Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet determined the composition of Russia’s delegation to trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the 22nd. Abu Dhabi may host the three-way meeting.

TREE NEWS reports: The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index for the US was unchanged in September, posting 0% month-over-month versus a forecast of -0.1% and a prior reading of -0.1%. The flat print marks an improvement from the previous month’s decline.

TREE NEWS reports: Eurozone consumer confidence fell to -17.9 in October, below the expected -17 and down from -16.5 in September. The reading marks a deterioration in household sentiment across the currency bloc at the start of the fourth quarter.

TREE NEWS update: SASAC Chairman Cheng Fubo met with Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury in Beijing on October 21, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said. The two sides exchanged views on deepening communication and coordination and on open cooperation. No further details or agreements were disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: The secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) stood at 3.88% on Oct. 21, unchanged from the prior day. The effective federal funds rate also held at 3.88% for the same session. Both benchmarks were flat day over day.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Beijing with Bonda, foreign minister of the Republic of the Congo. Wang said China will plan the next stage of high-level exchanges with the Congolese side and steadily advance practical cooperation. Both countries are co-chairs of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, whose Beijing summit outcomes are nearly 100% implemented, and they will prepare the 10th ministerial conference set for 2027 in Congo.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the 22nd that a ceasefire is the largest concession Ukraine can currently make, in an interview with British media. He indicated he would not accept demands to withdraw troops from the Donbas, saying that if Ukraine pulls back, security guarantees would be unclear and withdrawal itself would be unfair.

TREE NEWS reports: The S&P 500 extended its decline to 1% on the day. The move marked a deepening of the index’s losses, with the benchmark down 1.0% from the prior close. No further detail on the drivers or individual sectors was provided.

TREE NEWS update: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he informed the United States in February 2025 that Israel would launch a military strike on Iran, during his first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump after Trump returned to the White House. Netanyahu disclosed the details of that meeting in an interview with Israel’s Channel 7 on 22 May. He said he made the notification explicitly at the time.

TREE NEWS reports: Infineum, the fuel and lubricant additives joint venture owned by Shell and ExxonMobil, is exploring a sale that would value the company at $8 billion. The move would mark a divestment by the two oil majors of their shared specialty chemicals business. No buyer or timeline was disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: Major US technology stocks fell across the board, with SpaceX (SPCX.O) down 4%, Meta Platforms (META.O) down 4%, and Tesla (TSLA.O) down 2.87%. Chip names also declined: SanDisk (SNDK.O) fell 4.8%, SK Hynix (SKHY.O) 4.5%, Micron (MU.O) 3.8%, IBM (IBM.N) 2.5% and Nvidia (NVDA.O) 2.1%.

TREE NEWS reports: The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell about 4% in early US trading, with Intel down about 6%, AMD about 5%, ASML about 4% and Nvidia about 2%. Tesla dropped about 3% after third-quarter revenue missed expectations and the company cut its capex target, while Meta slid about 5% as its future spending commitments surged to $825 billion. AI compute-rental names CoreWeave and Nebius each fell about 5%, and memory-chip and optical-communications stocks also declined broadly.

TREE NEWS reports: Venezuela’s claim of 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves is being questioned by experts who say the figure is far from ‘proven’ and stems from inflated, outdated data from a corrupt government. Politicians and investors have long cited the number as a measure of untapped energy potential, including the Trump administration when detailing a comprehensive agreement for the US to take over some Venezuelan reserves.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Islamic Republic Army Commander-in-Chief Khatami said on the 22nd that the Iranian military is prepared in terms of equipment for asymmetric warfare and has reached a “relatively mature level” in the drone field. The remarks were reported by Iranian military channels. No further details on specific systems or timelines were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Night trading in Chinese futures opened with energy products leading gains: low-sulfur fuel oil rose more than 3%, while fuel oil, crude oil, LPG and propylene climbed over 2%. Polypropylene, methanol, pure benzene, styrene and corn starch each gained more than 1%. On the downside, Shanghai silver fell more than 2%, and coking coal, coke, caustic soda, Shanghai zinc and international copper each dropped over 1%.

TREE NEWS update: Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said the current Middle East situation has caused an unprecedented shock to energy markets, in an interview aired by Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya television on the 22nd. Nasser said global crude supply has fallen by about 3 billion barrels from normal levels since the crisis erupted, and that oil prices would be far higher than current levels without the release of global strategic reserves.

TREE NEWS reports: Global equities fell Thursday as the AI trade cooled and Middle East tensions worsened, with US stock index futures all lower, Tesla down about 5% premarket, spot gold down 2%, spot silver down nearly 4% and Brent crude up 3%. The Nikkei 225 closed down 2.7%, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.89% and the Hang Seng dropped 3.03%. Brent crude topped $112 after Houthi attacks on Saudi targets including Saudi Aramco oil facilities.

TREE NEWS update: Yichun City’s Ecology and Environment Bureau published a notice of its proposed approval of the ecological and environmental impact report for the Jianxiawo lithium mine mining project in Yifeng County, Jiangxi, operated by Yichun Times New Energy Mining Co. The public notice runs from Oct. 22 to Oct. 28, 2026, a five-working-day comment period. The bureau said it reached the proposed opinion after review under construction project environmental impact assessment rules.

TREE NEWS update: France has identified the world’s first human infection with Shamonda virus, a pathogen previously believed to infect only animals. The case marks the first known instance of the virus crossing into humans. No further details on the patient or the circumstances of the infection were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Canada’s raw materials price index rose 3.14% month on month in September, exceeding the 2.9% expected and following a 3.1% gain the previous month. The reading points to continued upward pressure on input costs at the raw materials stage.