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(Reuters) -Citigroup raised its year-end price target for ether to $4,500 from $4,300, citing strong flows from ETFs and digital asset treasuries. The brokerage trimmed its bitcoin forecast to $133,000 from $135,000, pointing to offsetting macro factors, including a stronger dollar and weaker gold prices. (Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

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By Gregor Stuart Hunter SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar battled to overturn a four-day losing streak on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear arguments in January over President Donald Trump's attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, leaving her in the post for now. Market concern about the Fed's independence now "moves to the backburner for the next few months," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG in Sydney. Earlier strength for the U.S. dollar petered out, with a gauge which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies reversing initial gains of 0.1%, and was last trading flat at 97.74. After four straight days of losses for the world's reserve currency, traders are weighing how long the U.S. government shutdown will last, its effect on economic data releases, and how that will play into the Fed's decision making. "We're in a bit of a void," Sycamore added. "We're effectively done now, in terms of market-moving data, until October 13." The U.S. government shutdown has put the brakes on the flow of federal economic data at a moment of uncertainty and division among policymakers. The Trump administration on Wednesday froze $26 billion for Democratic-leaning states, following through on a threat to use the shutdown to target Democratic priorities. The betting website Polymarket indicates the highest likelihood that the standoff will last between one or two weeks, though there is currently a 34% probability of a longer shutdown, with just over $1.2 million wagered. U.S. private payrolls unexpectedly dropped by 32,000 last month after a downwardly revised 3,000 decline in August, according to data released by ADP on Wednesday. Investors have focused on this report for fresh clues on the health of the workforce, as the shutdown means the Labor Department's more comprehensive and closely followed employment report for September will not be published on Friday. U.S. manufacturing activity also edged up in September, though new orders and employment were subdued as factories grappled with the fallout from Trump's sweeping tariffs. The market is assuming that further policy easing at the Federal Reserve's October meeting is a lock, with Fed funds futures implying a 99% probability of a 25-basis-point cut, up from 96.2% a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Gold, which has surged to record highs as investors back away from the U.S. dollar, slipped 0.1% in early trading to $3,863 per ounce. Against the yen, the dollar traded at 147.18 yen , up 0.1% from late U.S. levels. Against the offshore yuan, the dollar fetched 7.1321 yuan, up 0.1% in Asian trading, ahead of a meeting in four weeks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Trump, who said on Truth Social today that soybean purchases would be a major topic of discussion. Chinese markets are closed for the Golden Week holiday. The euro was steady at $1.1733 after the Wall Street Journal reported the United States will provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure. Sterling was unchanged at $1.3474. The Australian dollar appreciated 0.1% to $0.6617 after data released Thursday showed household spending rose only marginally in August as goods took a downturn. Meanwhile, the kiwi gained 0.2% to $0.5828 , extending its winning streak into a fifth consecutive day. (Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has reached a valuation of $500 billion following a deal in which current and former employees sold roughly $6.6 billion worth of shares, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. (Reporting by Krystal Hu and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

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HONG KONG (Reuters) -Alibaba's mapping app Amap recorded more than 360 million daily active users on the first day of China's eight-day National Day holiday on Wednesday, setting an all-time high for the platform, the company said in a statement. Alibaba and rival Meituan have been locked in a bitter battle for market share, with Amap moving away from its traditional focus on navigation and encroaching on Meituan's local-lifestyle territory by launching its own ranking of restaurants, hotels and tourist destinations.  In Thursday trade in Hong Kong, index heavyweight Alibaba jumped 4% after JPMorgan raised the tech giant's target share price to HK$240 ($30.85) from a previous HK$165. Coinciding with the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, the National Day holiday this year has been extended from one week to eight days, fuelling a surge in travel. The holiday period, which ends this year on October 8, is traditionally one of the busiest in China. In September, Amap announced a new function known as "Street Stars," which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to rank destinations for its daily active users. The app was offering users 1 billion yuan ($140.43 million) in subsidies for coupons for ride-hailing or in-store services as part of the new service's launch. Chinese consumers have long relied on apps such as Meituan's Dazhong Dianping to research restaurant recommendations, make bookings and more. China's national railway recorded 23.13 million trips on the first day of the National Day holiday, up nearly 8% from a year earlier and setting a single-day record, state media CCTV reported. ($1 = 7.7800 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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By Leah Douglas, P.J. Huffstutter and Julie Ingwersen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. federal government shutdown that began Wednesday will halt some payments to farmers and delay access to federal farm loans, the latest blow for producers already facing low crop prices, record-high debts and a trade war at the height of the fall harvest. The shutdown began at midnight after Republican and Democratic lawmakers could not agree on a plan to fund federal government operations. It will last until one party gets enough votes for its funding plan.  On Wednesday, the scope of the shutdown's potential impact to U.S. farmers was beginning to emerge. Even short interruptions in payments could deepen farmers' economic turmoil. "It costs money to run those combines," said Chad Hart, agricultural economist with Iowa State University.  During shutdowns, significant numbers of federal employees are furloughed and many operations temporarily stop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture furloughed about half of its 85,907-person staff, according to agency shutdown plans posted on its website. The plans show the USDA will continue some operations deemed mission-critical, like administration of nutrition programs and food inspections.  But much of its other work will cease, such as processing of farm loans and making payments to farmers, including billions of dollars in disaster aid contained in President Donald Trump's tax-cut and spending bill.  Tim Wells, who raises sheep in Paragould, Arkansas, was planning to apply this month for disaster aid for losses from recent weather events, but new applications are not being accepted during the shutdown. He also worries about payment delays for a USDA conservation project that he installed as a contractor. "The way the farm economy’s been, nobody needs to wait because it takes so much just to operate," he said. The Trump administration and the USDA have blamed the shutdown on Democrats. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on social media: "billions in disaster aid blocked from reaching farmers." Democrats have said Republicans are to blame because they control both chambers of Congress and the White House.TRADE WAR, LOW PRICES Farmers have significant economic concerns this autumn. Trump's trade war with China has prompted the world's top soybean buyer to shun U.S. shipments for rival Brazil.  Record-high corn harvests are expected to drive down prices, and the costs of farming necessities like seeds and fertilizer are surging. Now, the USDA has stopped issuing weather-related disaster payments, accepting and processing farm loans, providing technical assistance for conservation programs and swaths of other agency work, the agency shutdown plan said. It will also not process annual commodity and land conservation payments, typically issued by or in October, or advance money for loans the agency has already approved, according to the plan. The USDA was in the process of issuing the last round of payments to farmers from the $10 billion Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, a one-time economic assistance payment to some commodity farmers, in the days before the shutdown.  Four farmers told Reuters they had received payments on Tuesday night, and while the amount of money was small in some cases, it would aid them through the shutdown.  The timing of this shutdown is particularly disruptive because farmers often rely on USDA loans to pay for machinery, fertilizer and other expenses during harvest season, said economist Hart. Farmers planning for next year's growing season could also hit roadblocks, said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of the USDA's Farm Service Agency under the Biden administration. "If you're trying to buy land with an FSA (Farm Service Agency) loan, you could have that opportunity disappear," Ducheneaux said. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington and P.J. Huffstutter and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago. Editing by Emily Schmall and David Gregorio)

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By Yuka Obayashi and Siyi Liu TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Thursday after losses in previous three sessions due to market oversupply concerns, as the potential for tighter sanctions on Russian crude lent some support. Brent crude futures gained 37 cents, or 0.57%, to $65.72 a barrel by 0401 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed by 34 cents, or 0.55%, to $62.12 a barrel. Some analysts attributed the increases to a technical rebound, after Brent and WTI both lost about 1% in the prior session, with Brent closing at its lowest since June 5 and for WTI since May 30. "Buying interest emerged as WTI neared its $60 support level, while heightened geopolitical risks and speculation about tighter sanctions on Russian crude also lent support," said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities. The Group of Seven nations' finance ministers said on Wednesday they will take steps to increase pressure on Russia by targeting those who are continuing to increase their purchases of Russian oil and those that are facilitating circumvention. Also, the U.S. will provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, two officials told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming an earlier Wall Street Journal report. This will make it easier for Ukraine to hit refineries, pipelines and other infrastructure with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of revenue and oil, the WSJ said. Stockpiling demand from China, the world's largest crude oil importer, also underpinned oil prices, limiting the downside, traders said. Still, a U.S. government shutdown stoked worries about the global economy, while expectations of higher output by OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers, weighed on sentiment, capping the price gains, Nissan's Kikukawa said. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday froze $26 billion for Democratic-leaning states, following through on a threat to use the government shutdown to target Democratic priorities. On the supply side, OPEC+ could agree to raise oil production by up to 500,000 barrels per day in November, triple the increase made for October, as Saudi Arabia seeks to reclaim market share, three sources familiar with the talks said. That would come even as U.S. and Asian demand starts to decline. The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week as refining activity and demand softened. Crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels to 416.5 million barrels in the week ended on September 26, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1 million-barrel rise. [EIA/S] (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jamie Freed)

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(Reuters) -Universal Music and Warner Music are nearing landmark artificial intelligence licensing deals, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.  Universal and Warner could each strike deals with AI companies within weeks, the newspaper said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. (Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications. In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to "executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite. Google cautioned that it "does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of these claims." Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not immediately returned. Google did not immediately return a message seeking additional details on the alleged targets of the extortion campaign.  (Reporting by Raphael Satter in WashingtonEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications. In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to "executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite. Google cautioned that it "does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of these claims." Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not immediately returned. Google did not immediately return a message seeking additional details on the alleged targets of the extortion campaign.  (Reporting by Raphael Satter in WashingtonEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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SEOUL (Reuters) -Shares of South Korea's Samsung Electronics jumped 4.7% and SK Hynix soared 12% on Thursday, bolstered by a deal with OpenAI to support the ChatGPT maker's expansive Stargate artificial intelligence data centre project. The partnership, announced late on Wednesday, sent Samsung shares to their highest in more than four years and SK Hynix to an all-time high, adding $37 billion to their combined market capitalisation. Their rally also propelled the benchmark KOSPI index more than 3% to a record. "There have been worries about high bandwidth memory (HBM) chip prices falling next year on intensifying competition, but such worries will be easily resolved by the strategic partnership," Jeff Kim, an analyst at KB Securities, said in a note, expecting a surge in demand from the project. "Since Stargate is a key project led by President Trump, there also is a possibility the partnership will have a positive impact on South Korea's trade negotiations with the U.S.," Kim said. OpenAI, participating in President Donald Trump's $500 billion Stargate private-sector initiative to build AI infrastructure in the U.S., agreed on Wednesday to join forces with the two chipmakers in semiconductor procurement and work on building two data centres in South Korea, a Korean-style Stargate. With the new data centres, which will have an initial capacity of 20 megawatts, Seoul is hoping to become an AI hub in Asia, while OpenAI is looking to cement its position in the country which has the second-largest number of paying ChatGPT users after the United States. Samsung Electronics' affiliates Samsung SDI, Samsung C&T and Samsung SDS also rose sharply on partnerships with the U.S. firm. The global AI boom has been driving strong demand for semiconductors, helping South Korea's exports rise in September at the fastest pace in 14 months despite a hit from U.S. tariffs, blowing past market expectations. South Korea hopes to formalise by late October a preliminary trade deal reached with Trump in July, lowering U.S. tariffs on South Korean imports in return for a $350 billion investment in the U.S. However, follow-up negotiations have stalled due to Seoul's concerns over the foreign exchange implications and structure of the investment package. (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jacqueline Wong)

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