Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 1.3% on an initial basis, bringing its weekly decline to roughly 1%. The index tracks Chinese companies listed on US exchanges.

TREE NEWS reports: Equity fund speculators reduced their net short position in CME S&P 500 futures by 5,804 contracts to 390,896 contracts in the week ended October 13, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said. The weekly positioning data covers speculative accounts classified as equity funds.

TREE NEWS reports: Apple has not disclosed whether its retail stores will have the iPhone Duo in stock on launch day, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said. He warned that without advance notice, many customers could queue in vain and end up frustrated. Gurman said Apple appears to have launched the iPhone Duo early despite limited supply, and that he believes reasonable supply volumes will not arrive until November at the earliest.

TREE NEWS reports: The US Department of Justice is negotiating a settlement in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple, and app developers including PayPal and Epic Games have told the department they worry any deal would not do enough to curb what they call Apple’s anticompetitive conduct. DOJ officials have signaled a preference for settling the case rather than continuing to defend it at trial.

TREE NEWS reports: The Hang Seng Index futures night session closed down 0.19% at 24,112 points. The Hang Seng Tech Index futures night session closed down 0.66% at 4,077 points.

TREE NEWS reports: SoftBank Group is considering acquiring Allied, described as the largest security company in the United States. SoftBank’s ADR extended its decline to 9.4% following the report. No deal terms or timeline were disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: MARA Holdings shares dropped 10.12% in intraday trading on October 17, changing hands at $7.48. The decline hit the bitcoin miner’s stock during the session.

TREE NEWS update: Anthropic PBC has opened a communication channel with New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, after Levine wrote to the AI lab earlier this week urging it to delay its initial public offering. Levine said the company appears to be under pressure from multiple sides and declined to detail the discussions. He warned that a catastrophic safety incident after listing would be terrible for its share price, adding it is better to take more time now to get things right.

TREE NEWS update: MSCI will classify “non-operating companies” as ineligible for its indexes starting Nov. 30, a rule aimed at firms whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset. The finalized criteria put bitcoin treasury giant Strategy at risk of index removal.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of America is issuing four tranches of high-grade bonds with maturities ranging from three to 11 years, people familiar with the matter said. The bank is expected to raise $8 billion from the sale.

TREE NEWS reports: The Nasdaq 100 extended its drop to 2%, with index members CoreWeave down 11.7% and Nebius Group NV down 11.0%. Strategy, facing a potential MSCI deletion, fell 9.5%, while Moderna lost 9.6% and Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet each dropped 7.8%. The S&P 500 widened its decline to 1%, as the VIX jumped 18.0% to 19.43.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said he is “very happy” for Elon Musk and the Tesla Roadster. The remark referenced Musk and Tesla’s Roadster model, with no further details or policy content provided. Trump offered no additional comment on Tesla or Musk’s other ventures.

TREE NEWS reports: The CBOE Volatility Index rose 11.0% intraday to 18.29, while the S&P 500 fell more than 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 120 points, or over 0.2%, and the Nasdaq slid more than 1.5%. The biotech index fell 2.3%, the semiconductor index 2.1% and the Russell 2000 1.2%, with Tesla down 2%.

TREE NEWS reports: Shares of Freddie Mac rose 7.8% while Fannie Mae gained 7.5%. The two US mortgage-finance giants moved higher together in the same session. No further details on the drivers of the advance were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: The MSCI Nordic Countries Index rose 1% to close at 396.76, its highest close since September 17. Among the ten sectors, Nordic industrials posted the biggest gain. Defense stock Kongsberg Gruppen ASA climbed 4.3%, leading all Nordic constituents.

TREE NEWS reports: Germany’s DAX 30 index closed provisionally up 1.09% at 25,656.97 points, bringing its gain for the week to roughly 2.3%. France’s benchmark index ended up 0.37%, Italy’s rose 0.99% with its bank index up 1.16%, and the UK index closed 0.43% higher.

TREE NEWS reports: Europe’s STOXX 600 closed provisionally up 0.75% at 644.98 points, bringing its weekly gain to 2.1%. The eurozone’s STOXX 50 rose 0.70% to 6,211.19, up 0.6% for the week, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.76% to 2,575.19.

TREE NEWS reports: Tesla shares fell 1.3% to a session low of $357.61 as investor excitement over the Roadster cooled. The move marks a pullback in the stock after recent enthusiasm tied to the vehicle.

TREE NEWS update: Tesla unveiled its second-generation Roadster on October 16, with a prototype equipped with a SpaceX cold-gas propulsion system performing aerial rolls and short airborne leaps during a live demonstration. Nio founder Li Bin shared the video and commented, “Amazing! We really don’t have this. Thumbs up for Tesla.” Li had previously said publicly that he has everything Tesla has, but Tesla doesn’t have what he has.

TREE NEWS reports: The three major US stock indices traded mixed on October 16, with the Dow Jones up 0.38% intraday while the Nasdaq fell 1.04% and the S&P 500 slipped 0.13%. The divergence left the tech-heavy Nasdaq as the session’s weakest of the three benchmarks.