Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: WTI crude oil pared its gain to nearly 2%, trading at $94.2 a barrel after earlier rising more than 4%. Brent crude was up over 1.2% at $98.96 a barrel. The pullback followed an earlier session rally in international oil prices.

TREE NEWS update: SpaceX said one of Starship’s engines failed during its 14th test flight, preventing the vehicle from entering Earth orbit as planned and forcing it to abandon the mission to deploy a new generation of V3 Starlink satellites. The company did not say whether the vehicle or its payload was lost.

TREE NEWS reports: Deutsche Bank analyst Daniel Ghali forecasts copper will rise to $22,050 per ton by the second quarter of 2027, a gain of roughly 50%, as buyers race to lock in supply in a “historic metals grab.” Immediately available inventories have fallen to unprecedented lows, and the market’s main driver is shifting from a demand boom to a liquidity crisis. Ghali sees copper averaging $20,900 per ton in 2027 and $18,500 in 2028.

TREE NEWS update: Nvidia announced an additional $150 billion share repurchase, the largest buyback ever by a US company. The stock rose more than 2% in premarket trading. Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry disclosed details of a US-China trade council and a “30 billion versus 30 billion” reciprocal tariff-reduction framework.

TREE NEWS reports: Chinese night-session futures opened with 20 rubber, No. 2 soybean, Shanghai gold, Shanghai silver, rapeseed meal and rubber all down more than 1%. Crude oil, soybean meal and palm oil fell nearly 1%, while propylene, fuel oil and coke rose nearly 1%.

TREE NEWS reports: Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline is carrying about 3.5 million barrels per day. The east-west link moves crude from the kingdom’s eastern fields to Red Sea terminals, giving Riyadh an export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. The 3.5 million bpd figure reflects the conduit’s current throughput.

TREE NEWS update: China’s embassy in the Philippines warned Chinese citizens coming to the country to guard against being lured into kidnapping-for-ransom schemes. Philippine police recently cracked multiple kidnapping cases targeting Chinese nationals, rescuing victims and arresting suspects. The gangs mainly target young Chinese citizens traveling alone, contacting them online or posing as acquaintances and inviting them to the Philippines under the guise of tourism or business, arranging flights and accommodation before seizing their passports and phones and demanding ransom from families.

TREE NEWS update: The Trump administration has formally finalized new, lower fuel economy standards, reversing the Biden administration’s push for automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. The move was announced in a US government notice published Monday. The new rules lower the corporate average fuel economy targets that automakers must meet.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level-4 national geological disaster emergency response for Chongqing and Shaanxi. The ministry announced the move as the two regions face elevated geological risk. The Level-4 designation is the lowest tier in China’s four-level emergency response system.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui Provincial Government Office issued an implementation opinion on promoting high-quality development of the robot industry, pledging 500 million yuan in provincial fiscal funds annually from 2027 to 2030. The money will support key robot technology research, innovation platforms, application rollout, events, talent cultivation, think-tank building and incentives for city-level industrial development. Support policies and funding arrangements will be revised as the industry evolves.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui provincial government issued guidelines on high-quality development of the robotics industry, pledging support for companies to pursue global mergers and acquisitions that consolidate upstream and downstream supply-chain resources. The provincial government office said it would build multi-tier matchmaking platforms to strengthen firms’ core competitiveness and ecosystem leadership, and encourage companies in other sectors to enter robotics through strategic investment and M&A.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui provincial government issued implementation guidelines on high-quality development of the robotics industry, encouraging automakers to expand into robotics as a “second growth curve.” The plan calls on car companies to open R&D platforms and share technology with robotics firms, send talent into the sector, and provide parts processing, prototyping and product testing services to small and mid-sized robot makers.

TREE NEWS update: Mediators will hold separate talks with the United States and Iran this week. No further details on the venue, participants or agenda were provided. The parallel meetings come amid ongoing diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran.

TREE NEWS update: Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled on the 28th that the use of ballots printed with barcodes and QR codes in February’s House of Representatives election does not violate the constitution. The decision resolves a legal challenge over the ballot design used in the February lower-house poll.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin fell below $83,000 to start the week as US-Iran war developments weighed on markets, leaving the largest cryptocurrency up more than 40% for the third quarter, its best Q3 in nine years. Traders are now watching key US inflation and jobs data due this week for direction.

TREE NEWS update: The mayor of Kadena town in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, Takeyama Hiroshi, filed a formal protest with the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau on the 28th over a plan to store the US Typhon mid-range missile system at Kadena Air Base. He submitted a request for the plan’s withdrawal, calling it absurd and unacceptable because it ignores residents’ feelings.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for stricter implementation of production safety measures and firm prevention of major and especially serious accidents, speaking at a national video conference on workplace safety. Li urged that safety work be carried out thoroughly and in detail across all sectors. The meeting was reported by Xinhua.

TREE NEWS update: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has hired Wall Street economist David Zervos as an advisor to the Treasury Department. Zervos, a longtime strategist known for his views on monetary policy and markets, joins the department in an advisory role. The appointment was reported on Wednesday.

TREE NEWS reports: The Baltic Dry Index dropped 4.61% to 3,268 points. The decline marks a pullback in the benchmark gauge of global bulk shipping rates for dry commodities including iron ore, coal and grain. No further details were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: A Russian drone crashed in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district at midday on September 28, sparking a fire and damaging the building of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strike on the city centre killed one person and injured three others. Emergency services were dispatched to the scene.