Finance, in brief

China's CSI 300 index, which tracks the 300 biggest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell on Thursday to 20% below its June peak, a fall traders call a bear market. [1][5]

It is the index's first bear market since the Covid sell-off of 2020, and it has now fallen for ten weeks in a row. [2][1]

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 2.9% by midday, heading for its lowest close since 30 June, and its technology index dropped 4.6%. [6]

Tencent, which owns the WeChat messaging app, fell 3.4%, and Alibaba, China's biggest online shopping company, fell 6%. [4]

Chinese AI and chip shares fell hardest: the AI developer Z.AI lost 9.4%, and the STAR 50 index of tech companies has lost nearly 40% in this half-year. [2]

Fierce price competition is squeezing company profits, and in September China reported its weakest growth in factory profits this year. [1]

China's economy grew faster than forecast in July to September, which kept growth inside China's yearly growth target. [3][4]

That leaves China's government free to keep its help small and targeted, so investors have lowered their hopes of a big new spending plan. [3][4]

China's state-backed funds, the 'national team' led by Central Huijin, spent about $15 billion from 9 to 20 October, slower than in July, and Central Huijin still holds about $188 billion. [7]

In 2024, state buying cushioned shares through the summer but did not turn them round until a wider government plan came in September, Bloomberg Intelligence says. [7]

Wealthy Chinese had until 22 October to declare and pay tax on income held in trusts abroad, and some may have sold shares to raise the cash, Reuters reported. [5]

Small savers do about 90% of daily share trading in China, against 20-25% in New York, HSBC data show, and an analyst told CNBC they are quick to sell when worried. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether China's state funds speed up their buying, which Bloomberg Intelligence says may be needed, or whether China's government adds a wider plan, as it did in September 2024. [7]

Brent crude, the main world oil price, rose 3.1% to $112.20 a barrel on Thursday morning. [15] US crude rose 2.8% to $99.86. [15] The New York Times reported that the US and Israeli militaries have drawn up plans for a short but intense new attack on Iran after the US midterm elections on 3 November. [15] President Trump has not approved the plan. [16] China drew down its oil stocks at a record 1.6 million barrels a day in September and still holds about 80 days of refinery needs, Kpler, a data firm, estimates. [16]

Why it matters. Dearer oil lands hardest on Asia, which imports most of its fuel. [10] Chinese state refiners are likely to bid harder for Middle Eastern oil to refill their tanks, Kpler says. [16]

Futures on the Nasdaq, the US index full of tech companies, fell 1.7% before New York opened on Thursday, after a run of AI company results disappointed investors. [14] Lam Research, which makes the machines that build computer chips, fell 8.5% before trading began after a weaker forecast. [14][8] South Korea's Kospi index, heavy with memory-chip makers, closed 3.5% lower. [14] An analyst at Quilter Cheviot, a fund manager, said expectations were so high that a company had to beat forecasts by a wide margin for its shares to rise. [14]

Why it matters. Morgan Stanley expects AI building to cost $1.6 trillion in 2027 and to drive about a quarter of next year's sales growth at the 500 biggest US companies. [10] About two-thirds of the gains in that index since 2024 came from 42 AI companies, Fortune reports. [49]

Tesla, the electric-car maker run by Elon Musk, beat forecasts with $28.05 billion of sales and 48 cents of profit a share in July to September. [18] Its operating profit still fell 56% from a year earlier, to $718 million, as spending on robots and AI rose. [19] It cut its 2026 spending plan to $20 billion from $25 billion. [12] Musk said robotaxis will add to sales only from mid-to-late 2027. [12] The shares fell about 3% after hours, and Samsung SDI, a battery supplier, fell 4.5% in Seoul. [12]

Why it matters. Tesla's share price rests more on its plans for robots and self-driving cars than on car sales, which fell 3%. [18] A smaller spending plan raised questions about how fast those plans will arrive, a Deutsche Bank analyst said. [10]

Barclays, one of Britain's biggest banks, said it is cutting about 5,000 jobs this year, about 5% of its 93,000 staff. [20][22] About 60% of the cuts are in support roles, including software developers, and the bank says AI makes the staff it keeps more productive. [21] Its profit before tax rose 12% to 2.3 billion pounds in July to September, but that was below forecasts, because income from bond trading fell 19%. [20] It will also buy back another 500 million pounds of its own shares. [23]

Why it matters. The cuts belong to a plan to save more than 1.1 billion pounds in 2027, and 1,000 jobs have already gone. [20][22] They come a week before the UK budget, where John Healey, the UK's finance minister, is expected to raise taxes on banks; Barclays' boss called the hit bearable. [20]

The interest rate on France's ten-year government bonds rose above 5% on Thursday, its highest since 2002. [24][14] It reached 5.09%, above the 5.07% the US pays, for the first time since 2013. [20] The extra France pays over Germany, Europe's safest borrower, rose to 1.64 percentage points, the most since 2011. [14] France's government has still not passed next year's budget, and protests over living costs have turned into riots in several cities. [24]

Why it matters. Some lenders, notably Japanese fund managers, have stopped lending to France, and the rest charge more. [24] French factory confidence rose to 105 in October, its highest since July 2022, but the survey was taken before last weekend's riots. [20]

Investors bought US government bonds on Thursday as shares fell, which pushed the rate on the ten-year bond down about 0.07 percentage points to 5.07%. [17] Bond prices and rates move in opposite directions, so heavy buying lowers the rate. [17] That ten-year rate is the main guide for US mortgages, car loans and credit cards. [17] Gold fell 1% to just above $4,100 an ounce, and bitcoin, a digital currency, fell 3%. [14]

Why it matters. The ten-year rate is the main guide for new US mortgages, so a day of fear in shares pulled that guide down. [17] Investors were also waiting for weekly US figures on new claims for unemployment pay. [17]

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which invests the country's oil money and is the world's biggest, lost 278 billion kroner, about $29.7 billion, in July to September. [25] Its bonds lost 3.5% as interest rates rose around the world, which lowers the price of bonds already held. [25] Its shares, 72% of the fund, returned 0.5%: energy companies rose, while property and power companies fell. [25] The fund is worth about $2.3 trillion and owns small stakes in about 7,100 companies. [25]

Why it matters. It owns 1.5% of all listed companies in the world, so its results are a picture of how markets did. [25] Last month it said it would cut how much US government debt it holds. [25]

State investment funds put $14.2 billion into mainland China and Hong Kong in the first nine months of 2026, nearly three times the $4.9 billion of all 2025, the consultancy Global SWF says. [11] Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund put in $6 billion and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority $2.5 billion. [11] Four Gulf funds made up nearly 70% of the total. [11] A manager at Mubadala, another Abu Dhabi fund, said Chinese companies are cheaper than they have been in years. [11]

Why it matters. China is still small for these funds: the US drew $132.4 billion from state funds over the same nine months. [11] The money kept arriving while China's main share index slid 20%. [1]

The Bank of Korea kept its main interest rate at 3% on Thursday, after raising it in both July and August. [27][26] Prices rose 2.9% in the year to September, and inflation has been at or above the bank's 2% goal for 13 months. [26] The bank said home loans keep growing and house prices around Seoul are rising faster again. [26] President Lee Jae Myung has called for an all-out effort to build more homes. [26]

Why it matters. Capital Economics, a research firm, expects one more rate rise next month. [26] Korea's growth rests on chip exports, which rose 263% in September as AI builders bought memory chips. [26]

Ryozo Himino, a deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, told parliament on Wednesday that Japan's underlying inflation is close to the bank's 2% goal. [28] He said borrowing in Japan is still cheap after last month's rate rise, and that waiting too long to act could harm the economy. [28] Traders read his words as a sign of more rate rises. [28][9] The yen held at about 158 to the US dollar. [9]

Why it matters. The Bank of Japan kept loans very cheap for years to push prices up toward 2%. [28] With prices near that goal, the reason for cheap loans is fading, and Japanese firms and home owners face dearer borrowing.

China's yuan rose on Thursday to its highest against the US dollar in more than four years, helped by a weaker dollar, Reuters reported. [13] The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, sets a daily middle rate that the yuan may trade around. [13] On Thursday it set that rate at 6.7195 per dollar, much weaker than traders expected, which reads as a sign it wants to slow the rise. [13]

Why it matters. A stronger yuan makes Chinese goods dearer abroad, at a time when exports are what keep China's economy growing. [13][4]

EQT, a Swedish firm that buys whole companies with investors' money, agreed to buy Qiagen for about 9.6 billion euros ($10.78 billion). [29] Qiagen, a Dutch company, makes kits and machines that test genetic material in labs and hospitals. [29] EQT offers 46.50 euros a share. That is 8.6% above where Qiagen's shares closed before the deal, and 40.3% above their level in early July, before talk of a bid. [29][30] Abu Dhabi's state fund and Canada's national pension fund are joining in, and the deal should close in mid-2027. [29]

Why it matters. Thermo Fisher, a big US lab-equipment maker, agreed to buy Qiagen in 2020 but gave up when too few shareholders backed it. [29] Qiagen has suspended its forecast for this year while the deal is pending. [29]

Southwest Airlines, a big US airline, cut its 2026 profit forecast to $2.60-$2.85 a share, from $3.25-$4.25. [31] Its fuel bill in July to September was $821 million higher than a year earlier. [31] It is the third major US airline this month to cut its forecast because of fuel, after Delta and United. [32] Its average fare rose almost 27% to $231.69, while it carried 3.2% fewer passengers. [32]

Why it matters. Passengers are already paying far more, and the airline expects jet fuel to get dearer before the year ends. [31] Its boss says people are still booking despite the higher fares. [32]

Kuehne+Nagel, a Swiss firm that moves goods by sea, air and road for other companies, raised its 2026 profit forecast to 1.5-1.6 billion Swiss francs. [33] Its profit in July to September was 8% above what analysts expected. [33] Its air freight volumes grew 10%, helped by shipments of chips and data-centre equipment and by exports from Southeast Asia. [33] Its sea freight business made 55% more profit than a year earlier. [33]

Why it matters. A company that moves other firms' goods sees demand early. [33] Its numbers show AI hardware and Asian exports still moving in volume.

Super Micro Computer, which builds servers for AI data centres, said sales for its latest quarter will be $18.5-$19.5 billion, up from its earlier forecast of $14.5-$15.5 billion. [34][35] Its shares jumped 15% on Wednesday. [34] Dell and Hewlett Packard, which also sell servers, rose 5% and 3%. [34] Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and CoreWeave are among its known big customers, a fund manager said. [34]

Why it matters. It showed the biggest AI builders were still buying machines one day before the sell-off in AI shares. [34][14]

The five biggest investment banks earned about $67 billion from trading shares for clients this year to 30 September, $7 billion more than in all of 2025. [36] Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley took $52 billion of it, nearly 80%. [36] Much of it came from lending to hedge funds, which borrowed heavily to bet on AI chip makers and their suppliers in Asia. [36] Looser rules on how much banks may lend helped. [36]

Why it matters. The IMF, which watches the world's financial system, has warned about rising borrowed bets. [36] The three banks are big enough to take losses that push smaller rivals out of this business, CNBC reports. [36]

Orders for the $3.2 billion share sale of Jio Platforms, India's biggest phone company, reached 3.64 times the shares on offer on its second day. [37] Big funds bid for 9.42 times their portion, and small savers filled theirs within two hours. [37] Foreign money coming in for the sale pushed India's rupee up to 94.35 to the dollar, on course for an eighth day of gains. [38] Minutes of the Reserve Bank of India's October meeting suggested more rate rises. [38]

Why it matters. For many Indian families, shares in Reliance, Jio's owner, have long been a trusted store of savings, which helps explain the rush from small buyers. [37] The rupee rose despite dearer oil, which India mostly imports. [38]

India's Sensex index fell 460 points, or 0.62%, to 73,249 on Thursday, its third fall in a row. [39] Over those three days, listed Indian companies lost almost 15 lakh crore rupees in value, about $160 billion. [39] High oil prices and high US bond rates are encouraging traders to bet on falls, a strategist at Geojit, an Indian investment firm, said. [39] Traders are also waiting for the US central bank's meeting next week. [39]

Why it matters. The market fell even on days when big funds were buying, the strategist said. [39]

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, owned by the Mistry family, wants Tata Sons to put a share buyback worth about 25,000 crore rupees, about $2.6 billion, first on its next board agenda, Business World reported. [40] Tata Sons is the company that controls India's Tata group, and the Mistrys own 18.4% of it. [40] They have pledged that stake against loans and want cash to repay debt. [40] Noel Tata, who chairs the Tata Trusts, put the plan to the board. [40]

Why it matters. Tata Sons' shares are not traded on a stock market, so the Mistrys cannot simply sell them; a buyback would turn part of the stake into cash. [40]

South Africa's finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, cut the tax on fuel by 3 rand a litre of diesel and 1.50 rand a litre of petrol in his mid-year budget on Wednesday. [41] The cut runs from 4 November to 1 December, with a smaller cut into the new year. [41] In October petrol rose above 30 rand a litre, a record. [41] The cut costs 10 billion rand ($611 million), paid for with money returned from a state energy fund. [41]

Why it matters. Paraffin prices also rose, which hits poor households that cook and heat with it. [41] The cut lands before local elections next month. [41] Stronger tax collections, much of them from high commodity prices, have lifted South Africa's revenue forecast. [41]

JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, has paid a $38 million deposit to Nigeria's central bank and is on track for a merchant banking licence, Bloomberg reported. [42] A merchant bank arranges deals and loans for companies rather than serving the public. JPMorgan opened offices in Nairobi and Abidjan this year. [42] Nigeria's market regulator this week set out a 10-year plan to grow the country's stock and bond markets. [42]

Why it matters. Nigeria wants money invested from Nigerians abroad to reach $10 billion a year, up from $4 billion. [42] Dangote's oil refinery is also selling shares, aiming to raise at least $1.6 billion. [42]

Danantara, Indonesia's state investment fund, has bought a hotel and building land in Mecca for 2 billion riyals, about $533 million. [43] It is the first time a foreign state has bought property in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, said the head of the seller, Thakher Development. [43] Saudi Arabia opened property in Mecca and Medina to Muslims abroad and to some foreign institutions in January. [43] Thakher plans more sales next year. [43]

Why it matters. Saudi Arabia wants to more than double religious visitors to 50 million a year by 2030, to earn more from things other than oil. [43]

Southeastern Asset Management, a big shareholder in Mattel, the maker of Barbie, is considering a fight for seats on the toymaker's board, Semafor reported. [44] It would ask other shareholders to vote its own people in, but no decision has been made. [44] It has pushed Mattel for months to sell itself after sales of Fisher-Price and other toys fell by double digits. [44] Ariel Investments, another big shareholder, has also said Mattel should sell. [44] Mattel's shares are down 15% this year. [44]

Why it matters. Mattel's rules let an investor nominate only two directors, so a fight would be a vote on the company's direction, not a takeover of the board. [44] Mattel has also drawn takeover interest from Authentic Brands Group, the Wall Street Journal reported. [44]

The Trump administration has announced 43 stakes in private companies, from mineral miners to chipmakers, Semafor counts. [45] Thirty-six of them were agreed without a law that clearly allows it. [45] Some Democrats are already discussing how a future government of theirs could use such stakes, for example to rein in the AI industry or press oil companies. [45] Asking for a stake in return for a loan, grant or permit is now a tool any president could use. [45]

Why it matters. Undoing 43 stakes would be hard both legally and politically, Semafor reports. [45] So public money now sits inside private companies, whichever party wins the next election.

Russia's diesel exports fell more than 75% to 141,000 barrels a day in September, from 608,000 a year earlier, after Ukrainian drones hit its refineries, Kpler data show. [46] Russia had been the world's second-biggest diesel exporter, after the US. [46] More than 1,000 Ukrainian drones targeted Russia on Sunday, setting fire to an oil export terminal in St Petersburg. [46] A deal Trump made with Putin for Russia to sell more diesel abroad now looks unlikely to work, a Kpler analyst said. [46]

Why it matters. Diesel runs trucks, farm machines and ships, and its price has surged because of the wars in Europe and the Middle East. [46] Less Russian diesel on the market keeps that price high for everyone who moves goods.

Chennai Petroleum, a state-owned oil refiner in Tamil Nadu, said its profit rose 291% to 2,271 crore rupees in July to September, from 732 crore a year earlier. [47] It will pay shareholders a dividend of 25 rupees a share. [47] A refiner earns the gap between what crude oil costs and what fuels such as diesel sell for. Its shares closed about 1% higher. [47]

Why it matters. Diesel prices have surged because of the wars in Europe and the Middle East. [46] Refiners make and sell that diesel, so fuel that costs airlines and drivers more can raise a refiner's profit.