Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: China’s central bank reported government net bond financing of 1,009.73 billion yuan in August 2026, down 357.46 billion yuan year on year. Corporate net bond financing rose 137.40 billion yuan to 271.25 billion yuan over the same month. At end-August 2026, the bond market custodian balance stood at 209.0 trillion yuan.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s central bank said average daily interbank lending volume stood at 316.06 billion yuan in August 2026, down 24.6% year on year, while average daily bond repo turnover in the interbank market was 6.5 trillion yuan, down 14.8%. At end-August, outstanding interbank loans totaled 0.9 trillion yuan and outstanding interbank bond repos 9.6 trillion yuan.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai sold all three residential plots in its ninth batch land auction on September 21, raising a combined 12.911 billion yuan. The plots cover a total land area of 71,600 square meters with planned gross floor area of 179,000 square meters. Two of the three sites sold at a premium, with the highest premium rate reaching 29.65%.

TREE NEWS update: Zhang Youxia, a Politburo member and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, a CMC member and former chief of the Joint Staff Department, have been expelled from the Communist Party and stripped of their military posts. The CMC’s discipline inspection bodies opened the investigations with approval from the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, and the Politburo reviewed and approved the findings on September 21.

TREE NEWS update: Keda Manufacturing said its subsidiary Fujian Keda New Energy plans to sign an investment cooperation agreement with the Tumd Right Banner government to build an integrated 500,000-ton-per-year graphite anode materials project for about RMB 4.5 billion. The company said the investment fits its lithium-battery materials strategy and will help it capture market opportunities and expand business scale.

TREE NEWS update: A vessel sailing through the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unidentified flying object, leaving two crew members with minor injuries, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported on the 21st. The office said the ship was underway in the strait when the attack occurred. No further details on the vessel or the origin of the projectile were given.

TREE NEWS update: Germany plans to offer a fuel price subsidy starting October 1, a government spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that Berlin will not pursue a fuel price cap at any cost, and that a clear plan for refineries is needed. No further details on the size or duration of the subsidy were given.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot gold dropped below $4,340 per ounce, declining more than 0.8% during the session. The move marks a pullback in the precious metal’s price as it lost that level intraday.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin broke above $84,000, up more than 12% from its September 16 dip below $75,000, after the Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-point rate hike landed and the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate. Spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $159 million of net inflows on September 17 and about $433 million on September 18, pushing cumulative net inflows past $55 billion, or nearly 6.3% of total net asset value. Total crypto market cap briefly reclaimed $2.9 trillion; ETH traded near $2,690 and SOL around $115.

TREE NEWS update: Ireland’s data protection regulator fined Google €403 million over its handling of location data, the authority announced. The penalty relates to the company’s processing of user location information. Google did not immediately comment on the decision. The fine is the latest enforcement action by the Irish watchdog, which serves as the lead privacy regulator for Google in the European Union.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s active AI agents reached 4.95 million in 2026 and are forecast to hit 197 million by 2030, a 151.2% compound annual growth rate, according to the 2026 China AI Computing Power Development Assessment Report. Globally, active agents are projected to rise from 79.4 million in 2026 to 2.216 billion in 2030, as AI shifts from content generation to task execution.

TREE NEWS reports: Chinese tourist arrivals in Turkey rose 30.38% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2026, helped by a 47% increase in flights between the two countries and visa-free travel. Destinations are also spreading beyond Istanbul and Cappadocia to Muğla, Konya and the Aegean coast.

TREE NEWS update: Qin Weizhong, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, is under disciplinary review and supervisory investigation, China Central Television reported. No further details on the allegations or the timing of the probe were disclosed in the announcement.

TREE NEWS update: A Chinese court sentenced Feng Zhibin, former vice general manager of Sinochem Group, to 19 years in prison on September 21, 2026, the Daqing Intermediate People’s Court in Heilongjiang ruled in the first instance. Feng was convicted of taking bribes, accepting bribes through influence, and abuse of power at a state-owned company, and was fined 7 million yuan. His illegal gains and interest will be recovered and turned over to the state treasury.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on the 21st it is prepared for a long war of attrition, warning that if the “enemy” returns it will deploy new weapons and widen the scope of the conflict. The statement gave no further detail on the weapons or the intended targets.

TREE NEWS reports: A US law firm has filed more than 90 lawsuits in New Jersey state court since 2025 against Novo Nordisk, the drugmaker behind semaglutide, on behalf of patients diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) after taking the diabetes version of the GLP-1 drug. The filings renew industry scrutiny of GLP-1 safety.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration held a financial supervision cooperation seminar with ASEAN and neighboring countries in Nanning, Guangxi, on September 17-18. More than 30 representatives from financial regulators in 12 countries and regions — including China, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Mongolia and Nepal — attended, along with the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office.

TREE NEWS reports: Cross-holiday and quarter-end funding demand, combined with government bond payments, is expected to keep China’s money market mildly tight this week, several institutions said. The convergence in liquidity conditions comes as banks and non-bank institutions position for seasonal cash needs and upcoming government debt settlements. No specific policy action or rate change was announced.

TREE NEWS update: European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta warned that overly optimistic valuations of technology companies could leave markets exposed to a sharp correction. He said current asset prices reflect optimistic expectations for AI’s future profitability, which help tech firms raise capital and support further investment but also make markets prone to significant adjustments if those expectations fail, as recent volatility in tech stocks has shown.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the evening of the 20th that he held a phone call with US President Donald Trump and the two agreed to meet in New York. Zelensky said the peace process is Ukraine’s priority, adding that US envoy Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner held detailed talks on “key details” during a recent visit to Ukraine, and that Kyiv is working with the US team on de-escalation and core security issues including energy and food security.