Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: The Japanese yen strengthened more than 20 pips against the US dollar in short order, extending its intraday gain to 0.5%. The move marks a firmer session for the currency, though no catalyst for the advance was specified.

TREE NEWS reports: International oil prices deepened their decline, with Brent crude falling 2% and WTI dropping more than 2%. The widening losses mark a sharper pullback in crude benchmarks.

TREE NEWS reports: The Hang Seng Tech Index narrowed its decline to 1.5%, recovering from an earlier drop of as much as 2.6%. The index had been down 2.6% before the losses were trimmed.

TREE NEWS update: China Railway said the Harbin-Yichun high-speed railway will begin operations on September 28, cutting the fastest travel time between the two northeastern cities to 1 hour 46 minutes. The railway operator will apply a flexible, differentiated market-based pricing mechanism on the line to meet varying passenger travel needs and offer more choices.

TREE NEWS update: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday during the UN General Assembly in New York that Iran has proposed a plan to the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. Araghchi said the plan would build on a memorandum of understanding the two countries reached in June and would only be implemented if certain conditions are met. He added that completing it before the US midterm elections would be preferable, but that it depends on the US government’s decision.

TREE NEWS update: State Grid Zhoushan completed a nine-day comprehensive overhaul of the 110kV Zhongzhu substation on the 25th, maintaining uninterrupted power to island residents via a self-healing smart microgrid. The microgrid, first deployed on Miaozihu Island in 2024, combines diesel generation, energy storage and solar with integrated source-grid-load-storage dispatch, and can run independently off-grid if the main grid goes down.

TREE NEWS update: Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery has suspended operations following a drone attack, the plant said. The strike is the latest to disrupt refining capacity at the site, which has been targeted repeatedly since the war in Ukraine began. No timeline for restarting production was given.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s 2026 Mid-Autumn holiday box office (Sept 25-27) surpassed 50 million yuan. ‘Avengers: Endgame (Enhanced Premium Edition)’, ‘Eight Immortals!’ and ‘Welcome to Dragon Restaurant’ currently rank as the top three films on the chart.

TREE NEWS reports: Thailand’s customs-based exports rose 24.3% year on year in August, while imports climbed 25.1%, leaving a trade deficit of $250 million for the month. The figures, released on customs data, show imports outpacing exports as the country’s trade gap persisted into August.

TREE NEWS update: The China Coast Guard carried out a comprehensive law enforcement patrol in the national nature reserve at Huangyan Dao, also known as Scarborough Shoal, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The patrol is described as covering the protected area in full. No further details on the operation were provided.

TREE NEWS update: The Xi’an–Ankang section of the Xi’an–Chongqing high-speed railway will open to traffic on Sept 28, China Railway said. The fastest journey between Xi’an East Station and Ankang West Station will be 45 minutes, a link the operator said will support coordinated regional economic and social development.

TREE NEWS reports: The one-month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate (HIBOR) climbed to its highest level since January. The move marks a sharp tightening in short-term Hong Kong dollar funding costs, with the benchmark rate now at its loftiest since the start of the year.

TREE NEWS update: Xiamen held its first land auction since the “8·28” property policy on September 24, selling two residential plots at reserve prices for a combined 4.195 billion yuan. The Huli district plot, the first residential site in Xiamen and in Fujian province to require completed-home sales, drew a floor price of 35.61 billion… no, 3.561 billion yuan from C&D, setting a record composite floor price of 58,148 yuan per square meter for Xiamen residential land.

TREE NEWS reports: Domestic flight bookings for Sept 25, the first day of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, rose more than 60% year on year, as travelers extended the break by taking three days off around it. Searches for Mid-Autumn moon-viewing and autumn travel keywords were 3.1 times higher week on week, with many Oct 1 National Day trips pulled forward.

TREE NEWS update: Track laying on the Chongqing section of the Chengdu-Chongqing Middle Line high-speed railway was completed on September 25, with the final 500-meter rail segment laid at the Renhe Tunnel site in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing. The work marks the completion of track installation on the Chongqing portion of the line.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s Nikkei 225 and the Topix index both closed the morning session up 1.2%. The two benchmarks moved in tandem through the half-day trading period.

TREE NEWS update: Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said bond yields are being influenced by multiple factors, adding that the government is doing its utmost to respond to rising yields. Katayama gave no further detail on the specific drivers or the measures under consideration. The comments come as Japanese government bond yields remain a focus for global markets.

TREE NEWS update: The yen strengthened sharply in short-term trading after Japan’s finance minister said Donald Trump expressed concern about the currency’s weakness. The remark put the yen’s recent slide back in focus, with the US president’s view on the exchange rate now part of the market’s read on the pair. No further details or figures were given.

TREE NEWS update: Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said the specific tools of monetary policy are for the Bank of Japan to decide, adding that the BOJ’s recent rate hike was aimed at achieving its inflation target. She declined to comment on specific exchange-rate levels or rate checks, and said Japan will coordinate closely with the US on foreign exchange, noting that President Trump and the US side expressed concern over yen weakness during the summit.