Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Argentina’s state oil producer YPF said Friday it has applied for government investment incentives for its Bajo del Toro shale project in Vaca Muerta, which is expected to require $8.73 billion in investment over its full lifecycle. The incentive program, launched by the Milei administration, offers tax, customs and foreign-exchange relief to attract large-scale investment.

TREE NEWS update: McKenna Skeeters will move to the White House National Energy Dominance Council on Monday, focusing on U.S. oil and gas infrastructure, a White House official said. She previously served as chief of staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Her arrival follows the earlier departures of Brittany Kelm, who handled domestic oil and gas infrastructure and international affairs, and Peter Lake, who oversaw electricity policy on the council.

TREE NEWS update: China’s draft anti-cross-border corruption law will receive its second reading at the 25th session of the 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee. Huang Haihua, spokesperson for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said the revised draft adds provisions to strengthen protection of state secrets, work secrets, trade secrets, personal information and personal privacy.

TREE NEWS reports: President Donald Trump is planning to resume strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections, with the earliest possible date being November 4, the day after voting. The US government has notified Persian Gulf allies to prepare for a new round of brief but intense strikes, the officials said.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post on the evening of Oct. 30 that Ukraine will expand its long-range strike units and has identified the “key priority targets” for upcoming long-range strikes. He did not specify which targets or provide further details.

TREE NEWS reports: Galen Weston, controlling shareholder and chairman of Loblaw Cos., said he is concerned that surging energy prices could reignite food inflation, warning that oil supply disruptions from the Middle East war are raising input costs for food producers from diesel to fertilizer. Weston said he is not worried about a return to 2021’s 11% rate but that external forces will keep pressuring the entire value chain. Statistics Canada data show grocery prices rose 33% over six years.

TREE NEWS reports: The semiconductor ETF closed down 6.98% on Friday, Oct. 30, leading declines among US sector ETFs, while the global tech index ETF fell 5.11% and the tech sector ETF dropped 4.89%. The energy sector ETF bucked the trend with a 1.91% gain. Within the S&P 500’s 11 sectors, information technology fell 4.24% and energy rose 1.91%; for October, telecom slumped 15.19% and tech lost 6.82%, while energy gained 13.96%.

TREE NEWS reports: Alphabet is in early-stage talks with the Pentagon to take part in Trump’s $185 billion Golden Dome missile defense program, focusing on data security, storage, networking and cybersecurity to protect data transmission for military command-and-control software. Google’s networking unit Aalyria is also involved in preparing a related consortium. The Department of Defense said no final decision has been made on forming a new consortium or selecting participating companies.

TREE NEWS update: Fitch affirmed France’s A+ rating but changed the outlook to negative in an unscheduled action announced Friday evening, citing weaker growth, higher borrowing costs and a larger deficit since its August 2026 assessment. The agency said those factors have worsened debt dynamics from an already weak base, and that persistent political fragmentation and a challenging social backdrop make sustained fiscal consolidation harder to achieve.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot gold fell 3.65% to $3,874.76 an ounce at Friday’s New York close, ending October down 6.80%. COMEX gold futures lost 7.05% to $3,884.90 an ounce. Spot silver dropped 5.83% to $49.1077 an ounce, down 18.73% for the month, while COMEX silver futures fell 19% to $49.135. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index closed down 5.45%, down 12.81% in October.

TREE NEWS reports: In late New York trading on Friday, October 30, S&P 500 futures closed down 1.8%, Dow futures fell 1.06% and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 3.46%. Russell 2000 futures lost 1.64%.

TREE NEWS reports: The offshore yuan closed at 6.6525 per dollar in New York on Friday, up 44 pips from Thursday’s close, with the currency trading in a 6.6585-6.6496 range during the session. For October, the CNH gained about 560 pips, or roughly 0.84%, rising smoothly from 6.7222 to 6.6496.

TREE NEWS reports: The Magnificent 7 index fell 1.99% to 220.86 on Friday, October 30, approaching its August 24 close of 220.78 and its July 31 close of 217.63. The gauge closed below its 50-day moving average on Wednesday and broke its 100-day moving average at Friday’s open, with the 200-day average at 213.94. It lost 3.10% for the week and 5.28% in October. The super-cap tech index dropped 3.34% to 437.19, down 5.99% for the month.

TREE NEWS reports: Apple reclaimed the title of the world’s most valuable company on October 30, surpassing Nvidia at the US market close. Apple shares closed at $344.63, down 1.23%, giving it a market capitalization of about $5.03 trillion, while Nvidia closed at $204.64, down 4.22%, with a market cap of roughly $4.93 trillion. Apple had previously overtaken Nvidia several times in July and late October this year.

TREE NEWS reports: The share of US employers covering GLP-1 weight-loss drugs in employee health plans fell to 53% this year, down from 57% in 2025. It is the first decline in coverage since the drugs became widely used for weight loss three years ago, and 30% of employers that still cover them are considering dropping the benefit.

TREE NEWS reports: The US memory chip and hardware supply chain index fell 8.04% to 162.69 points on Friday, October 30, bringing its October decline to 24.77%. The index slid steadily from October 6 to 16 and held roughly flat near 170 points from October 15 to 29. All constituents fell Friday, with SanDisk down 13.47%, while Seagate, SK Hynix ADR, Applied Materials, Western Digital and Teradyne dropped 7.98%-7.38%.

TREE NEWS reports: The Nasdaq-100 dropped 1,017.663 points, or 3.46%, to close at 28,384.845, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 747.726 points, or 2.86%, to 25,436.999. The tech-heavy index lost 6.65% in October, and the semiconductor index sank 7.2% on the day and more than 15% for the month. The S&P 500 fell 1.82% to 7,580.07, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.09% to 51,770.31.

TREE NEWS update: The Securities and Exchange Commission issued exemptive relief on inter-affiliate and certain non-U.S. repo transactions, advancing the move toward central clearing of U.S. Treasury securities. The relief is aimed at helping broker-dealers and other market participants meet Treasury clearing requirements. The SEC did not disclose further terms of the exemption.

TREE NEWS reports: Tether’s excess reserves nearly doubled to $8 billion in the third quarter, with the stablecoin issuer posting a $1.5 billion profit. Its US Treasury holdings are now comparable to those of major foreign holders, while its Bitcoin reserves were valued at $8.37 billion at the end of September.

TREE NEWS reports: The Nasdaq 100 has dropped 10% from its October peak, putting the index on course to enter correction territory. The decline marks a notable pullback for the tech-heavy benchmark from its recent record high.