Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped more than 2% in early US trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and the Nasdaq off 0.6%. Memory chip stocks declined broadly, with Micron down about 3%, SK Hynix and Western Digital each down about 2% and SanDisk down about 1%. Optical communications and gold miners also fell, including Marvell and Corning, and Harmony Gold down about 6%.

TREE NEWS reports: The S&P 500 opened down 25.95 points, or 0.33%, at 7,792.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 114.84 points, or 0.22%, to 51,406.44, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 169.35 points, or 0.61%, to 27,430.54.

TREE NEWS update: Israel’s military said on October 7 that it has struck about 100,000 targets across the Middle East since the outbreak of the latest round of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7, 2023. The figures include about 65,000 targets in the Gaza Strip, 28,000 in Lebanon and Syria, 4,500 in Iran and 80 in Yemen.

TREE NEWS update: IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in Singapore on October 7 that high energy prices are likely to persist for some time even if the current conflict in the Gulf ends soon. Speaking at a preview event for the IMF and World Bank Group 2026 autumn meetings, she said Brent crude futures point to elevated oil prices continuing into 2027.

TREE NEWS update: Canada’s Wittington Investments has agreed to acquire UK pharmacy and beauty chain Boots for $8.9 billion. The deal would put one of Britain’s best-known high-street retailers under the Canadian investment firm’s ownership. No further terms of the transaction were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Syria’s state oil company said the Iraqi government has asked it to help export Iraqi crude. The request was disclosed by the Syrian oil company and concerns arrangements for shipping Iraqi oil. No volumes, routes or timelines were given.

TREE NEWS update: Iraq will dispatch several hundred fuel trucks per day to Syria. The cross-border arrangement marks a large-scale overland fuel supply route between the two neighboring countries. No further details on volumes, timing or terms were provided.

TREE NEWS update: A Brazilian lawmaker said the parties PP and Uniao Brasil are backing Jair Bolsonaro. The statement, made by a member of Congress, indicates support for the former president from the two parties. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: A poll found that most Germans consider the government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz incompetent, and that no other figure within his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would do a better job. The survey results were released without a stated margin of error or sample size.

TREE NEWS reports: Global gold ETFs drew a record $31 billion of inflows in the third quarter, including $10 billion in September alone, the World Gold Council reported, led by funds listed in Europe and North America. Holdings rose 67 tonnes to a record 4,256 tonnes even as the gold price fell, while total assets under management slipped 7% quarter-on-quarter to $574 billion.

TREE NEWS update: The European Commission’s trade and economic security commissioner is set to visit China, Yuyuantan Tian reported. Separately, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to two scientists for solving the mystery of biological chirality, work with deep implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander adviser said the Strait of Hormuz’s “illegal shipping lanes” will be blocked.

TREE NEWS update: Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said on the 6th that a sick employee of the Irkutsk-based Siberian and Far Eastern Plague Control Research Institute has been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown origin.” Local authorities immediately rolled out comprehensive anti-epidemic measures, and the epidemic situation in Irkutsk region and related cities is currently stable.

TREE NEWS update: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call on the 7th, stressing that the two countries should continue to strengthen their bilateral strategic cooperation. Pezeshkian said relations are developing well and that cooperation across all fields should be advanced in line with the two countries’ shared interests.

TREE NEWS reports: ABN AMRO senior rates strategist Larissa de Barros Fritz said concerns that a sharp selloff in French government bonds could trigger broader contagion across Europe are overstated. Unlike past periods of severe eurozone sovereign debt stress, there are no signs of wider financial risk spillover, she said. Credit default swap spreads on French and German sovereign debt have risen only slightly and remain far below levels seen in previous crises, and well below Italian CDS spreads during 2018 euro-exit concerns.

TREE NEWS update: A Turkish government source said on the 7th that Turkey currently has no plans to establish a military base in Saudi Arabia. The Turkish newspaper Türkiye had reported earlier the same day that a Turkish base in Saudi Arabia was among topics discussed under the framework of a “Mecca Defense Alliance.” The government source told RIA Novosti that the matter “is not on the agenda.”

TREE NEWS update: The Chinese Table Tennis Association issued a statement on July 7 condemning extreme fan behavior that crosses the line, saying it will firmly protect the legal rights of coaches and athletes. It said it will next push to establish an arena ban list system and strengthen on-site order management.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s Ministry of Transport said the seven-day National Day holiday period is expected to see 2.144 billion cross-region passenger trips nationwide, up 0.7% year on year. The figure covers the full seven-day holiday window and was released by the ministry as the latest official data.

TREE NEWS update: The Trump administration is set to receive $100 million from National Compute. No further details on the terms, timing or purpose of the payment were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: The Baltic Dry Index, which tracks bulk shipping rates for dry commodities, closed down 0.27% at 2,994 points. The move marks a marginal decline in the benchmark, which reflects charter rates across capesize, panamax and supramax vessel classes. No further breakdown of the index components was provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Iran said a deal with the United States is not out of reach if Washington abides by the law. The statement, carried by ISNA, frames an agreement as achievable should the US act in accordance with legal norms.