Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: Private consumption in South Korea is expected to recover gradually from the fourth quarter through the first quarter of 2027, a Bank of Korea official said. Third-quarter GDP data led to a 0.35 percentage point upward revision in this year’s economic growth forecast.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index rose more than 4% on the day. The move marks a sharp single-session gain for the Seoul stock market. No further details on the drivers or specific closing levels were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened 0.5% higher, while South Korea’s KOSPI opened up 3.5%. SK Hynix rose more than 6% and Samsung Electronics gained more than 4% in early trade.

TREE NEWS reports: UK shop prices rose 2.1% year-on-year in October, up from 1.4% in the previous month, the BRC shop price index showed. The acceleration marks a pickup in retail price inflation at the start of the fourth quarter.

TREE NEWS update: China is set to issue or is currently issuing local government bonds. The bonds are being offered as part of the country’s local government financing schedule. No further details on the size, timing, or pricing of the issuance were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: ASML’s direct contribution to the Dutch economy could rise to as much as 1.6% in 2026, up from 1.3% in 2025, ING said in a report published Monday. Surging artificial intelligence demand has lifted the chip equipment maker’s market value to €547 billion ($613 billion), making it Europe’s most valuable company. ING researchers cited Finland’s Nokia as a cautionary example of the risks of an economy becoming dependent on a single company.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s services producer price index rose 3.7% year-on-year in September, matching the 3.7% forecast and unchanged from the prior reading of 3.7%. The reading indicates service-sector prices held steady at the same annual pace as the previous month.

TREE NEWS reports: Nikkei 225 futures climbed 1.8% in early trading, pointing to a higher open for Japanese equities. The move reflects gains in the futures market ahead of the cash session.

TREE NEWS update: Japan’s finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, said she will respond with a sense of urgency to losses from foreign exchange trading. No new reports of unauthorized FX trading cases have been received. She also said the international community shares a common sense of urgency regarding cyberattacks.

TREE NEWS reports: Postal Savings Bank of China researcher Lou Feipeng said in a Securities Times column that the People’s Bank of China is encouraging a dual “LPR+DR001” loan pricing benchmark. The PBOC will study switching the tenor of its main open market operations to overnight, making the overnight repo rate the main policy rate, and will issue policy guidance on diversified loan pricing benchmark reform, Lou wrote.

TREE NEWS update: Valdemar Costa Neto, chairman of Brazil’s Liberal Party, recognized incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party as the winner of Brazil’s 2026 presidential election on the 26th. The move follows the refusal by Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, to concede defeat in the second round of voting held on the 25th.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea’s third-quarter GDP rose 1.0% quarter-on-quarter in the preliminary reading, exceeding economists’ expectations of 0.8% and accelerating from 0.6% growth in the prior quarter. The stronger-than-expected expansion marks a pickup in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

TREE NEWS reports: Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium reported year-on-year net profit growth of 19,540.50% and 3,013.86% respectively for the first three quarters, as lithium salt prices rose significantly year on year on recovering downstream demand. Several lithium miners disclosed third-quarter results by Oct. 26. Demand is shifting from EV-driven to a “EV plus energy storage” dual driver, with robotics and low-altitude economy opening incremental space, a company executive said.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Abdollahi inspected troops in the country’s southern coastal region on the 26th, stating that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy and army fully control the Strait of Hormuz and that all vessel traffic there is closely monitored. He said the strategic waterway is completely closed and controlled by the IRGC navy, contradicting US claims of free navigation, and that no vessel can transit without Iranian arrangement.

TREE NEWS reports: As of 18:00 on Oct. 26, 129 companies in the A-share pharmaceutical and biotech sector had disclosed third-quarter reports, with more than 40% posting year-on-year profit growth. Overseas licensing deals for innovative drugs are moving from signing to revenue recognition, with multiple drugmakers booking concentrated payments from earlier overseas rights agreements as a key profit driver.

TREE NEWS reports: COMEX gold fell 4% last week, pulling Chinese retail gold prices lower, with investment gold bars returning to the 800-yuan-per-gram range and jewelry gold easing to around 1,000 yuan per gram, a survey of Beijing’s gold market found. The market remained a focus of high attention, with brisk offline trading activity.

TREE NEWS reports: Morgan Stanley downgraded Brazilian equities to Equal-weight from Overweight after President Lula’s surprise re-election, reversing an upgrade made just three weeks earlier. Strategists including Nikolaj Lippmann wrote in a Monday report that Brazil may face a worsening macroeconomic backdrop: a weaker currency, higher interest rates and an unlikely fiscal rebalancing amid a slowing economy. The bank prefers exporters including Petrobras, Embraer, JBS and Suzano over domestically exposed companies.

TREE NEWS reports: Chinese equity ETFs drew more than 280 billion yuan ($38.4 billion) in net inflows in October through Oct. 23, while listed companies bought back over 17 billion yuan of their own shares, Wind data show. With the market’s sustained swings, A-share valuations have fallen to relatively low levels, and analysts say the overall market is below its historical average, making it attractive on both cross-sectional and historical comparisons.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea releases preliminary third-quarter GDP at 07:00 Beijing time, followed by China’s industrial profits for January-September at 09:30. In the US, September preliminary durable goods orders are due at 20:30, with FHFA and S&P/CS home price indices at 21:00 and September new home sales and the Conference Board consumer confidence index at 22:00. Boeing, UPS, Corning and Freeport report before the US open, while Seagate, NXP and Teradyne report after the close.

TREE NEWS reports: Chinese banks including Hengfeng Bank and some smaller lenders have resumed issuing 3-year and 5-year large-denomination certificates of deposit since October, with the rate premium over ordinary time deposits narrowing and some products yielding less than the same bank’s standard deposits. The transferability mechanism has become the main draw for customers, as banks balance liability-cost control against retaining deposits amid pressured net interest margins and a wave of maturing high-yield deposits.