Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: The US military has drawn up new strike plans that include the possible use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, known as the “mother of all bombs,” against Iran’s energy infrastructure and nuclear facilities if President Trump orders a resumption of military action, whether before or after the midterm elections. The plans were reported by CNN.

TREE NEWS update: China’s embassy in Saudi Arabia issued a security reminder on October 15 regarding the current situation in the country. The embassy advised Chinese citizens and institutions in Saudi Arabia to take safety precautions. No further details on the specific circumstances prompting the alert were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries. The statement signals a renewed campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, without specifying a timeline or targets. No further operational details were given.

TREE NEWS reports: Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said early wage data indicates UK inflation remains above the central bank’s target. The remarks point to persistent underlying price pressure in the labor market. Pill’s comments come as the BoE weighs the path of interest rates.

TREE NEWS reports: Counterpoint Research forecasts that Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) will rise to third place in global NAND flash shipments in the second quarter of 2026, behind only Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and ahead of Kioxia and Micron. Excluding SK Hynix’s Solidigm unit, YMTC would rank second. YMTC’s global NAND revenue share rose from 9% to 14% over four quarters through Q1 2026, with year-on-year revenue growth reaching as high as 478%.

TREE NEWS reports: Shanghai-listed ETFs logged net inflows for three straight sessions from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14, totaling more than 75 billion yuan. Broad-based ETFs accounted for about 30 billion yuan of the total, while sector and thematic ETFs took in over 10 billion yuan.

TREE NEWS update: South Korea’s KOSPI index resumed trading after a circuit breaker halted the market for 20 minutes. The benchmark Seoul index had been suspended on the trigger before trading restarted. No further details on the level of the index or the size of the move were given. The halt marked a temporary interruption to trading on Korea’s main stock exchange.

TREE NEWS reports: The Hang Seng Tech Index extended its intraday decline to 3%, a move that underscores the pressure on Hong Kong-listed technology shares. The index’s slide came during the trading session, with the drop widening as the day progressed. No specific catalyst for the decline was stated in the available data.

TREE NEWS reports: European Central Bank Governing Council member and Bank of Portugal Governor Santos Pereira said economic growth has been surprisingly strong, and he would not be surprised if that momentum continues over the coming months. The remarks were made in comments published Wednesday. He did not indicate how the strength might affect the ECB’s policy stance.

TREE NEWS reports: Indonesia’s benchmark stock index dropped 1% on Thursday. The decline marks a pullback for the Jakarta Composite Index, which tracks the country’s largest listed companies. No specific catalyst for the move was given in the data.

TREE NEWS update: Indonesia’s central bank said it is intervening in both offshore and onshore markets to keep the rupiah stable and aligned with fundamentals. The official said the bank will continue intervening in the market to ensure the currency’s exchange rate remains stable.

TREE NEWS reports: UBS is preparing options to move its headquarters out of Switzerland amid the possibility of stricter capital adequacy requirements being advanced there. Options under discussion include acquiring a US financial institution, merging with a European peer, or selling itself to a US company.

TREE NEWS reports: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Chief Economist said New Zealand is feeling the impact of oil prices. The remark points to oil-price pressure feeding into the country’s economy, without further detail on the scale or policy response.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of Japan board member Junko Koeda said the central bank should raise interest rates in a timely manner and does not need to be overly cautious about hiking, noting financial conditions remain accommodative. Koeda said inflation is becoming sustainable, with price trends around 2% and significant upside risks to prices.

TREE NEWS reports: The CSI Convertible Bond Index opened 0.78% lower, with Outong, Yunji, Jizhi, Qiangda and Dinglong convertible bonds leading the declines at 6.65%, 6.01%, 5.74%, 5.30% and 5.05% respectively. Ruihu Convertible Bond 02 led gainers, up 30.00%, followed by Tianyuan at 6.08%, Aima at 0.61%, Yuxing at 0.42% and Saisi at 0.41%.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s treasury bond futures opened higher, with the 30-year main contract up 0.43%, the 10-year main contract up 0.06%, the 5-year main contract up 0.03%, and the 2-year main contract up 0.01%. The gains were led by the longest-dated contract.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s major A-share indices opened sharply lower on the latest session, with the Shanghai Composite at 3710.70, down 1.50%. The Shenzhen Component fell 2.40% to 11819.99 and the ChiNext Index dropped 3.13% to 2776.92. The CSI 300 opened at 4145.95, down 1.70%, while the STAR 50 slid 3.91% to 1326.24.

TREE NEWS update: He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission Office, met with Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio in Beijing on the 14th. The meeting was confirmed in an official readout, which gave no further details on the topics discussed.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China conducted a 45 billion yuan 7-day reverse repurchase operation on Tuesday at an interest rate of 1.40%, unchanged from the previous operation. No reverse repos matured on the day, leaving a net liquidity injection of 45 billion yuan into the banking system.

TREE NEWS reports: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opened 0.80% lower at 24,119.14 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 2.21%. Among individual names, Iluvatar CoreX dropped more than 9%, Lenovo Group declined over 7% and Zhipu lost more than 6%.