Daily Buzz: 20 October 2026

China's Economic Growth Accelerates Despite Property Slump

China's economic growth in the third quarter picked up pace, expanding 4.5 percent from a year earlier, as robust exports of technology goods helped offset a deepening property slump and tepid consumer spending. The results, which compared with 4.3 percent growth in the second quarter, exceeded market forecasts. For the first nine months of the year, the economy grew 4.6 percent, well within the Chinese government's target for 2026 growth of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent. In September, retail sales grew 1.1 percent, while industrial production jumped 5.5 percent. The urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent.

For the first nine months of the year, investment in urban fixed assets, which includes industrial infrastructure and property, fell 7.2 percent. The real estate sector alone dropped 20.6 percent, widening from a decline of 19.9 percent in the first eight months of the year. Central and local governments are issuing new incentives to bolster sales in the residential property market. Chinese authorities have also announced new measures to boost consumer spending to re-balance the economy away from over-reliance on exports, which surged 36.3 percent last month.

The National Bureau of Statistics also reported on Monday that China's per capita disposable income in the first three quarters of the year expanded 5.3 percent from a year earlier. Urban per capita disposable income hit 44,945 yuan (US$6,726), with the rural figure at 18,809 yuan.

Russia Floats Idea of Trilateral Summit with China and US

Moscow said the leaders of China, the US and Russia may hold a summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in China next month in what would be the first such trilateral meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised that possibility after the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed the summit to discuss ways of ending the Ukraine war, with no mention of Kiev's participation. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will be attending the conference along with Putin. Trump said he is open to the idea but framed the talks as related to nuclear weapons; China hasn't commented. The last Trump-Putin summit, held in August 2025 in Alaska to discuss an end to the war, failed to produce any breakthroughs.

The issue of a summit arose as Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who he said doesn't want to end the war with Russia and "probably never did." His comment came after Kiev defied Trump's orders and struck a major oil terminal near St Petersburg in retaliation for continuing strikes on its energy grid. Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine is serious about wanting to end the war, now in its fifth year, but said the Kremlin has shown no reciprocal willingness. Trump has renewed rapprochement with Russia in contentious recent decisions to waive new sanctions on Moscow and buy Russian diesel fuel.

Global oil prices remained high on news of the St Petersburg attack and fresh Houthi rebel claims of attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities. Global benchmark Brent futures closed at US$109.55 a barrel.

US Envoy Warns EU Over Satellite Spectrum Plan

The US ambassador to the EU warned European companies to be "wary" of a plan to reserve prime spectrum for direct-to-device satellite services for European operators, saying the consequences could be "very devastating." In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrew Puzder argued that Europe cannot strengthen its own satellite industry by weakening American rivals such as Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper. SpaceX protested the plan in June, warning it could block direct-to-device launches in Europe or spark global signal interference from new European networks, degrading services that include Ukraine's emergency communications.

Japan Launches Spacecraft to Bring Back Mars Moondust

The Japanese Space Agency launched a landmark mission to Mars designed to scoop up particles from Phobos, one of the red planet's two moons, and return them to Earth. If successful, it will be the first time any rock from the planet can be analyzed in pure form. The only Mars-related specimens to date have come from meteorites, where content is comprised through travel through space. Scientists are trying to determine how Mars's moons formed.

Top Business

China Plans Liquidity Backstop to Prevent Bond Market Selloffs

China's central bank plans to introduce a liquidity support tool to help non-bank financial institutions facing mass investor withdrawals, Governor Pan Gongsheng said on Monday at the Financial Street Forum in Beijing. The People's Bank of China will work with financial and securities regulators to prevent a vicious cycle in which investors withdraw money, forcing institutions to sell bonds and triggering further withdrawals. Institutions seeking support must pledge high-quality collateral. Pan also signaled further interest-rate reforms, including a possible shift to overnight open-market operations and greater use of market-based lending and deposit benchmarks. The measures aim to strengthen financial stability and improve how monetary policy reaches the broader economy.

CXMT Shares Slump on Weaker Profit Outlook

Shares in Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's largest and the world's fourth-biggest maker of dynamic random-access chips, slumped 7.8 percent in Shanghai on Monday after the company warned that its third-quarter net profit may increase only about 3 percent from a year earlier. However, the company did signal a turn to profit from loss in its nine-month earnings. The share decline comes despite a modest rebound in many global tech shares as bargain hunters moved in after steep declines last week. Hong Kong, where many of China's biggest tech companies are listed, was closed for a holiday on Monday.

Analysts are remaining generally upbeat on the tech sector. Zhang Jun, chief economist at China Galaxy Securities, said overall Class A-share valuations on the Chinese mainland remain at historic lows, with the CSI 300 Index's price-earnings ratio at about 13 times. He attributed last week's selloff to a repricing of expectations and an unwinding of overly rich valuations in the AI sector. In response to a slump in mainland markets, state-backed funds have stepped in to stabilize trading by buying shares and companies have stepped up share buybacks to bolster prices.

Unitree Leads Humanoid Robot Stock Rally on First National Standards

Humanoid robot stocks rallied across Chinese mainland markets on Monday, with Shanghai-listed Unitree surging more than 16 percent. The sector's gains were bolstered by the release of the first national standards for the industry, effective April 1 next year, CCTV News reported. The standards outline technical requirements, including body structure, system architecture, environmental perception and intelligent decision-making. China's humanoid robot output is expected to exceed 100,000 units this year and account for 97 percent of first-half global shipments.

Microsoft Pulls Out of UK's Largest AI Data Center Over Power Concerns

US tech giant Microsoft has pulled out of a flagship AI data center project in Britain over power supply concerns, the Financial Times reported. The Essex site, developed by UK firm Nscale and billed as Britain's largest AI data center, was scheduled to open next year but appears to remain little more than a scaffolding site. Microsoft, the project's only publicly announced customer, had planned to fund a supercomputer at the site.

Economy & Markets

New Home Prices Rise in China's Biggest Cities, Other Areas Flat to Lower

New home prices in the four major cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenshen rose 0.1 percent in September from August, with Beijing the only one to register a decline. In its monthly survey of 70 cities across the Chinese mainland, National Bureau of Statistics data showed prices flat in second-tier cities and down 0.2 percent in third-tier cities. Prices of existing homes in the four big cities rose 0.2 percent, led by 0.5 percent in Shanghai. On an annual basis, declines in prices for both new and existing homes across all 70 cities narrowed in September from a year earlier.

French Bond Yields Jump Amid Budget Crisis

Bond yields in France rose, escalating borrowing costs for the French government as it tries to grapple with public debt at a record US$4 trillion. The 10-year benchmark government bond yield rose 10 basis points to 4.89 percent, pushing the spread over German benchmarks toward a 14-year high. France has been hit by nationwide demonstrations triggered by students seeking more funding for education when the government is facing a budget crisis. President Emmanuel Macron urged calm ahead of a National Assembly vote on a 2027 budget. Goldman Sachs said European sovereign risk is back in focus, raising concerns about a repeat of the eurozone debt crisis.

China Greenlights First 18 Active ETFs

China has approved its first 18 actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), split evenly between the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, officials announced on Monday at the Financial Street Forum in Beijing. The funds will pursue balanced, value, dividend and growth strategies, bringing professional stock picking into the ETF market. Industry estimates suggest each fund could raise around 2 billion yuan (US$300 million), putting the combined potential at 36 billion yuan. Major managers including E Fund and China Asset Management, with Huatai-PineBridge applying three months ago. The real test is whether active ETFs bring fresh money into China's stock market or simply redirect investments from existing mutual funds.

Musk Pledges to Give Every US Child a Share in SpaceX

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said he'll give every child in the US one of his shares in the company next year. With an estimated 72 million children 18 year or younger, that would value the giveaway at US$10.5 billion, based on the company's current share price. Musk currently owns about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, according to an August stock exchange filing. SpaceX is due to report third-quarter earnings later today.

Accenture Explores Sale of China Business

Global technology consulting firm Accenture is exploring the sale of its China operations in a deal that could value the unit at up to US$1.5 billion, the Financial Times reported. The Dublin-based company has hired JPMorgan to review options for the business. The review remains at an exploratory stage, with no buyer identified.

Indonesia Stocks Slide Further as MSCI Weighs Demotion

The Jakarta Composite Stock Index tumbled 3.64 percent Monday, following an 11.6 percent plunge on Friday, after Morgan Stanley Capital International said it is considering demoting Indonesian stocks to "stand-alone" from "emerging market" status. The index is among the world's worst performers, losing more than 40 percent this year. Indonesia has been under fire for failing to adequately address concerns about opaque shareholding structures that mask what proportion of company shares can be freely traded, amid accusations that tightly held companies are being subsidized.

China Pairs Movies and Sports to Fill Cinema Seats

China's film and sports regulators are joining forces to put more people in cinema seats. The China Film Administration and the General Administration of Sport unveiled a joint campaign to promote the airing of live sports in movie houses, covering soccer, tennis, basketball, e-sports and snooker. During this year's World Cup, more than 1,400 cinemas in 266 cities across China broadcast more than 60 matches, with total screenings topping 28,000. The campaign targets vast idle capacity. First-half movie box office receipts fell 41 percent from a year earlier to 17.4 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion), the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

Corporate

Hygon Q3 Profit Jumps 38 Percent on AI Chip Demand

Hygon Information Technology, a Chinese developer of high-end processors and AI computing chips, reported third-quarter profit rose 38 percent from a year earlier to 1.05 billion yuan (US$157 million) on a 45 percent surge in revenue to 5.9 billion yuan. The company attributed the growth to surging demand for domestic high-end chips, driven by rapid AI development. Research and development spending jumped 49 percent to 1.8 billion yuan, accounting for nearly one third of revenue. Operating cash flow swung to a negative 2.4 billion yuan in the first nine months of the year from a positive 2.25 billion yuan a year earlier, as Hygon increased inventory purchases to secure supply and meet anticipated demand. Inventories reached 8.9 billion yuan at the end of September, up 39 percent from December.

IFlytek Posts Q3 Profit Increase but Loss on Adjusted Earnings

Chinese AI information technology company iFlytek reported third-quarter profit rose 31 percent from a year earlier to 226 million yuan (US$34 million) on an 8 percent rise in revenue to 6.6 billion yuan. However, excluding one-time items, the company posted a loss of 126 million. Research and development spending totaled 1.7 billion yuan. For the first nine months of the year, iFlytek reported profit rose 133 percent to 21.9 million yuan on a 7 percent increase in revenue to 18 billion yuan. The company said it will unveil a new "cloud-plus-device" Spark large language model this week.

Hansoh Signs Drug Agreement with Roche

China's Hansoh Pharmaceutical said it has entered into a partnership and licensing deal with Swiss drug giant Roche that is potentially worth more than US$15 billion and covers a portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates.

As part of the deal, Hansoh will receive an upfront payment of US$400 million and is eligible for further payments if milestone measures are met. Antibody-drug conjugates are targeted cancer therapies that attach chemotherapy directly ⁠to tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.

MiniMax Unveils AI Model Upgrade

Chinese AI startup MiniMax launched an ‌updated version of its AI model M3.1 Flash. It said the model delivers "generational" improvements in areas such as agentic tasks, programming ‌and ⁠cybersecurity, and that its online inference speed has nearly ⁠tripled while usage costs have been reduced ⁠by 70 percent.

Accelink Tech Signals Up to 82 Percent Profit Surge

Wuhan-based Accelink Technologies said it expects nine-month profit to surge up to 82 percent from a year earlier to 1.3 billion yuan (US$196 million), surpassing full-year 2025 earnings. On an extrapolated basis, that would indicate third-quarter profit as high as 728 million yuan, more than double that of the second-quarter. Growth is driven mainly by global spending on AI computing, which is boosting demand for Accelink's optoelectronic devices. The Shenzhen-listed company is planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Luxeed Seeking Stand-Alone Carmaking License

Luxeed, the Chinese electric vehicle brand co-developed by Chery Auto and tech giant Huawei, plans to obtain a separate car-making license and go public in the future. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Friday published a list that included Luxeed among proposed new vehicle manufacturers. Luxeed has been expanding its lineup, which now includes models like the S7 sedan and the R7 coupe SUV.

Huiyuan Group Dumps 34-Year Namesake Juice Trademark

Huiyuan Group said on Monday it will stop producing juice under the Huiyuan brand it has used for 34 years and switch to replacement brand Zan Jia Guo Yuan, ending a bitter fight with the restructuring investor that controls the trademark. The group accused controlling shareholder Shanghai Wensheng Asset Management of reneging on a pledged 1.6-billion-yuan (US$239 million) investment. Huiyuan, once China's largest juice maker, attracted a US$2.4 billion takeover bid from Coca-Cola in 2008 that was blocked by regulators.