Daily Buzz: 7 October 2026

Saudi Airports Hit by Drones, Pakistan and Turkey Commit Troops

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen struck two airports in neighboring Saudi Arabia with drones. Pakistan and Turkey agreed to send troops to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defense pact. The Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government in Yemen, which has been fighting the Houthis for more than a decade, claimed to have recaptured key positions near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital Red Sea transit point. The Houthis denied the report. The Houthis have declared a blockade against Saudi oil exports in the Red Sea, an alternate export route after Iran choked transit through the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian peninsula.

Separately, oil producers are paying seafarers up to US$25,000 per round-trip voyage through the Strait of Hormuz to maintain crude exports amid ongoing Iranian attacks on shipping. Nine commercial vessels were attacked near the strait over the past two weeks, leaving one seaman dead. The compensation, far above normal pay, is part of efforts to keep oil and natural gas flowing through the choked strait. Maritime data collector Kpler said crude exports through the waterway rebounded to 16.5 million barrels per day in September from a March low of 5 million. Charter rates for very large crude carriers to China briefly exceeded US$1.2 million per day. Global benchmark Brent crude futures closed New York trading at US$100.58 a barrel, after earlier dropping below US$100.

Trump Says "Threats" Caused US to Remove Bombers From UK Base

President Donald Trump said the US removed its bombers from the Fairford Royal Air Force base in rural England because of "some threats," apparently related to Iranian drones. The redeployment of about a dozen B-1 bombers used in the Iran war back to the US came after a suspected attack on Fairford was foiled last week by counterterrorism police. At least six men were arrested in relation to the alleged plot. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Axios reported that the potential attack may have been designed to target US aircraft and kill base personnel.

Belgian-American Wins Physics Nobel Prize for 'Ghost' Particle Hunt

The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Francis Halzen, 82, a Belgian-American physicist who led the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica to capture in ice "ghost" cosmic particles called neutrinos. The elusive particles are used by scientists to understand distant galaxies and exploding stars. The Nobel committee said Halzen laid the foundations for an "entirely new type of astronomy," calling him a man of "tenacity and scientific vision." This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday.

Quebec Separatist Party Wins Seats to Form Minority Government

Quebec's separatist party won enough seats in a provincial election to form a minority government, promising another vote on independence from Canada. It would be the first time Parti Québécois has held power since 2014. Separatists said they would hold off any referendum on secession until US President Donald Trump is out of office. Previous independence referendums in 1980 and 1995 failed.

Top Business

Moonshot Completes Final Fundraising Ahead of IPO Expected Early Next Year

Chinese startup Moonshot AI has completed its final round of private financing before going public, with its latest valuation pegged at about US$50 billion. The developer of the Kimi large language models is expected to seek an initial public listing in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2027. Its most recently released model, the Kimi K3, has quickly built up a strong reputation among global developers, with multiple performance benchmarks considered capable of competing head-to-head with leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Media reports speculate the company will seek to raise up to US$5 billion in an IPO seen as the most anticipated listing on the Hong Kong calendar.

Transsion Begins Subscriptions for Hong Kong IPO

Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings, maker of Africa's bestselling phones, begins taking subscriptions today for a Hong Kong initial public offering, seeking to raise up to HK$3.4 billion (US$436 million), with a trading debut targeted for October 15. The company, already listed in Shanghai, is offering 86.6 million shares priced at a maximum HK$38.80 each. Transsion sold more than 91 million phones in Africa last year, capturing 53 per cent of the market. It also sells phones in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Citic Securities is the sole sponsor for the Hong Kong listing.

Nvidia-Backed Startup Releases Model to Challenge DeepSeek, Kimi

Nvidia-backed US startup Reflection AI debuted its first open-weight model, called Beam, aiming to compete with lower-cost Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Moonshot's Kimi in coding and agentic tasks. Reflection said Beam is competitive with Chinese AI startup Z.ai's GLM‑5.2 and is closing in on Alibaba's Qwen3.8‑Max. Beam contains 501 billion parameters, or variables that determine how an AI system processes information, but activates only 23 billion for each task to make the model faster and cheaper to run by using only part of its network. By comparison, Z.ai's GLM-5.2 has about 744 billion total parameters with 40 billion active parameters.

Economy & Markets

Guosen Sees Room to Run in Two-Year Chinese Bull Market

China's Guosen Securities, in a new report, said the Chinese mainland bull market that began in September 2024 still has some room to run. It said third-quarter choppy trading was a normal correction in the mid-to-late stage of a bull market. In the third quarter, coal stocks rose 19 percent, petroleum and petrochemicals gained 15 percent, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries added 15 percent, banks rose 14.6 percent, electronics fell 33 percent, communications dropped 29 percent, and power equipment lost 24 percent, the report said, noting a cooling in investor sentiment from earlier highs. Guosen said it sees positive factors for a broad-based recovery in the current quarter.

World Bank Raises East Asian Growth Forecast on AI Boom

The World Bank raised its growth forecast for the East Asia-Pacific region, citing the strong role economies such as China, Southeast Asia and South Korea play in the global AI supply chain. The bank's latest report bumps up the growth forecast for this year by 0.3 percentage point to 4.5 percent, with growth expected to ease to 4.4 percent in 2027. However, the bank warned that nations relying too heavily on manufacture and export of AI-related products run the risk of the technology boom reversing. The report said China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam shipped US$1.4 trillion of AI-related goods in the year to April 30. And South Korean semiconductors, chiefly from Samsung and SK Hynix, helped drive record South Korean exports last month. The Bank for International Settlements, in its annual economic report in June, warned that the AI boom's scale and pace bear resemblance to the dot-com frenzy of the 1990s, which ultimately went bust, causing a market crisis.

Time to Sharpen Crisis-Management Tools

The head of the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements warned rising public debt could create financial market turmoil that central banks must be ready to tackle swiftly with crisis-management tools. Pablo Hernández de Cos said government debt is near post-World War II highs in many economies. His warning comes amid a sharp recent rise in bond yields globally and the growing clout of so-called "non-bank financial institutions" that hold a lot of government debt.

Separately, billionaire US Ray Dalio, who founded Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds, told Bloomberg News that the US Treasury market is vulnerable to a pullback in debt purchases by China and Japan, two of America's largest foreign creditors. He cited indications that China is reluctant to increase its holdings amid geopolitical tensions, and Japan, the biggest creditor nation, is seeking to repatriate overseas holdings to shore up the nation's wobbly finances. The situation, if it continues, could trigger a debt crisis in the US within three years, Dalio said. His remarks come as US Treasury yields have risen to multi-year highs, hiking borrowing costs for government, companies and consumers. Foreigners hold about a third of US Treasury bonds, which are used to finance Washington's ballooning budget deficit.

Gasoline-Powered Vehicles Fall Below 50 Percent for First Time

Automotive data firm Mobility Global issued a new report showing that pure gasoline-powered vehicles accounted for less than 50 percent of world-wide sales for the first time in history. It said 49 percent of global new car sales in the first half were wholly internal combustion. A shift to electric and hybrid vehicles has accelerated since the Iran war drove up the price of crude oil, which refined into gasoline and diesel. Global sales of all-electric vehicles jumped 12 percent in the first six months of the year.

Corporate

First Wetland Retail, Art and Cultural Site Opens in China

Almad Group, run by Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and cultural business leader, officially opened Xiamen K11 Select, China's first wetland conservation-focused retail, art and cultural tourism landmark. It was jointly developed with Xiamen Rail Transit in the southeastern China city. The site reported foot traffic of more than 2 million since its unofficial opening. The venue is described as a combination of city renewal and nature conservation.

New World Launches Debt-Exchange Offer to Shore Up Balance Sheet

New World Development, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers with substantial holdings on the Chinese mainland, launched a debt exchange offer that would allow bondholders to swap some notes due in 2027 and 2028 for new secured debt maturing in 2032. The company said it plans to issue up to US$600 million of new 7.375 percent senior secured notes due 2032 in exchange for existing notes. New World, one of Hong Kong's most debt-laden property developers, said the offer is aimed at improving its debt-maturity profile, enhance balance-sheet flexibility and improve its overall financial position. Last week the company terminated operating rights for a shopping mall next to Hong Kong International Airport.

Starbucks Faces 'Sugar-Free' Label Fight

Starbucks is facing a lawsuit in the US over claims that some of its "sugar-free" protein drinks contain sugar. Starbucks said sugar found in the drinks comes naturally from milk and the drinks contain no added sugar. The controversy reflects a broader debate in China's beverage market, where brands increasingly promote "zero sugar" and "no added sugar." Under China's food labeling standards, "sugar-free" refers to products containing no more than 0.5 gram of sugar per 100 grams.