Flash News

TREE NEWS update: The World Health Organization said Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo strain. The case is described as imported, meaning it was not locally acquired. No further details on the patient or the source of infection were given in the announcement.

TREE NEWS reports: J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s 2027 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions project a 10% annual return for Bitcoin over 10 to 15 years. The firm is not adding Bitcoin to its main portfolio models, it said. The projection marks the first time JPMorgan has put a return figure on Bitcoin.

TREE NEWS update: Libya’s House of Representatives voted on 20 May to annul its earlier resolution to sever political relations with Turkey, the body announced on social media. The same session also approved a 2019 memorandum of understanding on Mediterranean maritime jurisdiction signed between Libya’s Government of National Accord and Turkey.

TREE NEWS update: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran will not negotiate within a framework set by the United States, referring to additional conditions Washington wants to add. “We will not negotiate in the framework you set,” Araghchi said, without specifying the conditions or a date for any talks.

TREE NEWS reports: The MSCI Emerging Markets stock index dropped 1.1%, while a gauge of developing-nation currencies rose less than 0.1%. The divergence leaves emerging-market equities sharply lower for the session as currency moves stayed nearly flat. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with the United States through intermediary countries including Pakistan and Qatar are continuing. He said the Strait of Hormuz had been due to fully open on the sixth day of the current process. Washington told Tehran it agreed to the relevant terms but wanted to add several supplementary clauses, Araghchi said.

TREE NEWS reports: TD Securities said the U.S. Treasury could hit the debt ceiling and exhaust its cash around September 2027, with negotiations likely to go down to the wire. Strategists Molly Brooks and Gennadiy Goldberg wrote that a Democrat-controlled Congress would be slightly more likely than a divided one to pass a bill. The ceiling stands at $41.1 trillion, leaving about $904.7 billion of borrowing headroom as of Oct. 19.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea’s producer price index rose 7.7% year-on-year in September, the country’s statistics agency reported. The reading tracks factory-gate prices for goods and services sold by domestic producers. No further breakdown of the September data was provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot gold fell 0.39% to $4,124.75 an ounce in late New York trade on Tuesday, October 20, after touching a session low of $4,111.70 at 18:09 Beijing time and then rebounding to a session high of $4,155.48 at 22:31. Spot silver rose 1.50% to $57.9369 an ounce, hitting a session high of $58.6023 at 22:32. COMEX copper futures gained 0.59% to $6.6150 a pound.

TREE NEWS update: SpaceX’s chief operating officer said the company expects to achieve a launch with a reusable second stage by early next year. The remark sets a target date for reusing the upper stage of its rockets, a step beyond the company’s existing first-stage booster recovery. No further details on the vehicle or mission were given.

TREE NEWS update: Elon Musk said SpaceX is expected to reach annual recurring revenue of $500 billion to $1 trillion by the end of 2027. The forecast, issued by Musk himself, projects a scale far beyond the company’s current revenue base. No further financial details or revenue figures for the intervening period were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Elon Musk said it is possible to reach 20 GW of compute next year, adding he would be surprised if less than 13 GW comes online by the end of next year. SpaceX plans to add 20 GW of power and cooling infrastructure in 2027 and is confident of bringing 10 GW of compute online that year, with deployment speed expected to exceed all other vendors combined. Musk also said SpaceX will deploy Grok Bot to enterprises at scale within weeks.

TREE NEWS update: US President’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 21, a US official said on Oct. 20, with Jared Kushner joining by video. Washington said prior talks with Ukraine and Europe covered a comprehensive peace framework including security guarantees, and that the US, Ukraine and Europe have reached a high degree of consensus at the working level on next steps.

TREE NEWS update: SpaceX’s 15th Starship flight is expected to take place next month, Elon Musk said, with the company to attempt recovery of both the booster and the ship. If successful, the flight would mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch vehicle in history.

TREE NEWS reports: US API crude oil inventories fell by 4.931 million barrels last week, following a drawdown of 11.123 million barrels the prior week. The back-to-back declines indicate continued tightening in US crude stockpiles over the two-week period.

TREE NEWS reports: SpaceX founder Elon Musk personally authorized speed restrictions on the military-grade Starlink service Ukraine relies on, US officials and people familiar said. The move alarmed Kyiv and caused confusion within President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump publicly denied ordering the restrictions and said he wanted to find out who made the decision, while some US officials described it as unilateral action by Musk, who had communicated with senior officials including Trump before the throttling.

TREE NEWS reports: US sector ETFs closed mostly higher on Tuesday, October 20, with the biotech index ETF up 3.16% and the global airlines and healthcare ETFs gaining as much as 2.38%. Technology, global tech and semiconductor ETFs fell by as much as 0.38%.

TREE NEWS reports: The US real estate ETF rose 1.73% on Tuesday, October 20, while the Russell 2000 index ETF gained 1.66% and the Dow Jones ETF added 1.05%, leading US asset-class ETFs. The 20+ year Treasury ETF, Barclays convertible bond ETF and S&P 500 ETF each rose at least 0.34%. The Nasdaq 100 ETF slipped 0.1%, the Brent oil fund fell 0.37% and the gold ETF dropped 0.54%.

TREE NEWS update: The American Petroleum Institute will release its industry version of the weekly crude oil inventory report at 04:30 Beijing time. Non-API members may obtain the data details as early as around 04:32. The report is a key indicator of U.S. crude stockpiles ahead of official government data.

TREE NEWS reports: Brazil is preparing its first panda bond issuance, potentially launching as soon as next week after Sunday’s presidential election, with an initial tranche of 5 billion yuan. The government is seeking to raise about 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in total. The sale would make Brazil the first Latin American sovereign issuer in China’s panda bond market and could set a pricing benchmark for Brazilian companies such as Vale, which is also considering yuan-denominated debt.