Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s financial regulator issued guidelines to boost tech finance across the city’s banking and insurance sectors, calling for insurance capital to increase contributions to local venture capital, private equity and M&A funds. The city also supports insurers setting up private equity and securities investment funds focused on strategic emerging industries and hard-tech sectors, as part of a pilot for long-term insurance investment reform.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s financial regulator issued guidance to the city’s banking and insurance sectors on improving tech finance, calling for expanded supply of tech credit products. Banks are told to increase lending support for R&D and the commercialization of research results, with differentiated terms on credit limits, loan tenors, pricing and guarantee methods. Lenders may set their own methods for calculating tech firms’ working-capital needs.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on the 14th that it shot down a US MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC’s public relations department announced the downing, which occurred in the strategic waterway through which a large share of global oil shipments pass. No further details on the incident or the drone’s mission were provided.

TREE NEWS update: EU financial services commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque rejected a call from banks to split the bloc’s financial reform package into two phases, saying a single unified plan is the best way to cut red tape, lower cross-border barriers and ease some regulatory requirements. Last week, heads of 11 large banks from the EU, Switzerland and the UK urged Brussels to prioritise near-term “simplification” and allow more time to debate thornier issues such as a European deposit insurance scheme.

TREE NEWS reports: The New Taiwan dollar weakened 0.3% against the US dollar to 31.734. The move marks a softer session for the Taiwan currency versus the greenback.

TREE NEWS reports: TrendForce forecasts that NOR Flash supply and demand will remain imbalanced through the second half of 2026, keeping overall contract prices at high levels. With AI consuming most production capacity and demand for high-end applications rising, suppliers’ bit output growth is limited. Prices for high-capacity products could even double.

TREE NEWS update: Oman’s energy minister called for alternative export routes so liquefied natural gas shipments can bypass the Strait of Hormuz, citing months of conflict in the Persian Gulf that continue to disrupt gas transport. “Let’s look for other export paths,” Minister of Energy and Minerals Salim Al-Aufi said Monday at the Gastech conference in Bangkok, urging diversified routes northward or via Oman and Yemen to move resources out of the region.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai M&A Private Equity Fund Phase III has completed registration with the Asset Management Association of China and begun investment operations, with a first close of RMB 900 million, Guotai Haitong said on September 14. The fund is managed by Guotai Haitong’s private equity subsidiary and was set up with large industrial groups, listed companies and financial institutions, targeting M&A and equity investments in high-end manufacturing, integrated circuits, new materials, new energy and information technology.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s medical insurance bureau said employees can use accumulated balances in their individual medical insurance accounts to pay for non-program vaccines and injection services starting September 15, 2026. The policy covers 116 products on the city’s group-procurement list for non-immunization-program vaccines, including influenza and rabies vaccines and passive immunotherapy biologics.

TREE NEWS reports: Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 index fell 1% on the day. The decline marks a pullback in the country’s main equity gauge. No further details on the drivers of the move were immediately available.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Council Information Office holds a 15:00 Beijing time policy briefing on tackling late payments to small and medium-sized enterprises, with vice minister Ke Jixin and officials from the PBOC, SASAC, market regulator and CSRC. ECB board members Isabel Schnabel and Piero Cipollone speak, ECB President Christine Lagarde delivers remarks at 23:15, and Canada releases August CPI at 20:30.

TREE NEWS reports: The Shanghai Composite reversed early losses to close up 0.16%, lifted by lab-grown diamond and pharmaceutical shares, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.35% at midday and the Hang Seng Biotech Index jumped over 3%. South Korea’s Kospi fell more than 2% as slowing AI development and a surge in oil prices hit Japanese and Korean markets. Shanghai crude futures rose over 11% intraday to top 900 yuan a barrel for the first time since listing.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s industrial output for July rose 3.9% year on year on a final basis, revised down from a preliminary reading of 4.1%. The downward revision trims the pace of annual growth in factory production for the month.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s capacity utilization index rose 0.5% month-on-month in July, slowing sharply from a revised 4.1% gain in June. The July reading marks a second straight monthly increase but at a much weaker pace, pointing to softer momentum in factory activity at the start of the third quarter.

TREE NEWS reports: Global home cleaning robot shipments reached about 11.205 million units in the second quarter of 2026, up 21.5% year on year. Robot vacuum shipments totaled 7.885 million units, with concentration among leading vendors continuing to rise. After 36.6% growth in the first quarter, the market returned to more normal growth in Q2, though structural divergence widened.

TREE NEWS reports: Indonesia’s benchmark stock index fell as much as 1.5% during intraday trading, touching its lowest level since late August. The decline marks a fresh multi-week low for the index.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Finance issued 130 billion yuan of 2-year bonds at a yield of 1.2300%, with a marginal rate of 1.2500% matching expectations, and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.61 times. It also issued 100 billion yuan of 7-year bonds at 1.4900%, with a marginal rate of 1.5100% versus expectations of 1.5000%, and a bid-to-cover ratio of 4.13 times.

TREE NEWS reports: The main crude oil futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose more than 11% intraday on [date], climbing above 900 yuan per barrel for the first time since the contract was listed. The move marks a record high for the yuan-denominated crude benchmark.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min met Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in Beijing on September 9. The two sides exchanged views on the global and respective macroeconomic situations as well as financial cooperation between the two countries.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR) fell 0.50 basis points to 1.4120%, while the 7-day rate declined 0.20 basis points to 1.4180%. The 3-month rate was unchanged at 1.4300%.