Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Four Chinese government departments issued a notice to prevent poor-quality intermediaries from influencing the certification of high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises, calling for stronger data verification. SME authorities will coordinate with intellectual property and tax departments to cross-check key data. A patent pre-screening mechanism will be studied, using local IP expertise to flag abnormal patents and assess patent quality during the certification of specialized and innovative SMEs and “little giant” firms.

TREE NEWS update: China’s securities regulator, the CSRC, has opened public consultation on draft rules governing private investment fund-of-funds. The 23-article draft defines the fund-of-funds concept and its categories, sets diversification requirements with differentiated investment ratios for long-term capital, and exempts fund-of-funds from counting toward one layer of investment tiers. It also imposes ongoing requirements on managers, sets operational and post-investment tracking rules, and details a negative investment list.

TREE NEWS reports: The S&P 500 fell 1.2% on Thursday, its worst single-day drop since July, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.6% as AI and semiconductor stocks retreated. More than 300 S&P 500 constituents still closed higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 edged up. Dow Jones Market Data said the last comparable divergence, with the index down but most components up, was in January 2025.

TREE NEWS reports: The Stoxx Europe 600 extended its decline to 0.5% on the session, deepening an earlier pullback in European equities. The move marks a wider loss for the pan-European benchmark, with the index down half a percentage point from its prior close.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China will conduct a 700 billion yuan one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on October 26, 2026, using a fixed-quantity, interest-rate tender with multiple-price allotment. The central bank said the operation is intended to keep banking system liquidity ample.

TREE NEWS reports: The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 39.6% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2026, adding $840.1 billion to about $3 trillion, ending three straight quarters of declines and marking the largest quarterly gain since Q4 2024. Year-to-date, total market cap is still down 4%. Ethereum gained 71% to $2,684, outperforming bitcoin and other major assets, while spot ETH ETFs drew $3.1 billion in net quarterly inflows.

TREE NEWS update: State Grid Ningxia Electric Power Co. released eight measures on Oct. 23 to serve the region’s computing-power development, covering grid planning, power-supply security, green-power trading and a green-power traceability system. The steps aim to make electricity use by Ningxia’s computing enterprises more efficient, greener and safer, and to advance coordination between computing and power.

TREE NEWS update: China Molybdenum Co. reported net profit attributable to shareholders of 24.02 billion yuan for the first three quarters of 2026, up 68.21% year-on-year, on revenue of 207.29 billion yuan, up 42.48%. Third-quarter revenue rose 41.92% to 71.97 billion yuan, with net profit up 40.28% to 7.87 billion yuan. The company attributed the growth to higher copper volumes and prices, rising molybdenum and tungsten prices, and the consolidation of its Brazilian gold mining business.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin has entered a “wait and see mode” as crypto market activity has been quiet recently, market analysts said. The analysts believe the calm could be a good sign and that a bull market may be near. No specific price levels or timeframes were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong’s Legislative Council Finance Committee approved an additional HK$1.6 billion in funding on the 23rd to extend and enhance the city’s newborn baby bonus scheme. The allocation was passed by the Finance Committee during its meeting. The funds will cover the continuation and optimization of the cash incentive program for newborns.

TREE NEWS reports: The onshore yuan closed at 6.6711 per dollar at 16:30 Beijing time, up 16 pips from the previous official close and 37 pips from the prior overnight session’s close. The pair’s official fixing and close are the reference points for China’s managed trading band.

TREE NEWS reports: The UK’s October composite PMI flash reading came in at 53.1, above the 51.7 expected and up from the prior 52. The stronger-than-expected figure indicates accelerating private-sector activity at the start of the fourth quarter. The reading is a preliminary estimate and remains subject to revision.

TREE NEWS reports: Germany, France and at least six other EU member states are opposing calling Canada an EU “associate member,” six diplomatic officials said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in September she was willing to push for Canada to become the EU’s first associate member. The move surprised both Canada and EU member states.

TREE NEWS update: A team led by Professor Li Yaowen at Soochow University has developed a “decoupled co-deposition” strategy that enables large-format flexible perovskite photovoltaic devices to stably exceed 20% power conversion efficiency, overcoming the efficiency and lifetime losses that previously appeared when the technology was scaled up. The work, carried out with university-industry collaboration to produce commercial-specification devices, was published online in the journal Science on October 23 Beijing time.

TREE NEWS update: South Korea’s Defense Ministry on October 23 formally proposed inter-Korean military talks to North Korea. The talks would cover mutual confirmation of the exact location of the land military demarcation line, restoration of military communication lines, and measures to prevent accidental clashes in border areas.

TREE NEWS update: Iran said vessel traffic it described as “illegal” in the Strait of Hormuz has halted, the Fars news agency reported. The statement did not specify which vessels or flags were affected, nor give a timeframe for the stoppage. The Strait of Hormuz is the main maritime outlet for Gulf crude and gas exports.

TREE NEWS update: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 23 July he has ordered the Israeli military to immediately impose a siege on Hebron and to enforce a full closure of the Palestinian West Bank from that day. Netanyahu announced the order in a statement posted on social media. The measures follow a security escalation in the territory.

TREE NEWS update: Israel’s military launched an offensive operation in the West Bank following a shooting incident, Bloomberg reported. No further details on casualties, the location of the operation, or the nature of the shooting were immediately available.

TREE NEWS reports: The Bank of Japan is set to maintain its rapid pace of interest-rate increases, with December emerging as the focal point for the next move. The BOJ judges that rates remain some distance from neutral levels. The signal points to continued policy tightening in Japan.

TREE NEWS reports: Bank of Japan policymakers believe it is necessary to stabilize inflation around the 2% target, people familiar with the matter said. The internal view underscores the central bank’s focus on keeping price growth durably near goal rather than merely touching it. No policy decision or timeline was disclosed in the account.