Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: HSBC’s third-quarter pre-tax profit rose 32% year on year to $9.632 billion, but its Hong Kong-listed shares fell 5.56% to HK$134.30 after stripping a $1.421 billion legal provision cut underlying growth to about 10%. CATL posted 58.58% revenue growth to 165.221 billion yuan while net profit rose 14.54%, and its H-shares slid 11.41% on Oct. 21. Hengrui Medicine gained about 10.9% to HK$49.58 on Oct. 28 after third-quarter net profit jumped 88.92%.

TREE NEWS reports: Germany’s unemployment rate for October came in at 6.4%, in line with expectations and unchanged from the prior reading. The figure matched both the 6.4% forecast and the previous month’s 6.4%, indicating a stable labor market at the start of the fourth quarter.

TREE NEWS reports: Germany’s unemployment count rose by 4,000 in October, below the 5,000 increase economists had expected and down from a revised 12,000 gain the previous month. The smaller-than-forecast rise points to a modest cooling in the pace of labor-market deterioration in Europe’s largest economy.

TREE NEWS update: China’s first carrier-based stealth reconnaissance-strike drone, the GJ-21, has for the first time successfully taken off and landed on the PLA Navy’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, the Navy said. The milestone marks China’s development of amphibious assault ships and indicates the navy now has the capability to operate fixed-wing stealth drones from large surface combat platforms.

TREE NEWS update: Hunan province issued a 10-year special local government bond worth 270 million yuan at a coupon of 1.68%, with a marginal bid-to-cover ratio of 2.33 times against an expected 1.68. The same issuance included a 15-year tranche of 2.164 billion yuan at 1.95%, a 20-year tranche of 1.971 billion yuan at 2.16%, a 30-year tranche of 6.101 billion yuan at 2.22%, and a 10-year general special bond of 480 million yuan at 1.68%.

TREE NEWS update: European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn said the outlook for economic growth and inflation remains highly uncertain. The remarks, reported on Tuesday, come as policymakers weigh the path for interest rates. Rehn did not signal a specific policy direction in the comments.

TREE NEWS reports: Industrial silicon spot prices stopped falling and held steady across all grades and regions this week after a broad correction the previous week, the Silicon Industry Branch of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said. Futures rebounded from lows, with futures and spot markets finding a new balance near the cost line. Southwest China’s dry-season production cuts have yet to materialize in force, while weak polysilicon purchasing continues to weigh on the market.

TREE NEWS update: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China reported net profit attributable to shareholders of 285.64 billion yuan for the first three quarters of 2026, up 5.83% year on year. Revenue for the period reached 667.137 billion yuan, a 9.19% increase. In the third quarter alone, revenue rose 9.45% to 220.974 billion yuan and net profit gained 9.97% to 111.958 billion yuan.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s foreign exchange market recorded total turnover of 29.42 trillion yuan, equivalent to $4.35 trillion, in September 2026, excluding foreign currency pair markets. Bank-to-customer trading accounted for 5.36 trillion yuan ($0.79 trillion), while interbank market trading reached 24.06 trillion yuan ($3.56 trillion). Spot market turnover was 9.84 trillion yuan ($1.46 trillion) and derivatives turnover was 19.58 trillion yuan ($2.89 trillion).

TREE NEWS reports: The onshore yuan closed at 6.6557 against the dollar at the 16:30 Beijing time official close on Monday, up 64 pips from the previous trading day’s official close. The pair also rose 55 pips from the prior night session close. The move reflects a firmer fix in the onshore market.

TREE NEWS update: The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said at a press conference on Oct. 30 that its trade friction index for the electronics sector has stayed at a high level for 68 consecutive months. The council released the latest edition of the index at the briefing. It did not give the index’s reading or specify the causes behind the sustained high level.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank will consider whether to raise interest rates at every policy meeting, including in December, with the timing dependent on incoming data and not pre-determined. He said underlying inflation has reached a level consistent with the 2% target but has yet to achieve a stable, sustainable 2%, and that the BOJ must narrow the gap between its policy rate and the neutral rate.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Energy Administration said it will further standardize the electricity retail market to promote healthy industry development, a spokesperson said at a press conference. As of the end of September, more than 3,700 power retail companies had registered with power trading centers and were actively trading, with 878 new entrants and 374 exits — mostly firms that had not conducted business for three consecutive years or had violated rules. Retailers overall remained profitable.

TREE NEWS reports: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 1.46% and the Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.29%. Consumer stocks led gains, with Mao Geping up over 13%, Mengniu Dairy up over 9% and Pop Mart up over 4%. Technology shares were broadly lower, as Shenghong Technology fell over 9%, GigaDevice dropped over 8% and Hua Hong Semiconductor declined over 6%.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s population stood at 1.40489 billion at the end of 2025, remaining above 1.4 billion and accounting for more than 17% of the global total, the National Bureau of Statistics said in its 2025 social and livelihood statistics report. The 16-59 age group numbered 851.36 million, or 60.6% of the population, indicating abundant labor resources.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and National Energy Administration jointly issued an action plan for building a product carbon footprint standards system covering 2026-2028. The plan sets out more than 100 national product carbon footprint standards across five key areas, the five departments said.

TREE NEWS reports: European equities opened mostly lower on Wednesday, with the Euro Stoxx 50 down 0.61% and Germany’s DAX off 0.26%. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.01%, while the UK’s FTSE 100 bucked the trend, gaining 0.53%.

TREE NEWS reports: Switzerland’s KOF economic leading indicator fell to 107.6 in October, below the expected 108.1 and down from 109.1 in September. The reading signals a slower pace of economic momentum in the country.

TREE NEWS update: The 61st International Committee of Legal Metrology (CIML) conference was held in Delhi, India, from October 26 to 28, with more than 100 delegates from nearly 60 member states attending. Bai Qingyuan, deputy director of China’s State Administration for Market Regulation and a member of the CIML Presidential Council, led the Chinese delegation. An important OIML technical committee secretariat will be based in China.

TREE NEWS update: Shandong’s health commission and eight other provincial departments issued a joint notice ordering employers to uphold statutory marriage, maternity, paternity, childcare and caregiving leave, with wages and benefits paid in full during leave. The notice bars employers from hinting that staff voluntarily give up leave or encouraging them to shorten it, and from reassigning or sidelining workers because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or childcare. Leave may not be tied to annual performance reviews.