Weekend Buzz: 12-13 September 2026

Saudis Shut Oil Pipeline Amid Attacks, Houthis Seize Key Red Sea Island

Saudi Arabia closed its East-West land pipeline used to divert oil from the Persian Gulf for shipment from a depot on the Red Sea after Iran-backed militias in Iraq attacked pump stations alongside the pipeline with drones and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen seized a key island at the southern exit of the sea. The Houthis captured Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea and Suez Canal with the Gulf of Aden. The seizure came after the Houthis a day earlier captured a strategic port on the Red Sea. Oil tankers have been rerouted to the Red Sea since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has resumed production of ballistic missiles at underground facilities, using stockpiled parts.

The International Energy Agency said on Friday that global oil supply and demand will fall further than previously estimated this year, citing a lack of progress in ending the Iran war. It said oil inventories that have to date helped balance energy markets are shrinking and the global refining system is stretched to its limit. Global benchmark Brent crude futures closed the trading week in New York at US$104.61 a barrel, chalking up a weekly gain of 8.7 percent. China has capped increases in retail prices for transportation fuels for the third time since the Iran war began to mitigate the impact of rising oil prices on the domestic market, the state planner said in a statement on Friday.

Regrets? Trump Says He Has None About War Against Iran

US President Donald Trump said he doesn't regret going to war against Iran despite its driving up the cost of living and possibly hurting his party's chances of retaining control of Congress in November mid-term elections. "If I had to do it again, I would do exactly as I did," he told US news channel Fox. He also dismissed claims that some of his support base may be unhappy with the war. "I don't think they're demoralized," he said. "I think they're very proud that I'm not letting Iran have a nuclear weapon." Trump repeated his earlier claim that the war will end after the elections.

Russia, Iran Slam Western Sanctions at BRICS Summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized Western sanctions on their countries at a BRICS summit in India. "More than 30,000 sanctions have been slapped on Russia, which is twice as many as the number of sanctions against all the other countries of the world combined," Putin said in a speech at the forum. Pezeshkian said the group must promote an economic environment where no country can "disrupt the legitimate trade of another country through monopolizing financial instruments or technology." Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also attending the summit, met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for high-level talks on the sidelines.

BRICS member nations, now totaling 11, represent approximately half of the world's population and nearly 40 percent of global gross domestic product.

Top Business

Enflame Sizzles in Share-Trading Debut in Shanghai

Shares in Chinese chipmaker Enflame, a looming domestic rival to Nvidia, surged 179 percent from their offer price in their debut on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style STAR Market on Friday after an IPO that raised 6.1 billion yuan (US$912 million). The retail portion of the public share sale was oversubscribed 6,000 times. Enflame, backed by tech giant Tencent, is the last of China's so-called "four little dragons" of AI chipmaking to go public. The other three - MetaX, Moore Threads and Biren - all debuted since last December with heavy first-day gains. Shanghai-based Enflame, which builds AI processors, said it will use proceeds from the share sale to develop and market fifth- and sixth-generation AI chips. The company reported a first-half loss of 632 million yuan on high development costs. Revenue surged 279 percent to 1.1 billion yuan.

The Risks of AI: Nvidia Chief, US President Weigh in on Debate

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said cybersecurity will become the next major market for AI development, amid concerns about the runaway speed of development and a flurry of reports of AI agents escaping human control and going rogue. US President Donald Trump weighed in on this week's debate about AI risks, brushing aside a doomsday prediction from a former Anthropic researcher that unrestrained development of superintelligent machines could lead to the extinction of the human race. Trump said the only concern he has is losing the AI race to China, which he said would leave the US "in a very bad position." Bloomberg News reported that OpenAI is considering slowing the pace of frontier AI development. In late July, more than 1,000 employees from major AI companies signed a petition calling for mechanisms to slow the pace of development. Separately, Anthropic says it has blocked multiple accounts that used the company's AI models in ways that could support the development of biological weapons. The company said it considers such uses among the "most serious risks" in AI.

Adobe Beats Market Forecasts on Quarterly Earnings

US-based design software maker Adobe said revenue in its fiscal third quarter ended August 29 rose 11 percent from a year earlier to US$6 billion, with net income increasing to US$1.8 billion from US$1.7 billion. The results beat market forecasts. Adobe has been infusing AI into its products. The California-based company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of up to US$6.1 billion.

Nasdaq-Listed Chinese Online Insurance Broker Posts Profit

Yuanbao Inc, an online digital insurance brokerage and agency platform, reported second-quarter revenue rose 30 percent from a year earlier to 1.4 billion yuan (US$205 million), with net income rising 36 percent to 413 million yuan. Its multimodal AI system, used to distribute customized health, medical, critical illness, accident and life insurance products, and claims assistance, was developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent. It operates on the Hunyuan large language model. In May, Yuanbao officially announced support for summarizing WeChat chat records, and a month later collaborated with QQ on the launch of an agent to help students preparing for the national university entrance exam.

Dual Listing for Moonshot AI? Media Reports Are Conflicting

Chinese news outlet Cailian debunked circulating media reports that Moonshot AI, the developer of the Kimi large language model, is considering dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai to boost fundraising. The company has filed a confidential application for an IPO with Hong Kong's stock exchange, Reuters reported last week, citing speculation it will seek to raise US$3 billion. The Kimi K3 model debuted in July, with sources telling the news agency that Moonshot is in talks with Amazon and Google on revenue-sharing agreements that would allow the US cloud companies to host the model. Cailianshe, citing insider sources, said reports of a Shanghai listing, including an anonymous-sourced report in the South China Morning Post, aren't true.

Economy & Markets

Novo Nordisk Wins Chinese Approval to Market Obesity Drug Wegovy

Novo Nordisk's headline weight-loss drug Wegovy has been approved by Chinese regulators in treatment for fatty liver disease. So-called GLP-1 receptor agonists initially developed to treat diabetes have expanded to treatment of obesity. Danish-based Novo Nordisk has four products on the global market: injectable diabetes drug Ozempic, oral diabetes medicine Rybelsus, and injectable and oral versions of Wegovy – which together had combined first-half sales of US$17.5 billion. Novo Nordisk is taking aim at about one-third of Chinese adults who suffer from fatty liver disease, with the prevalence reaching 82 percent among overweight individuals. The company faces competition in China not only from US rival Eli Lilly but also from domestic drugmakers like Innovent Biologics and Hengrui Pharmaceuticals.

OpenAI Launches Tool to Assist Financial Services Sector

OpenAI has launched a version of ChatGPT tailored for the financial services industry, combining its latest AI model with built-in data from market providers that included LSEG, PitchBook and Daloopa. The model, developed with Morgan Stanley and Evercore as design partners, is powered by GPT-6 Astra to improve retrieval across financial data tools, financial reasoning and the accuracy of generated content. OpenAI said it plans to expand available financial data and train its models to identify, interpret and apply that information across tasks traditionally handled by experienced analysts.

Sticky US Inflation Persists Ahead of Fed Meeting

US consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in August from a gain of 0.1 percent in July, increasing 3.4 percent from a year earlier. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent from July for an annual gain of 2.4 percent. The energy index rose 2.1 percent, up 16 percent from a year earlier, as the Iran war keeps oil prices high. Food prices were up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, and increases were also reported in shelter, transportation and vehicle costs. The evidence of persistent inflation above the US Federal Reserve target of 2 percent led to increased market bets that the central bank will likely raise interest rates at its monthly meeting next week.

Citi Nears Approval for China Brokerage

US investment bank Citigroup expects final regulatory approval for its wholly owned China securities business as early as this month, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The bank applied for the license in late 2021 and is planning to double staffing to about 100 employees by year end to expand business. Permission would allow Citi to conduct brokerage, underwriting and principal trading in Chinese mainland markets in target sectors that include technology, healthcare, consumer businesses and financial institutions. The US bank already provides corporate and institutional banking services in China, including foreign exchange, cash management and trade financing. US rivals JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley already operate licensed securities businesses in China.

European Central Bank Raises Rates to Try to Tame Inflation

The European Central Bank raised its benchmark deposit interest rates to 2.5 percent, the second increase this year, taking aim at inflation that has exceeded 3 percent on higher global oil prices from the Iran war. The bank's inflation target is 2 percent. "The outlook remains highly uncertain, with risks to the upside for inflation and to the downside for economic growth," the bank said in a statement.

Deep Dive

Who Defines Reality: The Crux of the Debate in World Awash With Algorithms

Open three browser tabs. Ask the same chatbot the same morally charged question in English, Mandarin and Arabic. You may not receive three translations of one answer. Instead, you may encounter three moral weather systems.

China's Auto Industry, Largest in the World, Faces Make-or-Break Juncture

A string of lower earnings or losses is a wake-up call for carmakers facing higher costs, weaker domestic demand and squeezed profit margins.

Corporate

Xiaomi Comes Under Indian Scrutiny Again

India's Serious Fraud Investigation Office recommended an investigation into Xiaomi's smartphone business in the country, Reuters reported. It seeks an examination of fund movements, investment approvals and the beneficial ownership of foreign investors, and a determination of whether Xiaomi exercised undue control over Indian online sellers and complied fully with foreign-investment rules. In 2022, the Indian government imposed a 55.5-billion-rupee (US$584 million) asset freeze on Xiaomi over alleged illegal overseas transfers, which Xiaomi denies and is legally challenging. The leading Chinese smartphone maker ranks fourth in India's market with a 13 percent share, according to Counterpoint Research.

Transwarp Begins Subscription Period for Hong Kong IPO

Transwarp Technology, a Shanghai-based supplier of AI infrastructure software, began taking subscriptions for its initial public offering in Hong Kong, seeking to raise up to HK$855 million (US$109 million) through the issue of 14 million shares. The company plans to begin share trading on September 21.

Haitian Completes Takeover of Amoy Food

Foshan-based Haitian Flavoring & Food, the world's largest soy sauce maker, said it has completed its acquisition of the century-old Hong Kong-based global condiment brand Amoy Food to expand overseas sales. The price wasn't disclosed. Amoy has expanded from soy sauce and Chinese seasonings into products such as frozen dim sum, with distribution across 30 countries. Haitian Flavoring reported a 6 percent rise in first-half revenue to 16 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) and a 2.6 percent gain in profit to 4.2 billion yuan.

Amap Food Ratings Logs 880 Million Users, Links Up With Mercedes

Alibaba's Amap Street Food Ratings, launched a year ago, has served more than 880 million users, with annual navigation mileage to listed merchants reaching 36.6 billion kilometers. Amap announced it has partnered with Mercedes-Benz, its first global automotive partner, to integrate the carmaker's smart cockpits with its ratings service to intelligently recommend selected destinations for users.