Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: Japan posted a seasonally adjusted goods trade deficit of 703.967 billion yen in September, wider than the 250.1 billion yen shortfall economists had expected. The reading compares with a revised deficit of 840.6 billion yen in the prior month.

TREE NEWS update: South Korea’s financial authorities have asked domestic banks to refrain from competitive bond issuance. The guidance is aimed at preventing lenders from crowding into the debt market at the same time, though the material did not specify the regulator involved, the timing of the request or any issuance caps. Further details were not disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Nippon Ishin no Kai plan to begin working-level talks in November on revising the three security-related documents by the end of the year, multiple people said on Oct. 20. The talks are expected to focus on revising the three non-nuclear principles and introducing nuclear-powered submarines. Nippon Ishin argues there is no alternative to nuclear-powered submarines and advocates studying the ‘no introduction’ of nuclear weapons principle.

TREE NEWS update: China Post Wealth Management has launched a redemption service that credits funds to merchant clients by 8 a.m. the next morning, a feature it calls T+0.25. Industrial Bank, Guangyin and Ping An wealth management units have already introduced T+0.5 morning redemption on some products, moving competition in redemption speed to hour-level settlement.

TREE NEWS update: Tianjin Wenjian Strategy Equity Investment Fund Partnership was recently established, with partners including AIA Life Insurance and Dajia Life Insurance, among other insurers. Chinese insurance capital has set up multiple private equity investment funds this year, mainly investing in artificial intelligence and new energy industries. Experts say insurer-backed PE funds help optimize direct financing structures and reduce short-term speculation.

TREE NEWS reports: AI data center construction, especially around Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington, D.C., is generating new demand for warehouse space and pushing up rents in the third quarter, real estate services firm JLL said. Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Amazon are spending billions to compete for AI leadership, and running AI requires large amounts of power while servers and chips must be cooled to prevent overheating.

TREE NEWS reports: China and the United States need to identify more overlapping interests and jointly address shared challenges, the Economic Daily said in a commentary on their economic and trade ties. The newspaper said the relationship rests on a solid foundation of mutually beneficial cooperation and called for reducing distortions to market expectations caused by inappropriate, unilateral and excessive policy restrictions.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s Economic Daily said equal consultation is the only proper way to resolve China-EU trade frictions, rejecting claims that EU pressure on China over hybrid vehicle talks has worked. The paper criticized the EU’s “dual-track” approach, floated at a recent EU summit, of continuing intensive consultations while stepping up restrictions on China, including possible use of the “anti-coercion” instrument, saying it misreads the basis of the two sides’ understanding and undermines mutual trust.

TREE NEWS reports: Former Dongxing Securities and former Cinda Securities reported divergent operating results for the first three quarters of 2026 in their Q3 reports. With A-share trading volumes and overall market performance weakening in Q3 versus Q2, industry figures expect listed Chinese brokerages to still post year-on-year profit growth for the first three quarters, and institutions favor leading brokerages for excess returns.

TREE NEWS update: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China paid a combined 82.1 billion yuan in 2026 interim cash dividends to A-share holders on Oct. 21. Wind data shows 21 A-share listed banks have disclosed interim dividend plans for 2026, with total proposed payouts exceeding 260 billion yuan. State-owned and joint-stock banks dominate, while city and rural commercial banks are accelerating their follow-up.

TREE NEWS update: A food import company sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over 50% tariffs imposed on a range of Canadian goods, arguing the president lacks authority to invoke a previously unused U.S. legal provision to levy the duties. The suit, filed amid an ongoing U.S.-Canada trade dispute, alleges the move reflects a pattern of allegedly unlawful tariff actions and that Trump is trying to exercise Congress’s taxing power to advance his trade agenda.

TREE NEWS update: The UK releases September CPI at 14:00 Beijing time, with ECB chief economist Lane speaking in Shanghai at 12:15 and ECB executive board member Cipollone at 16:00. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote at the GTC conference in Berlin at 17:00, while Bank of England Governor Bailey takes part in a fireside chat at 21:00. After the US close, Meta, Tesla, Lam Research, Texas Instruments, IBM and SAP report earnings.

TREE NEWS reports: Several fund managers used their 2026 third-quarter reports to review operations during a volatile quarter, focusing on holding concentration and risk control. Most managers now favor balanced portfolios as their strategy, expecting market style to rebalance and seeking a better risk-return trade-off alongside offensive positioning.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said on Oct. 19 at the 2026 Financial Street Forum that the central bank will study switching the tenor of its main open-market operation to overnight, making the overnight repo rate the primary policy rate. Experts said the move resolves the maturity mismatch between the policy rate and the operating target and better conveys the monetary policy stance, adding that it is a rate-framework reform, not a rate cut.

TREE NEWS reports: Nasdaq futures gained 1% in early Asia-Pacific trading on Wednesday. Among tech stocks in after-hours US trading, Intel rose 4%, while Micron, AMD and Nvidia each added at least 2.2%. TSMC, Oracle and Tesla were up at least 1.5%, while Apple slipped 0.3%, Pinterest fell 1.9% and Netflix dropped 5.6%.

TREE NEWS reports: 69% of surveyed economists expect the Bank of Japan to raise its policy rate to 1.5% in the fourth quarter, up from 36% who held that view in September. The survey indicates a sharp shift in expectations for further BOJ tightening this year.

TREE NEWS reports: Australia’s three-year government bond yield rose as investors turned their attention to upcoming remarks from Reserve Bank of Australia official Hauser. The yield move reflects market positioning ahead of the central bank commentary. No further details were provided in the initial report.

TREE NEWS update: Ken Griffin said at the Global Markets Future Conference that the United States needs to address its own fiscal problems. The Citadel founder made the remarks during a panel discussion at the event, without providing further details on specific policy prescriptions. The comments come as investors increasingly focus on US debt levels and budget deficits.

TREE NEWS reports: Reserve Bank of Australia official Hauser said Australia faced capacity pressures in early 2026, with the inflation outlook having deteriorated compared with August expectations. No further figures were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Southern Copper reported third-quarter sales of $4.7 billion, topping the $4.46 billion analysts expected. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $3.04 billion, also above the $2.91 billion consensus estimate. The results cover the copper producer’s third quarter.