Oct 18 ,2026
Synopsis:
Asian markets set for negative start to Monday trade. Futures signaling steep opening declines in Japan and South Korea after AI trade came under continued pressure on Friday. Hong Kong tracking for muted start. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures gaining following negative finish to the week. Treasuries strengthened Friday with curve steepening. Dollar weakening against euro, steady elsewhere. Crude retreating from one-month high. Gold and silver seeing small gain. Bitcoin unchanged.
China Q3 GDP forecast to show growth ticked up but remained below government's 2026 target. September activity data forecast to show marginal rise in industrial production and retail sales growth and narrower decline in fixed asset investment. Previews highlighted continued strength from high tech manufacturing, tepid support from Golden Week holiday spending, and stabilization in investment activity as extreme weather impacts eased. While Beijing moved to step up policy support, measures seen as insufficient to have meaningful influence on growth.
Beijing proposed export controls on AI technologies, including advanced models and semiconductor designs. Reasons mentioned included national security and safeguarding against misuse of AI. AI model controls would cover those above +2T parameter threshold, including Moonshot's Kimi K3, Alibaba's (9988.HK) Qwen 3.8-Max and MiniMax's (100.HK) M3. Z.AI's (2513.HK) GLM-5.2 falls under 2T threshold. Export controls also cover areas including biotechnology and solar manufacturing.
China LPR decision (Tues) expected to follow long stretch of no change. BOK (Thurs) expected to pause following consecutive rate hikes, though Governor Shin said policy to remain restrictive. Japan core CPI (Fri) forecast to have risen to above 2% after Tokyo core inflation hit 11 month high. New Zealand Q3 CPI (Thurs) forecast to show inflation decelerated after chief economist Conway said October's decision could either way. Flash PMIs (Fri) and Japan trade data (Wed) among other releases. Busy week of US earnings with Telsa and Meta among reporters.
Pre-open Company News:
533573.IN -- Alembic Pharmaceuticals US FDA ANDA approval for Ciprofloxacin and Dexamethasone Otic Suspension USP
500180.IN -- HDFC Bank reports Q2 standalone NPAT INR196.10B vs StreetAccount INR193.57B
600346.CH -- Hengli Petrochemical guides 9M net income attributable CNY10.26B vs year-ago CNY5.02B
532174.IN -- ICICI Bank reports Q2 standalone EPS INR20.45 vs FactSet INR19.76 [6 est, INR18.17-21.20]
8869.MK -- Press Metal Aluminium Holdings initiated buy at AmInvestment Bank
530005.IN -- India Cements reports Q2 standalone EPS INR1.25 vs FactSet INR1.40 [1 est]
532885.IN -- Central Bank of India reports Q2 standalone EPS INR1.62 vs year-ago INR1.34
6996.JP -- Nichicon upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs
539876.IN -- Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals upgraded to buy from neutral at Phillip Capital
519600.IN -- CCL Products (India) upgraded to buy from hold at Systematix Institutional Research
018670.KS -- SK Gas subsidiary completes disposal of 15% stake in Saudi Arabia's Advanced Polyolefins Industry for KRW195.60B (US$129M) cash
011170.KS -- Lotte Chemical downgraded to neutral from buy at Hana Financial Investment
600392.CH -- Shenghe Resources Holding to sell 51% stake in rare-earth smelting and separation business to China Rare Earth Group
137400.KS -- People & Technology initiated buy at IBK Securities
603019.CH -- Dawning Information Industry's chairman proposes CNY300-500M on-market share buyback to run for 12 months
On Deck:
China:
Economic:
08:00 CST: Foreign Direct Investment Y/Y; consensus
10:00 CST: GDP NSA Y/Y; consensus +4.5%
10:00 CST: Industrial Output NSA Y/Y; consensus +5.5%
10:00 CST: Retail Sales NSA Y/Y; consensus +0.6%
South Korea:
Earnings:
HYUNDAI ROTEM (064350.KS)
New Zealand:
Earnings:
Black Pearl Group (BPG.NZ)
India:
Earnings:
Bajaj Finance (500034.IN), HFCL Ltd (500183.IN), Hindustan Zinc (500188.IN), Union Bank of India (532477.IN), L&T Technology Services (540115.IN), Just Dial (535648.IN)
Malaysia:
Economic:
00:00 EST: CPI NSA Y/Y; consensus +2%
Market Data:
Gold (Dec 26): +$24.40 or +0.58% to $4205.50
WTI Crude (Nov 26): ($0.53) or (0.52%) to $100.88
$-¥: (0.19) or (0.12%) to 157.8150
$-KRW: (1.13) or (0.09%) to 1333.5000
A$-$: +0.00 or +0.26% to 0.6964
$-INR: +0.01 or +0.01% to 94.9730
$-CNY: (0.00) or (0.04%) to 6.6880
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