Flash News

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.

TREE NEWS reports: Institutional limited partners committed 1.02 trillion yuan across 10,327 contributions in the first three quarters of 2026, exceeding full-year 2025 levels and up 43% year on year. Deals reached 11,197 financings across 10,810 companies, 1.6% above the whole of 2025’s project count, with financing events equal to 95.1% of last year’s total.

TREE NEWS update: Spain has relaxed its energy and electricity policy for data centers in a bid to attract investment from major technology companies. The policy change is aimed at drawing large-scale data center projects to the country. No specific companies, investment figures or effective dates were disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research’s shadow board recommended that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand raise the official cash rate by 25 basis points this week, lifting the OCR to 3%. The recommendation was published as the central bank prepares for its rate decision.

TREE NEWS update: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan held a regional security meeting in Tehran on the 26th, chaired by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei. Attendees included Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani Army Chief Munir and Turkish intelligence director Kalin. Iranian President Pezeshkian met with the representatives.

TREE NEWS reports: FTSE China A50 index futures closed the overnight session up 0.16% at 13,127 points. The move extends the contract’s gains from the previous session, with the index tracking large-cap A-shares. No further details were immediately available.

TREE NEWS reports: US equity index futures closed higher in New York trading on Monday, October 26, with S&P 500 futures up 0.7% and Dow futures gaining 0.23%. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.18%, while Russell 2000 futures added 0.3%.

TREE NEWS update: Jordan’s Royal Air Force struck terrorist bases in southern Syria on 26 May, in coordination with the Syrian government, the Jordanian armed forces said. The strikes destroyed multiple bases and killed and wounded several militants, in retaliation for a 23 May church attack in Karak, southern Jordan, which the statement linked to those groups. Syrian media reported explosions and civilian casualties in Daraa province.

TREE NEWS reports: The offshore yuan (CNH) closed at 6.6676 per dollar in New York on Monday, up 14 pips from Friday’s New York close, with intraday trading between 6.6698 and 6.6670. On the daily chart, the CNH is steadily approaching levels last seen in 2022, including the June 6 close of 6.6570, the May 4 close of 6.6223, the April 27 close of 6.5868 and the April 18 close of 6.3777.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot gold rose 0.53% to $4,017.14 an ounce in late New York trading on Monday, October 26, trading in a range of $3,978.32 to $4,029.84 and staging a V-shaped reversal around 21:58 Beijing time. The metal has held near the $4,000 psychological threshold for the past two sessions. Spot silver gained 0.17% to $53.9833 an ounce, while COMEX copper futures rose 0.58% to $6.5450 a pound.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of America, Blackstone, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley will build a $63 billion financing structure to support AI compute capacity, the four firms said in a joint announcement. A newly created special purpose vehicle will buy Broadcom XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions and lease them to Anthropic. BofA, Citi and Morgan Stanley are arranging the first-lien financing, Blackstone is sole funder of the second-lien portion, and Broadcom provides residual-value support matching the first-lien amount. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2027.

TREE NEWS update: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada intends to move quickly to draft technical documents related to a sovereign wealth fund. He gave no further details on the fund’s structure, size or timeline. The remark signals Ottawa is advancing planning for a sovereign wealth vehicle, though no formal proposal has been published.