Flash News

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.

TREE NEWS reports: US initial jobless claims for the week ending October 17 came in at 194,000, below the 200,000 expected by economists and down from the prior week’s 199,000. The reading points to continued tightness in the labor market.

TREE NEWS update: The US initial jobless claims for the week of Oct. 17 are scheduled for release at 20:30 Beijing time. The figure is the Labor Department’s weekly count of new unemployment benefit filings, a key gauge of labor-market conditions. No forecast or prior reading was provided in the notice.

TREE NEWS update: Yemen’s Houthi movement said it carried out four military operations against Saudi Arabia in the past 48 hours using ballistic missiles and drones, spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a video statement on October 22. The targets included the Defense Ministry building in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Aramco facilities in Yanbu and Abha International Airport. The group claimed precise hits, saying the Dammam strike disrupted flights and the Yanbu strike caused a fire.

TREE NEWS update: Taiwan suspended stock trading on October 23 as a typhoon affected the island. The halt covers the Taiwan Stock Exchange for the full trading session. No further details on the typhoon’s path or expected duration of the disruption were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: The yen outperformed every major currency on Thursday as a global equity selloff drove investors toward safer assets. The currency rose as much as 0.9% against the dollar to 156.69 per dollar, its strongest level since late September, and gained 1.1% versus the euro, approaching a near one-year high. It also climbed about 0.5% against the Swiss franc, with traders and strategists pointing to Japanese domestic fund flows as additional support.

TREE NEWS update: Houthi forces claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi Aramco facility in Yanbu, the group said. The statement did not specify the type of attack, the damage caused, or whether operations at the site were affected. Saudi Aramco has not commented on the claim. Yanbu hosts a major refining and export complex on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.

TREE NEWS reports: The Baltic Dry Index rose 0.49% to 2,693 points. The index tracks freight rates for dry bulk commodities across major shipping routes.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot gold fell 2.0% intraday to $4,058.05 an ounce, while spot silver dropped nearly 4% to $57.72 an ounce. The moves mark a sharp same-session decline across both precious metals.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee will hold its 25th session from Nov 2 to 6 in Beijing, the Council of Chairpersons decided at its 74th meeting on Oct 22. Chairman Zhao Leji presided over the meeting at the Great Hall of the People. The session’s agenda was not disclosed in the announcement.

TREE NEWS reports: Hedge funds sharply increased short positions in stocks this month, pushing bearish bets to their highest level in nearly five years and raising the risk of a violent short squeeze if markets rebound. Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage said short sales outnumbered long buys by about 5 to 1, with short leverage in client books at the 99th percentile of the past five years. Net leverage at fundamental long-short equity funds has fallen close to a three-year low even as gross leverage rose.

TREE NEWS reports: Blackstone reported a 9.2% decline in third-quarter distributable earnings to $1.72 billion, or $1.32 per share, topping the $1.26 consensus estimate. President Jon Gray said surging energy prices stoked inflation and higher rates slowed deal activity and weighed on the IPO market. Infrastructure was again the firm’s best-performing strategy, returning 6.4%, helped by data center leasing, logistics and hospitality investments.

TREE NEWS reports: Meta Platforms’ future spending commitments have surged to $825 billion. The total reflects contractual and planned outlays the company has committed to going forward. No breakdown of the commitments or timing was provided in the report.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s Municipal Financial and Economic Work Committee met on Tuesday and said the city will build a new model for real estate development centered on high-quality supply, efficient public-housing provision and high-level operations. The meeting called for deepening research on foundational systems and long-term mechanisms, advancing urban renewal, improving the housing supply system and implementing a ‘housing quality improvement project,’ while deepening the integrated mechanism for planning, land reserve, supply and use of land.

TREE NEWS reports: Nearly 30 investment research professionals from public mutual funds and brokerages have founded or joined private fund firms so far this year, including Leon Luo, former chief quantitative investment officer at Xinyuan Fund, who has completed manager registration for Lingnan Jianshu (Shanghai) Private Fund Management and serves as its legal representative and general manager. Industry participants attribute the wave to optimism about structural market opportunities and improving private fund regulation.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s financial regulator issued 17 measures to advance digital finance in the city’s banking and insurance sectors, including plans to build a digital finance evaluation system to monitor development levels and outcomes. The regulator said it will strengthen oversight, correcting poor or deviating policy implementation and responding to related risks and violations with risk warnings, regulatory talks, notices and administrative penalties.

TREE NEWS update: Procter & Gamble reported first-quarter core earnings per share of $2.00, up from $1.99 a year earlier and above the $1.89 estimate. Net sales rose 4% year on year to $23.28 billion, topping the $22.82 billion consensus. The company kept its full-year organic revenue growth forecast at 1% to 3%, versus a 2.19% market estimate, and its core EPS growth outlook at 0% to 3%.

TREE NEWS update: Turkey’s central bank lowered its benchmark repo rate to 36.00% on Thursday, matching expectations. The cut lowers the policy rate from its previous level, though the material did not specify the prior rate or the size of the reduction.

TREE NEWS reports: Blackstone reported third-quarter distributable earnings per share of $1.32, down from $1.52 a year earlier but above the $1.26 estimate. Assets under management reached $1.37 trillion, up 10% year over year, versus an estimated $1.38 trillion.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin dipped to an hourly close of $80.1K on Oct. 15, sweeping the average cost basis of U.S. spot ETFs and corporate treasuries clustered between $80K and $81.5K before buyers stepped back in. Glassnode flagged resistance at $85K–$87.5K from 6-to-12-month holders, Binance spot asks and the largest liquidation cluster. U.S. spot ETFs drew $653 million on Oct. 19, the biggest day since Sept. 22, while volumes stayed weak.