Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: The Shanghai Futures Exchange crude oil 2611 contract closed its night session down 2.60% at 734.80 yuan per barrel. In the same session, Shanghai gold rose 0.52% and Shanghai silver gained 1.49%.

TREE NEWS reports: Houthi forces said Saudi warplanes flying F-15s from the Khamis Mushait air base carried out 26 airstrikes on Taiz province over the past 24 hours. The group said Saudi aircraft flew a cumulative 300 airstrikes this week, with F-15s and Typhoons launched from the Khamis Mushait and Taif bases, hitting Taiz, Hajjah, Marib, Al Jawf, Al Bayda, Amran, Hodeidah and Saada provinces.

TREE NEWS reports: Elon Musk said his guess is that artificial intelligence will roughly double the US GDP growth rate next year, lifting it from about 2% to about 4% or even higher. The remark is a projection on AI’s macroeconomic impact, with no policy or corporate action attached.

TREE NEWS reports: Speculative net long positions in ICE Brent crude rose by 16,904 contracts in the week to September 15, reaching 282,657 lots, the highest in 17 weeks. The increase marks a further build-up in bullish bets on the benchmark crude.

TREE NEWS update: Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the 18th local time that the Ukrainian capital is under a ballistic missile attack, with air defense forces fully activated and interception operations underway. Air raid alerts had sounded in the city before the strike. Klitschko urged residents to stay in shelters and not go outside. Russia has not yet responded.

TREE NEWS reports: Bank of America strategists, including Mark Cabana and Meghan Swiber, told clients to prepare for the risk that the Federal Reserve lifts its benchmark rate above 5% and to position for further gains in two-year Treasury yields, saying the rates market still underestimates where the hiking cycle that began this week will end. Swap prices imply three more 25-basis-point hikes, which would lift the effective fed funds rate to 4.50%-4.75%.

TREE NEWS update: The Pentagon has told Congress that US spending on Iran-related operations has reached $43.6 billion to date. As of September 3 the Pentagon had allocated about $11.2 billion for incremental operation costs, roughly $28.1 billion to replenish expended munitions and about $4.3 billion to replace lost equipment. Equipment loss costs will be adjusted as more assessments come in, and the estimate excludes potential multi-billion-dollar damage to US bases in the Middle East from Iranian attacks.

TREE NEWS update: The International Atomic Energy Agency announced on September 18 that 11 newly elected countries will join its Board of Governors for the 2026-2028 term. The election was held on September 17 during the seventh plenary meeting of the IAEA’s 70th General Conference. The new members are Angola, Brazil, Greece, Honduras, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovakia and Sweden.

TREE NEWS reports: The Federal Reserve’s overnight reverse repurchase agreement (RRP) facility took in $576 million on Friday, September 18, from three counterparties, up from $276 million the previous trading day. The RRP is a key tool the Fed uses to absorb excess liquidity from money markets.

TREE NEWS reports: Shanghai copper closed 0.34% higher in the night session, while international copper gained 0.56%. Zinc rose 0.64%, lead 0.37% and tin 0.84%; aluminium slipped 0.04% and nickel fell 0.36%. Alumina climbed 1.41% and aluminium alloy added 0.25%, while stainless steel lost 0.26%.

TREE NEWS reports: London Metal Exchange copper closed $30 higher at $14,522 a tonne, while aluminium settled $13 lower at $3,288 a tonne. Zinc finished up $38 at $3,920 a tonne. The moves came in the latest LME close for the three base metals.

TREE NEWS reports: A senior Saudi security and military delegation met with Mossad and Israeli military intelligence chiefs, Palestinian sources disclosed via Iran’s ISNA news agency. The talks, held under US Central Command supervision, sought support for operations against the Houthis. No further details on the timing, location or participants were given.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to reach an agreement with the United States as he weighs whether to take further military action against Tehran. Asked about earlier remarks that he was considering whether to “destroy” Iran, Trump said, “We’ll see.” He said Tehran is “losing on every front” economically and militarily, and that he would not even consider a deal that is not the right one.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to reach an agreement with the United States as he weighs whether to take further military action against Tehran. Asked about his earlier remarks on considering whether to “destroy” Iran, Trump said, “We’ll see.” He said he would not even consider a deal unless it is the right one, adding that Tehran is seeking an agreement because it is “losing on every front” economically and militarily.

TREE NEWS update: Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said the Fed will finalize a reform plan within the coming weeks to raise the transparency and accountability of bank stress tests. The changes are intended to make the tests more reliable and reduce volatility in bank capital requirements. Under the plan, the Fed will set a bank’s stress capital buffer using the average of its two most recent stress test results.

TREE NEWS reports: France’s 10-year government bond yield rose 12.2 basis points on Friday to 4.565%, bringing its weekly gain to 11.0 basis points. The two-year French yield climbed 9.8 basis points to 3.554% and gained 15.2 basis points over the week, while the 30-year rose 4.3 basis points weekly to 5.173%. German two-year yields added 8.6 basis points on the week to 3.280%.

TREE NEWS reports: ING expects both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to raise interest rates once more before the end of the year, likely in December, departing from its earlier forecast of unchanged rates. ING economists said Wednesday’s Fed meeting and last week’s ECB meeting showed the two central banks are unlikely to pursue the very accommodative policy previously expected, as both face energy-driven supply-side shocks and recall the sharp 2022 inflation surge and delayed policy response.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said the United States is holding negotiations with the Houthis, adding that the group also wants a deal. The remark was made without further detail on the talks’ timing, venue or participants. No agreement has been announced.

TREE NEWS reports: A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, Nord Norfolk, is crossing the Atlantic toward New Orleans carrying about $500 million of African copper — the highest market value for a single commodity cargo on record at data firm Kpler. New Orleans is a key metals transshipment port and the core hub for CME Group’s COMEX copper warehouses, where capacity is now nearly saturated. Another roughly 100,000 tons of African and South American copper is due to arrive in September and October.

TREE NEWS update: President Donald Trump said the United States is holding talks with Yemen’s Houthi movement. The remark, made without further detail on timing, venue or participants, marks a shift for Washington, which has for years conducted military strikes against the Iran-aligned group. No US official has publicly confirmed the scope or status of the contacts.