TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s retail sales fell 0.7% in September from the previous month, missing a forecast of 0.3% growth and following a revised 1.2% decline in August. The month-on-month contraction came despite expectations for a return to growth, underscoring softness in consumer spending in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s large retailer sales rose 1.7% year-on-year in September, up from 0.8% in the previous month. The acceleration in September indicates a pickup in consumer spending at major retail chains.
TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s September industrial output rose 2.2% month-on-month in the preliminary reading, versus expectations of 1.2%, rebounding from a revised 2.4% decline in the prior month. The print beat consensus by a full percentage point. The prior-month figure was -2.4%.
TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s unemployment rate fell to 2.4% in September, coming in below the 2.5% expected by economists and down from 2.5% the previous month. The reading points to a tighter labor market than forecasters had anticipated.
TREE NEWS reports: Tokyo’s core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food and energy, rose 2.6% year on year in October, missing the 2.7% forecast and slowing from 3% the previous month. The reading points to easing underlying inflation pressure in the Japanese capital.
TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s September job-to-applicant ratio rose to 1.19, above the 1.18 forecast and up from the prior reading of 1.18, indicating 119 job openings for every 100 applicants. The reading points to a still-tight labor market in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
TREE NEWS reports: Ten large US military transport aircraft landed at Ovda and Nevatim air bases in southern Israel on 28 March, delivering air-defense and interceptor missiles to replenish Israeli weapons stockpiles ahead of a possible restart of military operations against Iran. Additional US transport planes also landed at military bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The deployments were observed on the evening of 29 March local time.
TREE NEWS update: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the “Unmanned Aviation Technology Development-2026” exhibition in North Korea on April 29, state media reported on April 30. The exhibition displayed strategic and tactical multi-purpose drones and suicide attack drones, and featured demonstrations of drone and weapons systems, including a live-fire debut of a 600mm large-caliber rocket artillery system dubbed the “Sniper.”
TREE NEWS reports: Strontium metal prices rose 10.45% on October 29 to 185,000 yuan per ton, bringing the three-month gain to about 131%. Research institutions attributed the increase mainly to cost-side support, with producers raising quotes under raw material pressure. Market sentiment remains bullish, and downstream buyers are accepting current price levels, with rigid demand still providing support.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s 2026 November grid enterprise proxy power purchase prices have been published, with many regions raising electricity prices compared with October and the largest increase reaching 79.86%. Guojin Securities said the market-based power price bottom reversal is continuing and, if 2026 marks the bottom, power revenue could grow profitably in 2027, lifting profits across power assets. Guosheng Securities said price repair expectations persist after the summer peak and most regions continued month-on-month gains in September.
TREE NEWS update: The European Central Bank kept rates unchanged and President Christine Lagarde said she will step down in February next year, eight months ahead of schedule, with the succession process starting the same day. US September PCE inflation rose 3.6% year-on-year, the highest since May, while core PCE climbed to 3.1%. Third-quarter real GDP grew 3.4% annualized, a one-year high and above expectations.
TREE NEWS reports: Foreign-owned mutual funds in China modestly increased holdings of bank stocks while maintaining equity allocations in the third quarter of 2026. The funds continued to seek opportunities in artificial intelligence and semiconductors, with portfolios emphasizing sector balance and risk-return matching. Managers said the shifts reflect greater attention to earnings quality and valuation rather than a simple style change.
TREE NEWS reports: Of the 119 companies that listed in Hong Kong this year, 28 saw their shares more than double on their first trading day, while 30 closed below their issue price. The divergence reflects a gap between scarce assets with reasonable valuations and homogeneous supply priced high, market participants said. Investors taking part in Hong Kong IPOs increasingly favor AI-related names.
TREE NEWS update: Three people were injured in a rockfall at Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in the South Gobi province of southern Mongolia, the company said. The incident occurred at the underground mine, one of the world’s largest copper-gold deposits. Rio Tinto did not specify the severity of the injuries or whether production was affected.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s energy storage battery sector is entering a TWh-scale phase, with storage upgraded from a renewable-energy accessory to core power-system infrastructure, Sunwoda, Shanshan and other supply-chain firms. As strict quality standards move upstream, low-end homogeneous capacity is being cleared out while high-quality capacity with technology, integration and order support is in short supply, pushing the whole chain into a rational expansion cycle constrained by quality, orders and long-term verification.
TREE NEWS reports: As of October 29, 12 Chinese A-share listed banks had disclosed their 2026 third-quarter reports, including Ping An Bank, eight city commercial banks such as Bank of Hangzhou, and three rural commercial banks: Sunong Bank, Jiangyin Bank and Ruifeng Bank. The banks continued a strategy of steady scale and structural adjustment, with balance-sheet expansion proceeding at different paces and revenue and profit growth diverging. Improving funding costs supported net interest margins, while asset quality remained broadly stable.
TREE NEWS update: The Bank of Japan announces its rate decision and Governor Kazuo Ueda holds a monetary policy press conference on Thursday, the same day preliminary third-quarter GDP figures are due from France and the eurozone. Germany releases October unemployment and preliminary third-quarter GDP, while France and Germany publish preliminary October CPI. The week closes with China’s October official manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs on Saturday and a PEC+ meeting on Sunday, when North America switches to standard time, pushing US market hours back by one hour.
TREE NEWS reports: Several Chinese fund institutions said the recent A-share market adjustment stems mainly from external shocks and trading-level factors rather than a reversal in China’s economic fundamentals or listed companies’ earnings logic. They said that with a resilient economy and policy support, the pullback changes prices, not the long-term value of Chinese assets, and urged investors to stick to fundamentals-based value investing rather than altering long-term judgments over short-term moves.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s private securities fund assets have surpassed 9 trillion yuan, with multi-strategy products—quantitative multi-strategy, macro multi-strategy, multi-asset FOF/MOM and risk-budgeting strategies—increasingly appearing on distribution shelves as market volatility rises this year. Productization quality varies widely, ranging from live-track-record strategies with clear attribution and unified risk controls to loose strategy mixes or conceptual packaging, while investor selection logic and channel support remain key to how far the trend can go.
TREE NEWS reports: A total of 43 convertible bonds in China’s A-share market have completed maturity redemption so far this year, a record for the period, Wind data shows. The figure compares with just 17 before 2016 and has climbed steadily since, reaching 35 in 2024 and 39 in 2025, as issuers increasingly forgo forced conversion amid high proportions of unconverted bonds. Large issues including Huahai, Luxshare and Jidong convertibles face maturity windows in early November.