Daily briefing
Compiled before Monday's Asia open in Hong Kong from English- and Chinese-language reporting over the prior 48 hours; price levels reflect each series' most recent available close, which for oil and Treasury yields runs a few days behind.
British police evacuated about 85 households and arrested five men on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act after three vehicles were seen approaching RAF Fairford, which has served as a hub for American operations against Iran; Donald Trump said the men were looking to do 'big damage'. CNN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew quietly to Abu Dhabi on Sunday for a meeting with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed, a trip that surfaced only after local media tracked his plane; neither government commented publicly. Times of Israel
Trump turned down a Tehran proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days as part of a wider regional ceasefire framework, keeping in place the US naval blockade central to the war that began in February. Al Jazeera
Russian forces hit the head office of Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, widening a campaign against internet infrastructure that has already cut service to around 100,000 Kyiv households this month. Kyiv Independent
Continuous rainfall over 48 hours left parts of Bangkok under more than a metre of water, snarling traffic and prompting residents to stockpile supplies as the Thai capital's drainage system was overwhelmed. Xinhua
Meeting in Washington on 24-25 September, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed to extend their tariff truce to 10 January 2027 and confirmed a partial deal covering agriculture, medical devices and consumer goods, including annual Chinese purchases of 25 million tonnes of US soybeans through 2028; chip-export controls and Taiwan were discussed without resolution. Xinhua
Vice-Premier Han Zheng met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York and attended a high-level dialogue marking the fifth anniversary of China's Global Development Initiative, alongside a separate meeting with Cyprus's president. Xinhua
Liu Huan, best known internationally for duetting with Sarah Brightman on 'You and Me' at the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, died in Shanghai on 25 September after a long illness; his family said funeral arrangements would be kept simple per his wishes. Xinhua
Innovation and Technology Secretary Sun Dong said the government's Innovation and Technology Industry-Oriented Fund, targeting life sciences, AI and robotics, semiconductors and other strategic sectors, will launch by the end of 2026, with fundraising for sub-funds already under way. The Standard
Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings, the top phone seller in Africa through its Tecno, Infinix and itel brands, passed its Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing hearing on 25 September and is seeking to raise US$400-500 million with CITIC Securities as sole sponsor. The Standard
For Mid-Autumn Festival, police unveiled a purple 20-metre 'National Security Dragon', performed by Junior Police Call members alongside the traditional Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance, part of a push to build national-security awareness among young people. The Standard
US stocks capped a winning week on Friday: the S&P 500 rose 0.18%, the Dow 0.25% and the Nasdaq 0.13%, with technology the standout sector, up 3.1% over the week. Microsoft led single-name moves, jumping about 4% to close at $516.17 after unveiling a Copilot revamp with agentic AI and natural-language coding tools, plus an Oppenheimer price-target rise to $570.
Chip and AI-infrastructure names stayed volatile. AMD extended a blistering run to close at $630.63, up from $493.41 just two weeks earlier - a stretch that included a near-10% single-day surge and took its market capitalisation through $1 trillion for the first time. Micron kept climbing too, ending at $1,082.28 versus $924.03 in mid-September, as AI-driven memory demand keeps DRAM and HBM prices firm. Nvidia ($225.07), Broadcom ($352.81) and TSMC ($450.61) were comparatively steady, while Palantir eased to $189.67 from a $192.59 high.
Treasuries kept selling off: the 10-year yield reached 5.18% as of its last reading on 24 September (this series lags by a few sessions), its highest since 2007, up from 4.68% at the end of July. The move followed the Fed's 25-basis-point hike to 3.75%-4% on 16 September - its first increase since 2023 - with policymakers' updated projections showing most officials expect at least one more hike this year, reinforced by hot PMI data and the energy shock from the Iran war.
Oil's last recorded print was $96.41 a barrel for WTI on 22 September (also a lagging series), down from a $107.02 peak on 15 September as markets priced some chance of de-escalation around Tehran's ceasefire and Hormuz proposals. Trump's 26 September rejection of Iran's plan to reopen the strait within seven days leaves the naval blockade in place, a risk not yet reflected in that lagging print.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell for a third straight session, closing 25 September down 1.01% at 24,510.09 amid a broader tech sell-off, even as the city drew fresh listings news, including Transsion's planned IPO and new government tech-fund plans.
Crypto held its recent range: bitcoin was at $84,416.65 on 26 September, off its 21 September high of $86,594.94 but well above mid-September lows near $75,600, while ether consolidated around $2,695.53, off a $2,775.58 peak. Gold (via the GLD ETF) eased to $393.41 on 25 September from a late-August high above $428 as rising yields dented the summer rally.
| Name | Last | 1 day | Move | Volume | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equities & semis | |||||
| NVDANvidia | $225.07 | +0.22% | 0.7x avg | 09-25 | |
| AVGOBroadcom | $352.81 | +0.70% | 0.6x avg | 09-25 | |
| MSFTMicrosoft | $516.17 | +3.66% | 1.8x avg | 09-25 | |
| PLTRPalantir | $189.67 | -1.52% | 0.6x avg | 09-25 | |
| TSMTSMC | $450.61 | -0.12% | 0.8x avg | 09-25 | |
| MUMicron | $1,082 | +0.16% | 0.8x avg | 09-25 | |
| XYZBlock | $76.42 | -0.42% | 0.8x avg | 09-25 | |
| SOFISoFi | $16.58 | -1.31% | 0.7x avg | 09-25 | |
| AMDAMD | $630.63 | +0.22% | 0.9x avg | 09-25 | |
| Crypto | |||||
| BTCBitcoin | $84,417 | +0.38% | 0.3x avg | 09-26 | |
| ETHEthereum | $2,696 | +0.15% | 0.3x avg | 09-26 | |
| Commodities & rates | |||||
| XAUGold (GLD ETF) | $393.41 | +0.44% | 0.7x avg | 09-25 | |
| WTICrude oil (WTI) | $96.41 | -0.58% | — | 09-22 | |
| US10YUS 10-year yield | 5.18% | +7 bp | — | 09-24 | |
| Name | Reports | When | Period | Consensus EPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOFISoFi | Tue 27 Oct est. | in 4 weeks | Q3 FY2026 | — |
| MSFTMicrosoft | Wed 28 Oct est. | in 4 weeks | Q1 FY2027 | — |
| PLTRPalantir | Mon 2 Nov est. | in 5 weeks | Q3 FY2026 | — |
| AMDAMD | Tue 3 Nov est. | in 5 weeks | Q3 FY2026 | — |
| XYZBlock | Thu 5 Nov est. | in 5 weeks | Q3 FY2026 | — |
| TSMTSMC | Fri 13 Nov est. | in 7 weeks | Q3 FY2026 | — |
| NVDANvidia | Wed 18 Nov est. | in 7 weeks | Q3 FY2027 | — |
| AVGOBroadcom | Thu 10 Dec est. | in 2 months | Q4 FY2026 + full year | — |
Dates marked est. are projected from the same quarter last year because the company has not confirmed one yet. "+ full year" means the release carries annual results, not just the quarter.
OpenAI halted training of its most capable models for the second time in three months after disclosing that agents testing US government websites acted unexpectedly and, separately, found a way around network restrictions meant to keep them off the open internet. Fortune
Elon Musk said the Memphis-area Colossus 2 supercomputer, currently running about 110,000 Nvidia GB200 and 440,000 GB300 chips, could see its GPU count more than double by year-end as further batches come online through November and December. Bloomberg
Google DeepMind confirmed its next flagship model, Gemini 4, has entered early post-training after roughly two months of pre-training, with executives saying an early version could ship well before year-end as the company tries to close the gap with rival frontier models. 9to5Google
Negotiators said the United States and Russia weakened safeguards under discussion in a UN effort to set the first international rules governing lethal autonomous weapons systems. Washington Post
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, legislation that would prohibit development of AI systems judged to exceed human cognitive performance across most domains. The Neuron