an "outperform" rating. At $19.81 on Monday, the shares are already below its IPO price of $23.50, which suggests the market is not fully convinced about StubHub's ability to grow quickly or compete with bigger players, according to analysts. Its industry rivals have also struggled in the public market, except Ticketmaster-parent Live Nation. StubHub's stock performance contrasts sharply with recent tech IPOs such as Klarna and Figma, which saw double-digit gains in early trading days. "We believe STUB shares, trading at a discount to peers, offer compelling risk/reward as we expect strong execution in core resale and ads, while direct issuance expectations seem muted," J.P. Morgan analysts said while initiating coverage with an "outperform" rating. The company raised nearly $800 million in its long-awaited U.S. IPO, with proceeds earmarked for reducing its $2.4 billion debt. The listing marked StubHub's return to public markets after multiple delays, following its $4.05 billion acquisition by Viagogo in 2020 and earlier ownership under eBay. Founded in 2000, StubHub operates a ticketing marketplace in more than 200 countries, enabling buyers to purchase tickets for live events, including sports and music performances. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs led a 14-firm underwriting syndicate for StubHub's IPO.  (Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

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By Nupur Anand NEW YORK (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase launched a $1.5 trillion plan on Monday to facilitate, finance and invest in industries deemed critical to the U.S. national security and economic resilience, including defense, energy and advanced manufacturing. As part of the 10-year initiative, the largest U.S. lender also plans to hire more bankers and invest up to $10 billion into U.S. companies through direct equity and venture capital investments, focusing on fast-growing businesses and key manufacturers. The announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration looks to modernize infrastructure and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains, particularly in sectors like pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, clean energy and rare earths. “It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing – all of which are essential for our national security," JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said. Trump revived the trade war against Beijing on Friday, ending an uneasy truce between the two largest economies with promises to sharply hike tariffs in a reprisal against China curbing its rare earths exports. JPMorgan said its new "security and resiliency initiative" would facilitate financing and investment across four strategic sectors: supply chain and manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence; and frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The firm said it had already planned to facilitate and finance about $1 trillion over the next decade in support of clients in these important industries, according to previously undisclosed internal figures, but it would be increasing the size by 50%. The U.S. government is pursuing deals across up to 30 industries, involving dozens of companies deemed critical to national or economic security, Reuters reported this month. JPMorgan, which helped put together the government's deal with U.S. rare earths mining company MP Materials, said in a recent company podcast that the bank was working with the Trump administration to explore more such opportunities. “We've had no less than 100 calls with clients to talk about the MP transaction as well as what this means for other industries,” said Andrew Castaldo, JPMorgan’s co-head of mid-cap mergers and acquisitions. “And we've had numerous trips down to Washington to explore those opportunities with the government.” Dimon also emphasized the need for policy reform to accelerate progress, citing regulatory delays and workforce challenges. “America needs more speed and investment,” he said. KEY INVESTMENT AREAS The four key investment areas identified by the firm have been divided into 27 sub-sectors ranging from shipbuilding and nuclear energy to nanomaterials and secure communications and will include middle-market companies as well as large corporate clients, it added. The bank said it would establish an external advisory council composed of public and private sector leaders, in addition to hiring more bankers and investment professionals. It will also expand thematic research on supply chain vulnerabilities and emerging technologies, leveraging its recently launched Center for Geopolitics. (Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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