Flash News

TREE NEWS update: The UK Prime Minister’s Office pushed back on 19 May against comments by US Defense Secretary Hegseth that America’s allies played only a limited role in the Afghanistan war. The office criticized the remarks, defending Britain’s contribution to the conflict. The statement marks a public rift between London and Washington over the allied war effort.

TREE NEWS update: Romania’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate voted on October 20 to approve a new government headed by Prime Minister Luca Niculescu. The cabinet comprises one deputy prime minister, who also serves as interior minister, and 17 ministers.

TREE NEWS reports: The Nasdaq 100 index fell 1% on the day. The decline marks a pullback for the tech-heavy benchmark, which tracks the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. No further details were immediately available.

TREE NEWS reports: The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 1.75% in early US trading, with memory-chip stocks broadly lower: SK Hynix down about 3%, Micron and SanDisk about 2% each, and Western Digital and Seagate about 1% each. Optical-communications names also declined, including Coherent down about 4% and Credo and Lumentum about 3% each. General Motors fell about 6% after reporting third-quarter results, while Braze jumped about 52% on Salesforce’s agreement to acquire it for $47.50 per share in cash.

TREE NEWS reports: The dollar fell 0.3% against the Japanese yen to 158 and slipped 0.09% versus the offshore yuan to 6.67575, while gold dropped 0.6% to $4,117.33 an ounce and silver rose 0.86% to $57.157 an ounce. WTI crude gained 1.18% to $100.47 a barrel and Brent rose 0.89% to $111.70, with European equities edging lower. Gate reported the cross-asset moves, offering traditional-market products alongside crypto on its platform.

TREE NEWS reports: The S&P 500 opened 11.72 points lower, down 0.15% at 7,679.01, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 6.82 points, or 0.01%, to 51,959.21. The Nasdaq Composite fell 97.97 points, or 0.37%, to 26,332.92 at the open.

TREE NEWS update: China Southern Airlines flight CZ3925, operated by a domestically built C919, landed at Yinchuan Hedong International Airport at 17:57 on Oct. 20, marking the aircraft’s first commercial passenger service to the Ningxia capital. The flight departed from Changsha, Hunan, and the milestone is seen as a step in linking central and northwestern China by air.

TREE NEWS update: Romania’s prime minister won a confidence vote in parliament, securing a mandate to lead the government. The vote took place in parliament, with the prime minister receiving majority support from lawmakers. No further details on the vote count or political context were provided.

TREE NEWS update: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the ownership question for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be addressed next year, and that he expects mortgage rates to decline. He said rates have risen due to an energy shock and that the housing market has slowed. Bessent also warned that losing chip supply from Taiwan would be disruptive, and said Iran’s currency is collapsing amid panic.

TREE NEWS reports: Foreign institutions increased their holdings of Chinese government bonds for a fifth consecutive month in September, adding 14.18 billion yuan ($1.99 billion) — the largest monthly increase since May — according to calculations from China Central Depository & Clearing data released Tuesday. Total foreign holdings rose to nearly 2.04 trillion yuan, with the appeal of Chinese government debt sharpening as selloffs deepen in major bond markets in Europe, the US and Japan and the yuan stays firm.

TREE NEWS update: US Treasury Secretary Bessent said the US bond market is performing well, citing strong recent bond auctions and capital inflows into US Treasuries due to problems in other regions. He added that he sees no spillover effects from France and described Macron’s economic team as first-rate.

TREE NEWS update: South East Water said it may import drinking water from Norway if the drought continues, after record summer heat led to the highest-level drought alert being issued in parts of southern England in October. The company’s contingency plan comes as prolonged dry conditions strain UK water supplies.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on the 20th that two “violating” oil tankers struck mines laid by its naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz and subsequently caught fire. The IRGC provided no further details on the vessels, their cargoes or casualties. The statement marks an escalation in the strategic waterway through which a substantial share of global seaborne oil passes.

TREE NEWS update: Former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said at the 2026 Bund Summit that the US could consider raising the tax burden on companies that benefit most from artificial intelligence. Speaking during a roundtable discussion, Rubin said the US still has a very strong long-term economic foundation and inherent advantages, but that achieving economic success requires addressing policy challenges. He described the problems facing the US as entirely manageable.

TREE NEWS update: Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, chief operating officer of the Group of Thirty and former director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department, said she is concerned that rising government debt-servicing burdens could intensify fiscal dominance and financial repression and threaten central bank independence. She made the remarks during a roundtable discussion at the 2026 Bund Summit.

TREE NEWS reports: Styrene, ethylene glycol and pure benzene rose more than 2% at the open of China’s night futures session, while asphalt, bottle chip, paraxylene, short fiber and methanol gained over 1%. Rapeseed meal was the outlier, falling more than 1%. The session opened with a broad advance across petrochemical and fiber contracts.

TREE NEWS reports: The pass rate for the CFA final-level exam fell to 47%, coming in below the 10-year average. The figure marks a decline in candidate success at the highest tier of the chartered financial analyst program.

TREE NEWS reports: US September building permits came in at a preliminary 1.40 million annualized, above the 1.385 million expected and slightly below the prior reading of 1.403 million. The figure covers initial estimates for the month and reflects the pace of new residential construction authorizations.

TREE NEWS reports: US housing starts fell 5.2% in September from August, missing expectations for a 1.9% gain and widening from a revised 2.6% decline the prior month. The monthly drop points to continued softness in residential construction activity.

TREE NEWS update: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar discussed developments in the Middle East. Rubio said India should buy more US technology and systems, and reiterated his desire to expand energy trade with India. The talks covered both defense-related procurement and energy cooperation between the two countries.