Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Fangda Special Steel announced it will exit its position as a limited partner in Nanchang Huxu and acquire 100% of Jiangxi Fangda Steel Group Enterprise Investment Co. (Fangda Qitou) via in-kind distribution and cash purchase. The 99.26% stake is transferred through in-kind distribution at no additional consideration, valued at 3.5 billion yuan based on paid-in capital, while the remaining 0.74% is bought for 26 million yuan. The deal secures vanadium-titanium supply and vanadium extraction technology.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Bangkok on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meetings, the central bank said. The two exchanged views on the economic situations in China and globally and on cooperation between China and the Fund. PBOC Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng also attended the meeting.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of China held the unveiling ceremony for a renminbi clearing bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on October 15. Sri Lankan Central Bank Deputy Governor Siri Kumara and Labour Minister and Deputy Finance Minister Fernando spoke at the event, which drew more than 200 representatives from Sri Lankan government departments and Chinese and Sri Lankan companies and financial institutions.

TREE NEWS update: Beijing Normal University Affiliated High School held the inauguration ceremony for its Qian Xuesen College. Professor Qian Yonggang was appointed honorary dean, and appointment letters were presented to off-campus mentors. The college said it will carry forward the spirit of scientists and explore new models for cultivating top innovative talent.

TREE NEWS reports: The euro rose 0.3% to $1.1254, clawing back part of the ground lost after hitting a 17-month low on Wednesday, as dollar weakness followed remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Warsh. Traders are watching rate paths on both sides of the Atlantic, with signs of a widening US-European central bank rate gap having previously pressured the euro. Options-market sentiment has improved but remains negative.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s outdoor sports participants exceeded 500 million by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with the sector’s total scale reaching about 3.17 trillion yuan, according to the China Outdoor Sports Industry Development Report (2025-2026) released at the 2026 China Outdoor Sports Industry Conference, which opened on the 16th in Changping District, Beijing. The same report a year earlier put participation at over 400 million as of early April 2025.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said on the 15th that the United States may carry out further strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, including the underground Fordow site. He made the remarks at the White House in an interview with the US outlet One America News Network.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Film Bureau and General Administration of Sport jointly issued a notice to launch the ‘Follow Movies to Sports’ campaign, promoting cross-sector cooperation between film and sports. The initiative covers cultural promotion, consumer tie-ins and public welfare coordination, aiming to boost public participation in both movie-going and sports activities.

TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury Department issued Venezuela-related General License 60A, the Trump administration’s authorization of funding support for Venezuela following recent earthquakes. The license, published by Treasury, permits the previously restricted flow of funds toward earthquake relief in the country. No further terms or counterparties were disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: The Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) stood at 3.88% on October 15, unchanged from the prior day. The effective federal funds rate for the same trading day also held at 3.88%, matching the previous day’s level.

TREE NEWS update: Chery Green Energy signed an agreement with State Grid Anhui Electric Power Mingsheng Group on October 16, 2026, activating the industry’s first scaled vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operations site. The companies said the launch moves V2G from technical validation into scaled deployment.

TREE NEWS reports: Douyin E-Commerce released first-day data for its 2026 Singles’ Day shopping festival. On October 15, the number of merchants whose sales surpassed 1 million yuan for the first time rose 74% year on year, while merchants with livestream-store sales above 10 million yuan increased 96%. Creators joining the festival for the first time and exceeding 1 million yuan in sales grew 30% year on year.

TREE NEWS update: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Oct. 16 that Russia’s surplus diesel production this year is slightly below previous years but remains sufficient to meet both domestic and export demand. The statement addresses the country’s diesel supply balance amid ongoing export flows.

TREE NEWS reports: Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of US Forces Korea, said the conditions for transferring wartime operational control to South Korea “have changed” and that “new standards” should be set. The remarks drew dissatisfaction from the South Korean side.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on October 16 asked European Union leaders to provide an additional €70 billion ($79 billion) in funding for Ukraine next year, saying the money is needed to help the country continue fighting Russia. The request was made directly to EU leaders.

TREE NEWS reports: The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell nearly 2% in early US trading, with memory chip stocks broadly lower: SK Hynix dropped about 4%, Western Digital, SanDisk and Micron each lost roughly 3%, and Seagate fell about 2%. The Dow rose 0.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.1% and the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3%. Tesla and Apple each rose about 1%, while CoreWeave fell 7.7% after its co-founder sold $3.3 billion of stock.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Friday that underlying inflation is already around 2% and that a further rise cannot be tolerated. Asked whether prices nearing the BOJ’s target would affect policy operations, Ueda said the recent policy phase has shifted and keeping inflation stably around 2% is becoming a key goal. He said discussions with international counterparts yielded little that clearly contradicted the BOJ’s current view, and that he will discuss with other policy board members at the October meeting whether to adjust the current wording on underlying inflation approaching 2%.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s navy said on the 16th that its monitoring teams detected another “violating” oil tanker on fire in the eastern waters of the Strait of Hormuz within the past few hours. In a statement on its website, the navy said the vessel had switched off its tracking system and was attempting to cross a “restricted zone” in the eastern strait. It warned that uncoordinated sailings through the strait’s prohibited lanes and areas endanger other ships.

TREE NEWS reports: US industrial production rose 0.7% in September from the prior month, above the 0.4% expected and following a 0% reading in the previous month. The reading covers output from the nation’s factories, mines and utilities.

TREE NEWS reports: US manufacturing output rose 0.3% month-on-month in September, in line with expectations, after a 0.3% decline the previous month. The figure marks a return to growth for the sector following August’s contraction.