Flash News

TREE NEWS update: NASA said on the 28th it will continue using Boeing’s Starliner for uncrewed missions to the International Space Station, but will only fly new crewed missions after the spacecraft’s design is modified. In February, a NASA investigation classified the malfunction during Starliner’s first crewed test flight as a Category A accident, the most severe level, the same category assigned to the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange released its balance-of-payments report for the first half of 2026, showing total current account receipts and payments of $4.6 trillion, up 16% year on year. The current account surplus stood at $378 billion, with its ratio to GDP remaining stable. Overseas investment income rose steadily in the period, while foreign investment income in China held stable.

TREE NEWS update: Multiple Chinese wealth management companies are applying for pension wealth management product qualifications, nearly three years after the last round of such offerings. The applicants include both wealth management subsidiaries that have already issued pension products and new institutions that have not previously offered them, with new approvals and new product launches expected. The expansion would widen the pool of licensed pension wealth product providers.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Mohebbi said on the 29th that the IRGC has prepared a letter to the American people to explain Iran’s position. He said the US has been at war for 70 years, that economic war and naval blockade will fail again, and that Washington has no choice but to admit defeat and withdraw from the region to end the war.

TREE NEWS reports: HSBC strategists said the decline in US equity valuations reflects pressure from the sharp rise in interest rates over recent months, while weak market breadth is typically a contrarian indicator pointing to oversold conditions. The team led by Max Kettner reiterated its bullish view on US stocks, citing improving economic growth and earnings expectations.

TREE NEWS update: China’s General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Inheritance of Cultural Heritage, with a notice requiring localities and departments to implement it. The plan sets a 2030 target of fully surveying cultural heritage resources, basically straightening out the regulatory system, further improving laws and regulations, and forming a broad protection framework.

TREE NEWS update: Former Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region CPPCC Party Group member and vice chairman Peng Xiaochun was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a first-instance court for illegally accepting over 263 million yuan in bribes. The verdict was handed down at first instance, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

TREE NEWS reports: The eurozone consumer confidence index for September came in at -16.5, matching both the flash reading and analyst expectations. The reading is unchanged from the preliminary -16.5 print, indicating sentiment among euro-area households held steady over the month.

TREE NEWS reports: The eurozone’s economic sentiment index came in at 97.9 for September, below the 98.9 expected and down from 98.4 in the previous reading. The miss points to weakening business and consumer confidence across the currency bloc.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s outstanding external debt, including both local and foreign currency, reached $2.4982 trillion at the end of June 2026, up $86.1 billion, or 4%, from the end of March, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said. SAFE deputy administrator and spokesperson Li Bin attributed the rise mainly to active cross-border trade, which lifted corporate trade credit and inter-company lending. Local-currency debt rose to 56% of the total, while medium- and long-term debt held at 41%.

TREE NEWS update: Hengqin Port’s passenger inspection hall will open 52 newly built border-check lanes for trial operation at 10:00 on September 30, the Hengqin border checkpoint under the Zhuhai General Station of Exit and Entry Border Inspection announced. Clearance efficiency at the port is expected to rise by about 65%, making travel between Hengqin and Macau faster and more convenient.

TREE NEWS update: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the 29th ordered the military to quickly establish the facts behind a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone, saying the government will take necessary measures based on the investigation’s findings. The blast occurred on the 21st while troops of the Army’s 25th Division were on a mission inside the DMZ on the South Korean side near the Military Demarcation Line, injuring three soldiers, two of them seriously.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng met with EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo Albiñana, the central bank said. The two sides exchanged views on the current economic and financial situation and on China-EU economic and financial cooperation. PBOC Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng also attended the meeting.

TREE NEWS update: The World Health Organization warned on the 29th that escalating conflict is pushing Yemen’s fragile health system toward collapse. Since August 6, 4,481 people have been killed or injured, including 838 deaths, and more than 180,000 have been displaced across 10 provinces. Only about 60% of health facilities are functioning, with trauma care crowding out maternal and child services, while cholera, dengue and measles outbreaks continue — over 22,000 suspected measles cases and 128 deaths reported this year.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s current account surplus for the second quarter was revised to $193.7 billion, down from a preliminary reading of $195.1 billion. The final figure, released in official balance-of-payments data, trims $1.4 billion from the initial estimate. The current account covers trade in goods and services, primary income and secondary income.

TREE NEWS update: China has signed second-round land contract extension agreements with more than 30 million rural households, extending their land rights by another 30 years after the current term expires. The pilot program for the extension is being carried out across all prefecture-level regions in 29 provincial-level areas. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released the figures on Tuesday.

TREE NEWS update: Inner Mongolia issued 36.63396 billion yuan of 7-year general local government bonds at a coupon of 1.6000%, with a marginal bid-to-cover ratio of 1.66 times against an expected 1.55 times. The region also sold 867.54 million yuan of 15-year special-purpose local government bonds at 2.0500%, drawing a marginal ratio of 6.38 times versus an expected 2.03 times.

TREE NEWS update: China FAW Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on September 29, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. The partnership is described as a market-based, law-compliant move to advance strategic corporate restructuring, deepen cross-regional resource integration and optimize the industrial structure under the 15th Five-Year Plan for intelligent connected new energy vehicles.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange said the country’s banking sector held $2,144.3 billion in overseas financial assets and $1,472.6 billion in overseas liabilities at the end of June 2026, for net overseas assets of $671.7 billion. Within that total, renminbi-denominated net liabilities stood at $75.4 billion, while foreign-currency net assets reached $747 billion.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Transport and 12 other departments issued a five-year action plan to 2030 to expand multimodal transport, targeting upgrades at about 1,000 major freight nodes. The plan calls for rail access at 80% of coastal port multimodal zones and over 90% one-hour transloading, aiming for rail transport of roughly 95% of long-haul coal and coke from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.