Flash News

TREE NEWS update: The Bank of England is scheduled to announce its interest rate decision at 19:00 Beijing time. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will publish the decision, which sets the UK base rate. No indication of the outcome was given in the schedule notice.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining met on Sept. 17 with Joseph Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group, and other representatives of the Asia Business Council attending an industrial dialogue event in Shanghai. The meeting was announced by the city’s government.

TREE NEWS update: Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on September 17 that Moscow regards the US sanctions bill against Russia as an unfriendly act. He warned that once the new sanctions take effect they will further complicate efforts to find a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, adding that Russia is monitoring the situation around the bill.

TREE NEWS reports: A delegation led by Cheng Gang, deputy director of China’s Price Cost and Certification Center, visited Qinghai’s Xining, Haixi and Hainan from September 7 to 11 to study concentrated solar power development. The team held talks with the provincial development and reform commission and energy bureau and inspected CSP plants run by China Three Gorges, CHN Energy, CGN New Energy, PowerChina New Energy, Zhejiang Cosin and Qinghai Zhongkong Solar.

TREE NEWS update: Wang Hongzhi, head of China’s National Energy Administration, met ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn in Beijing on September 16. The two sides exchanged views on China-ASEAN clean energy cooperation and the building of energy cooperation mechanisms.

TREE NEWS reports: Goldman Sachs now expects the Federal Reserve to raise rates by another 25 basis points in October, after the central bank’s hawkish signal on Wednesday. Chief US economist David Mericle wrote that the FOMC will hike again in October, whereas the firm had previously forecast September as the only increase. Two consecutive hikes would help inflation return to the 2% target “more promptly,” Mericle said.

TREE NEWS update: Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on the 17th that it opposes the United States’ refusal to grant visas to President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation, calling the move unjustified. The ministry said the decision undermines efforts to rebuild trust and harms both bilateral Palestinian-US relations and the advancement of the two-state solution.

TREE NEWS reports: European government bonds extended their selloff, with the German 2-year yield climbing 5 basis points to 3.27%. The move marks a continued rise in short-dated euro-area borrowing costs.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng met PayPal Global Executive Vice President Allen on September 15, the central bank said. The two sides exchanged views on global financial markets, payment systems and PayPal’s business operations in China.

TREE NEWS reports: European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn said the conflict in the Middle East looks set to be protracted. The remark from the ECB policymaker points to a drawn-out geopolitical backdrop for markets. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada can supply the European Union with liquefied natural gas and hydrogen at scale, and that the two sides can integrate sovereign computing resources, build more secure broadband connections and cooperate on AI safety protocols. He also called for exploring an integrated financial services market, adding that this is not a proposal to form a third bloc to rival major powers.

TREE NEWS reports: The Bank of England is widely expected to hold its key rate at 3.75% at its September meeting, with markets pricing a hawkish stance that could pave the way for a hike as early as November. The central bank will also publish its bond reduction plan for the coming year, expected at about £20bn of active sales plus just over £30bn of redemptions, a total of roughly £50bn versus £70bn over the prior 12 months.

TREE NEWS update: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada and the European Union base their partnership on shared values. The statement frames the bilateral relationship around common principles rather than transactional interests. No further details or specific policy measures were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: The World Data Organization set up five specialized committees on Sept. 17 covering healthcare, shipping and trade digitalization, open-source data communities, China-ASEAN data cooperation and energy. Its secretariat will follow the council’s resolution and charter procedures to accelerate their formation. The body, headquartered in Beijing, was formed on March 30 as the first international professional organization dedicated to data development and governance.

TREE NEWS update: A residential site in Hangzhou’s Gongshu district sold for 1.537 billion yuan on September 17, a 6.22% premium over its 1.447 billion yuan starting price. The 49,566 sq m plot carries a planned floor area of about 94,200 sq m at a floor-area ratio of 1.9, with a starting floor price of 15,363 yuan per sq m. A consortium of Zhongtian and Haiwei won after nine bidding rounds at 16,319 yuan per sq m.

TREE NEWS reports: Guangzhou’s mortgage-financed second-hand home transactions fell to 35.6% in August from 45.08% in June, with the July figure at 38.85%. The rising share of all-cash purchases means buyers are increasingly paying in full, a trend also seen in Shenzhen.

TREE NEWS update: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said her government will pursue a virtuous cycle between tax revenue growth and economic growth, stating there can be no fiscal sustainability without economic growth. She said policies will be accelerated to build a strong economy. Takaichi did not announce specific measures or figures in the remarks.

TREE NEWS update: Iran has ordered Swedish diplomats to leave Tehran within 48 hours. The demand marks a sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two countries. No reason for the expulsion was given in the report, and there was no immediate comment from Sweden.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s foreign exchange market continues to run steadily with cross-border capital maintaining net inflows, as the yuan trades firm and range-bound against the dollar, Everbright Securities deputy research head Wang Yifeng said. Although the China-US interest rate gap widened after the Federal Reserve’s rate hike, the move was a preventive hike reflecting the Fed’s aim to rebuild market trust while inflation stays elevated, he said.

TREE NEWS reports: The Federal Reserve raised rates 25 basis points on September 16, lifting the federal funds target range to 3.75%-4.00%, with markets expecting another 75 basis points of tightening over the next six months. Bitcoin is about 40% below its roughly $126,000 high from last October, mirroring its 40% drawdown from the November 2021 peak of about $69,000 when the Fed first hiked in March 2022. After that hike, bitcoin rebounded about 18% in 12 days before falling a further 50%.