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Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 471,262 units, with deliveries up 1.3% sequentially but down 2.1% year over year. Through the first nine months of 2026, Tesla delivered 1,324,681 vehicles and needs just more than 311,448 units in the fourth quarter to break its streak of annual declines. The competitive picture remains concerning, as BYD sold 762,478 passenger battery-electric vehicles in the quarter, up roughly 31% year over year, while NIO delivered 109,178 vehicles, up 25.4% year over year. In the last reported quarter, automotive gross margin excluding regulatory credits slipped to 16.3%, and energy storage margins fell to 20.4% from 39.5%, while Tesla expects capital spending above $25 billion in 2026. Tesla's robotaxi network had covered roughly 380,000 driverless miles, compared with Waymo's more than 220 million rider-only miles, and the company recently moved its Roadster demonstration from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15. Tesla's Oct. 21 earnings report is much-awaited, and TSLA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of 10 European luxury stocks, assigning Buy ratings to just four, as it argued that muted sector growth will not last and that 2027 will mark a turning point after three years of post-COVID normalization. Analysts led by Erwan Rambourg said the slowdown in sales has been driven less by macro headwinds than by aggressive pricing and a slower pace of innovation, both potentially linked to a degree of strategic inertia, noting that traditional luxury brands raised prices by about 60% between mid-2019 and mid-2026. Goldman forecasts organic sales growth for its coverage rising from 6% in 2026, on depressed 2024 and 2025 comparisons, to 7% in 2027, with the sector reverting to mid-single-digit growth, and expects U.S. outperformance to extend into 2027 and beyond, a mechanical rebound in the Middle East and stabilizing sales in China, while Europe stays muted apart from American tourist flows. The four Buy-rated stocks are Richemont, LVMH, Moncler and Prada, with price targets of CHF225, €500, €62 and HK$52 respectively. Goldman initiated Kering, Burberry and Brunello Cucinelli at Neutral and kept Zegna at Neutral, while starting Hermes and Swatch at Sell.

The UK new car market recorded its best September since 2017, with registrations up 12% year-on-year to 350,518 units, according to figures released on the 2nd by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Supported by strong demand for electric vehicles, battery electric vehicle registrations in September rose 36% year-on-year to 99,199 units, taking a market share of 28.3%. In contrast, petrol car registrations fell 6.7% and hybrid vehicle registrations fell 4.2%. Diesel car registrations rose 11.5% in September, but were down 7% over the January-September period compared with a year earlier, with their market share shrinking to about 4.5% this year. By brand, the Jaecoo 7 SUV from China's Chery was the best-selling model, while among battery electric vehicles the Sealion 7 SUV from China's BYD ranked third, behind US EV giant Tesla's Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV. On a year-to-date basis, battery electric vehicles account for only 26.2% of total sales, well below the 33% mandated for 2026 and also short of last year's 28% target.

Argentina's first Chinese auto show opened on the 2nd in the capital, Buenos Aires. Under President Milei, the country's auto market is shifting from strong protectionism toward a more open and competitive environment. Helped by a measure allowing up to 50,000 electric and hybrid vehicles to be imported duty-free in 2026, Chinese brands have been entering the market one after another, and in August the Chinese brands' share of passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales reached 10%, up from about 2% in late 2025. Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has become the ninth-largest auto brand by sales since entering Argentina in late 2025. More than 20 Chinese brands exhibited at the auto show, including Geely, Chery, Great Wall Motor and Dongfeng Motor, and Sebastian Beato, president of the Argentine auto dealers association, said the remarkable growth of Chinese brands is prompting the domestic auto industry to produce new models.

Schneider Electric, alongside partners Wärtsilä and Stanley Consultants, introduced a "Generator-to-Chip" power approach and unveiled software-defined medium-voltage switchgear and advanced cooling solutions for AI-driven data centers in late September 2026. The company also launched cybersecurity-focused automation for water utilities and a new decarbonization allyship with Lenovo's 360 Circle community. The software-defined medium-voltage switchgear is being deployed in AI-oriented data centers, including an Equinix pilot. Schneider Electric's narrative projects €56.4 billion revenue and €8.3 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 10.3% yearly revenue growth and a €3.6 billion earnings increase from €4.7 billion today. The forecasts yield a €325.04 fair value, a 7% upside to its current price.

Hong Kong share sales raised a record $47.5 billion in the third quarter as Chinese technology companies tapped investors for capital to fund artificial intelligence expansion, Bloomberg reported. Initial public offerings, placements and block trades during the July-to-September period produced the largest fundraising haul ever for those months, pushing the city's total for 2026 above $92 billion and putting Hong Kong within reach of the $112.5 billion annual record set in 2021. Alibaba Group's $10.2 billion follow-on offering was the quarter's largest transaction, while Zhongji Innolight raised almost $8 billion in Hong Kong's biggest listing in nearly seven years. AI model developer Z.AI has raised $9.6 billion this year through its IPO, placements and convertible bonds, and MiniMax, Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor and Shanghai Biren Technology also returned to investors shortly after their IPO lockups expired. The boom spread across Asia-Pacific, where third-quarter share sales exceeded $120 billion, the highest for the period in six years, with India raising a record $26 billion since July on domestic liquidity. Investor appetite is becoming more selective as markets weaken: the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell as much as 7% in July amid questions about returns from heavy AI spending, and only two of Hong Kong's 10 largest deals since July are currently trading above their offer prices.

Pony.ai and its Croatian partner Verne have launched fully driverless robotaxi trials in Zagreb, the company's first such deployment in Europe. The service runs on public roads in Croatia's capital and is integrated with the Uber app for ride hailing. The Zagreb launch extends Pony.ai's autonomous ride service beyond its existing markets and gives the company a live European proof point for its joint deployment model, in which partners fund fleets while Pony.ai concentrates on Level 4 software and operations. Pony.ai, a US based software group focused on autonomous mobility in China and overseas, has a market cap of $2.8b, placing it in the mid sized bracket of global automation players. Investors can watch upcoming disclosures on paid ride volumes, fleet count and contribution margins from joint deployments like Zagreb to see whether unit economics in new cities start to resemble improving metrics already reported in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Summit Therapeutics announced a clinical trial collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca to evaluate ivonescimab, a potential first-in-class investigational PD-1 / VEGF bispecific antibody, in combination with Datroway, a TROP2-directed antibody drug conjugate, across multiple solid tumor settings, intending to include breast and lung cancer. The companies intend to begin with a Phase III trial in first-line triple-negative breast cancer, which would expand Summit's global development program into breast cancer. Under the agreement, each company will contribute its respective therapy for the planned combination trials, which will be sponsored by AstraZeneca or Daiichi Sankyo, with all three companies contributing to trial costs and each retaining development and commercial rights to its own medicine. Datroway was discovered by Daiichi Sankyo and is jointly developed and commercialized by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, and is one of seven DXd ADCs in Daiichi Sankyo's oncology pipeline. Ivonescimab, engineered by Akeso and known as SMT112 in Summit's license territories and AK112 outside them, has been studied in 16 Phase III clinical trials, with over 5,000 patients treated globally in clinical studies and over 100,000 in a commercial setting in China, and it is not approved by any regulatory authority in Summit's license territories, including the United States and Europe.

Yuanta Securities issued an analysis turning more bullish on SINOBIO19, or the ordinary shares of SINO BIOPHARMACEUTICAL LIMITED (1177.HK), after the company announced a partnership with STADA, a global pharmaceutical company in Germany, to bring TQB3570, a biologic drug with efficacy close to that of Keytruda, the world's most popular cancer treatment, into the European, UK, and Swiss markets, with the potential to expand into the US market in the future. Under the deal, Sino Bio will manufacture and supply the drug itself but distribute it under STADA's brand, and will recognize a profit share of more than 10%. This means Sino Bio will recognize revenue from both manufacturing and an additional share of profits when STADA sells the drug in the region, creating a new revenue base for the company. Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to target innovative pharmaceuticals as one of its key industries and will push for the sector to grow by an average of 20% per year during 2026-2030, giving the company the opportunity to receive government support both in speeding up approvals for drugs in its pipeline and in supporting R&D. As for this year's normalized profit outlook, the Bloomberg Consensus expects normalized profit to continue growing by 5%. The current price trades at a 2027 PER of 18 times. It gives a target price of 7.10 baht per DR, implying 44% upside.

On the evening of September 30, ST Dou Shen (300010) disclosed that its wholly owned subsidiary Dou Shen Hong Kong recently signed a Cloud Computing Service Agreement with a certain customer, with a total contract value of about 119 million US dollars, equivalent to about 800 million yuan. The service period of the agreement is 60 months, and the customer will prepay 40 percent of the total order amount as agreed and pay service fees monthly. ST Dou Shen did not disclose specific customer information, stating that the contract involves confidentiality clauses and that it has completed internal procedures for exemption from disclosure of confidential information. The company said the contract is a large-scale computing power service project for the implementation of its intelligent computing service business, an important practice in cultivating a second growth curve, and reflects the extension of its business from AI applications to the computing power infrastructure field. Wind data shows that since mid-August 2026, ST Dou Shen's stock price has risen by more than 120 percent cumulatively.

Oracle shares reversed an early gain and turned lower Thursday after the Financial Times reported that Tencent Holdings had locked in a five-year lease spanning several Oracle data centers across Southeast Asia. Under the reported terms, Tencent would gain access to about 100,000 cutting-edge AI chips it otherwise can't obtain inside China, with the arrangement said to be worth roughly $7 billion and close to a third of that due upfront. Neither company responded when asked to confirm the details. Oracle stock had jumped nearly 2% before Thursday's opening bell on the report, but the shares gave up that advance amid overall market weakness and were down 0.82% at $136.18 at the time of publication. The deal reflects a broader scramble among Chinese tech firms for overseas computing capacity as domestic chip supply stays tight and U.S. export restrictions persist.

XPENG will make the global launch of its Next-Gen AI Flagship SUV, the G9L, at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, opening European order books and revealing European pricing at the event running October 12 to 18. The G9L will become the fourth XPENG model produced in Europe, following the company's expansion of local manufacturing. XPENG and Tesla will be the only two automakers participating in the show's official Autonomous Lab, where XPENG will offer its first large-scale NGP test ride experience outside China using the recently launched L03 SUV coupe. XPENG will present one of the largest stands among Chinese automakers, spanning more than 1,000 square meters in Hall 6, showcasing its Physical AI ecosystem including the G9L, L03, P7+, G6, G9 and X9 alongside humanoid robots and flying cars. The company has delivered more than 100,000 vehicles overseas, including over 60,000 in Europe and more than 6,000 in France since entering that market two years ago; in the second quarter, overseas deliveries surpassed 20,000 units for the first time, up 81% year-on-year, while its robotics business completed a first funding round of over US$900 million in August.

flydubai, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, announced a temporary suspension of all flight services to and from Israel pending the results of an official factual investigation, after unrest broke out on flight FZ1073 last Wednesday. A first officer is suspected of using a knife to attack the captain inside the cockpit and attempting to force the aircraft into a dive, before passengers and off-duty pilots on board subdued the suspect and landed the plane safely in an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the Boeing 737 Max today, after the aircraft model was involved in the attempted downing of the flydubai plane as it headed for Tel Aviv, Israel. Separately, Google, a company under Alphabet, announced on Wednesday the launch of its new top-tier artificial intelligence model, Gemini 4 Argon, as the spearhead of its Gemini 4 generation of models, amid a fresh push to catch up with key rivals OpenAI and Anthropic after months of delays. Tencent, a major Chinese internet company, signed an agreement to lease about 100,000 advanced AI chips from Oracle over five years for 7 billion dollars, and Huawei Technologies officially unveiled its flagship Mate 90 Series smartphones today, relying on its own developed operating system and a restructured chip architecture amid strict U.S. controls on advanced semiconductor exports.

Alibaba has unveiled Qwen Intelligence, a full-stack agentic solution for smartphone makers, with HONOR as the first partner to adopt it on October 1, 2026, and the two are jointly developing specialized models as well as solutions for next-generation AI smartphones. HONOR's first devices to integrate Qwen Intelligence with the phone's own intelligent system are the Magic9 Series smartphones launched on September 28 and the HONOR Robot Phone. The platform was launched at the Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, spanning from mobile-optimized foundation models to ready-to-use agents, with three agents in the first phase: the Mobile Planner Agent, the Mobile-Use Agent, and the Mobile Creative Agent. Steven Hoi, head of Qwen Mobile AI at Token Foundry and vice president of Alibaba Token Hub, said the agentic smartphone is the primary gateway connecting personal AI to the physical world. The collaboration between Alibaba and HONOR, built on Qwen Intelligence and the MagicOS operating system, enables HONOR's AI smartphones to achieve task accuracy of up to 91.8% and to coordinate complex workflows of more than 100 steps.

Micron unveiled an upbeat quarterly revenue forecast that topped expectations, sending its shares higher in extended-hours trading. The Idaho-based chipmaker said customers had increased their commitments under its long-term supply agreements to $32 billion, up from $22 billion reported in June, as businesses race to secure memory chips for AI data centers. Micron's stock price has more than tripled so far this year, giving the company a $1 trillion market capitalization. Separately, Nike was due to release its latest results after the closing bell, with investors watching for progress in CEO Elliott Hill's turnaround strategy; Nike shares have slumped by more than 44% this year and the company was removed from the S&P 100 this month. Tencent signed a $7 billion lease deal with Oracle for access to about 100,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips, the Financial Times reported, in what would be Tencent's largest ever overseas lease agreement.

InnovestX Securities has unveiled its investment strategy for the fourth quarter of 2026, saying investors need to exercise greater caution amid rising interest rates and high oil prices, which are pressuring inflation, bond yields, and foreign fund flows. The firm set a target for Thailand's benchmark stock index in 2027 at 1,715 points and said the 1,550 level is starting to look attractive for accumulation. It named five top picks: AMATA, CENTEL, CRC, KTB, and PR9. Suthichai Kumworachai, Head of Investment Strategy & Research, said the prolonged conflict between the United States and Iran creates a chain of risk running from oil prices to inflation, the direction of interest rates, financing costs, and the baht. Dr. Piyasak Manasant, Head of Economic Research, kept his forecast for Thai economic growth in 2026 and 2027 at 2.0% while raising his average oil price assumptions for 2026 and 2027 to 90 and 80 US dollars per barrel, respectively. Sitthichai Duangrattanachaya, Head of Investment Strategy, said earnings per share for the Thai stock market have been continuously revised upward, particularly from the energy sector. For overseas investment, he recommended stocks that benefit from AI, namely Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Tencent, and Alibaba, while in the semiconductor group he highlighted Lumentum, Naura, SMIC, and Biren. He also advised diversifying into defensive and dividend stocks. Joranapong Rattanasopha, Head of Investment Product Specialist, recommended the M-SCHD fund, which invests through the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF. SCHD currently has less than 10% exposure to technology stocks, compared with nearly 40% for the S&P 500 index, and the correlation between SCHD and the S&P 500 has fallen to about 0.3, the lowest level since the fund was established in 2011.

Global New Material International Holdings Limited announced that the registration of the share transfer for its acquisition of approximately 29.89% of the shares of Zhejiang Jihua Group Co., Ltd. was completed with China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited, Shanghai Branch on 29 September 2026. The transaction, signed on 6 February 2026, took approximately eight months to complete and involved a consideration of RMB1,495 million, with subsequent arrangements including the reorganisation of Zhejiang Jihua's board of directors to proceed in accordance with relevant procedures. Zhejiang Jihua operates the world's third-largest dye production base and reported 1H2026 operating revenue of RMB796 million, up 12.27% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB46.16 million, up 1,235.47% year-on-year. GNMI, which acquired CQV in Korea in 2023 and SUSONITY for EUR665 million in July 2025, reported 1H2026 revenue of RMB2,558.3 million, up 180.5% year-on-year, and issued RMB1.3 billion in convertible bonds on 24 September 2026 at an initial conversion price of HK$10.93 per share. Dr SU Ertian has increased his shareholding on multiple consecutive occasions and currently holds 36.4% of the Company's shares.

XPENG delivered 41,256 vehicles in September 2026, a 5% increase over the prior month, with monthly deliveries of the XPENG L03 exceeding 10,000 units. For the third quarter of 2026, the company delivered a total of 118,390 vehicles, marking a 15% increase over the previous quarter. On September 17, 2026, XPENG officially launched the G9L, a premium flagship SUV featuring its latest technologies, in China, with a global launch set for Paris, France, in October. On September 22, 2026, XPENG began rolling out XOS 6.3.0 in China, powered by the latest version of its VLA 2.0 model. As of September 30, 2026, XPENG's self-operated charging network in China covered more than 430 cities and comprised over 4,000 stations, including more than 3,510 ultra-fast charging stations, with over 22,200 charging piles in total, and on September 15, XPENG opened its first-ever X-Energy megawatt ultra-fast charging station in Hong Kong.

Kasikorn Securities revealed that Trip.com Group indicated Chinese tourists during Golden Week 2026 are tending to travel earlier and stay longer, with flight bookings to Phuket rising 78% year on year, while Chiang Mai is gaining popularity among Gen Z, in line with the recovery of travel in Asia. In addition, bookings for accommodation of seven nights or more rose 123% year on year, reflecting both an increase in the number of trips and in their duration. The research team views this as positive momentum for the tourism sector, namely AOT, AAV, BA, CENTEL and ERW, given the recovery opportunity for Chinese tourists and tourism activity during Golden Week. However, the flood situation still needs to be monitored closely.

Li Auto Inc. announced it delivered 31,817 vehicles in September 2026, bringing its cumulative deliveries to 1,833,651 as of September 30, 2026. In September, the company delivered over 10,000 units of the new Li L6 and expanded its battery electric vehicle lineup with the launches of the new Li MEGA Home and Li i9 Home. Li Auto also rolled out MACH VLA 2.0 via an over-the-air update to nearly one million Li AD Max vehicles powered by the Orin-X and Thor chips. In October, the company will launch the new Li i6 and make its debut in Europe at the Paris Motor Show, where it will introduce the Li i6 to the European market. As of September 30, 2026, Li Auto had 485 retail stores in 160 cities and 532 servicing centers and authorized servicing shops operating in 217 cities, along with 4,188 super charging stations equipped with 23,077 charging stalls in China.

Alibaba ramped up its artificial intelligence spending sharply in the June 2026 quarter, reporting RMB67.7 billion in capital expenditures, up 75% year over year, driven by AI infrastructure, higher CPU-compute capacity and rising chip-component prices. The outlay is part of a RMB380 billion three-year capital investment plan, of which RMB190 billion had already been spent by the end of the June quarter. The spending weighed on cash generation, with free cash flow deepening to an outflow of RMB44.7 billion from an RMB18.8 billion outflow a year earlier, while adjusted EBITA fell 30% and net income declined 75%. Early monetization offered an offset, as AI Cloud and Compute Services revenues rose 45% to RMB48.4 billion and adjusted EBITA for that business jumped 133% to RMB5.6 billion, and Alibaba expects AI-related capital expenditure to break even in roughly three years. The company carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2027 EPS stands at $6.41, down from estimates issued 30 and 60 days ago but still implying 64.78% growth from the prior year.

Ceconomy AG rose 4.2% in German trading on a report that JD.com is nearing approval from the European Commission for its planned EUR2.4 billion acquisition of the German electronics retailer, while JD.com shares gained 1.2%. According to traders citing a Dealreporter item circulating Wednesday, JD.com is expected to soon win approval under the EC's EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, with the regulator set to clear the deal on the basis of JD.com's improved remedy proposal. The transaction still requires approval in Austria under its foreign direct investment review, the final clearance needed to complete the deal. JD.com, Ceconomy, and the EC declined to comment to Dealreporter. The EC opened an in-depth probe into the deal in May to assess whether JD.com received Chinese government support that enabled it to bid more aggressively for Ceconomy, and in July JD.com reportedly received a formal notice from the EC over concerns related to the transaction.

Lenovo announced Lenovo AI Express, a new quick-start program developed with NVIDIA that accelerates the path to production AI by cutting order-to-ship times to as few as 15 business days for eligible configurations. The program offers three validated quick-start configurations of the Lenovo Hybrid AI Factory with NVIDIA: a Small tier shipping from 15 days for inferencing for tens of users at 30+ TPS with model sizes from 7B to 70B, built on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650a V4 with two NVIDIA RTX 6000 PRO Blackwell Server Edition GPUs; a Medium tier from 20 days for hundreds of users with model sizes from 70B to 400B, built on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 with eight NVIDIA RTX 6000 PRO Blackwell Server Edition GPUs; and a Large tier from 25 days for thousands of users with up to a trillion parameters, built on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR680a V4 with NVIDIA HGX B300. Lenovo cited its 2026 CIO Playbook finding that organizations expect an average $2.79 return for every $1 invested in scaled AI execution, with 93% of enterprise respondents anticipating positive returns. Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, President of Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group, said the program gives customers an accelerated path to deploying AI infrastructure while mitigating the risk of overbuilding or costly delays, and NVIDIA vice president of enterprise platforms Chris Marriott said the ready-to-ship solutions combine Lenovo's validated systems with NVIDIA accelerated computing, networking and AI software. The configurations support the latest AMD and Intel CPUs and can be extended with Red Hat AI Factory with NVIDIA or NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, plus Veeam Kasten for AI data resilience, and Lenovo is expanding access through its global partner ecosystem via the Lenovo 360 framework.

HSBC officially named its stablecoin HSBC RedCoin on September 30, 2026, following its selection as one of only two licensees under Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted licenses on April 10, 2026 to just two of 36 applicants: HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered, HKT, and Animoca Brands, as reported by Reuters. The ordinance took effect on August 1, 2025. HSBC RedCoin is a retail-first, HKD-pegged, non-interest-bearing stablecoin integrated into the PayMe mobile app, which has 3.3 million registered users, roughly 40% of Hong Kong's population. Maggie Ng, CEO of HSBC Hong Kong and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth, said the token is a natural next step aimed at supporting Hong Kong's financial innovation. The bank distinguishes RedCoin from tokenized deposits such as JPMorgan's JPM Coin and its own Tokenised Deposit Service for institutional clients, which has been active since 2024.

NIO agreed to sell a 30% stake in its NIO Power unit to Geely, forming a battery swapping joint venture. The partnership is aimed at sharing battery swapping and charging infrastructure across both groups' electric vehicle brands in China, and NIO Power's network is expected to be opened more widely to non NIO models under cooperation agreements between NIO and Geely. Geely's 30% stake in NIO Power reshapes how NIO may use its charging assets, with the deal seen as stress testing one of the core catalysts in NIO's investment case, which leans heavily on the Power Swap network as a differentiator supporting recurring services revenue and steadier margins. The next proof point is how quickly Geely branded and other non NIO models begin using the NIO Power network, with concrete indicators including new cooperation agreements, the number of third party vehicle models compatible with NIO Power swaps, and any disclosure of swap volumes or station utilisation from late 2026 updates and forthcoming earnings reports.

Ford, GM and Stellantis each invest less than $400 toward EV research, development and production for every passenger vehicle they sell, while Chinese automakers including BYD, SAIC and Geely invest between $1,700 and $2,750 per vehicle, according to Dale Hall of the International Council on Clean Transportation. Writing in Automotive News, Hall said the Detroit 3 ranked among the world's five least capital-invested automakers in EVs on a sales-adjusted basis as of last year, and warned that no amount of American ingenuity and innovation can close the gap with China's lead. He pointed to the federal government's phase-out of tax credits for new and used electric vehicles and charging infrastructure and its freeze and termination of grants for EV and battery manufacturing, after U.S. makers invested billions in EV projects backed by Inflation Reduction Act assurances. Ford took a $19.5-billion hit tied to scaling back its electric program amid lower-than-expected demand, high costs and regulatory changes. Hall noted China supplies an estimated 70% of the world's car batteries and 80% of car battery cells and has more than 24 times more publicly-accessible EV chargers than the U.S., while BYD overtook Tesla as the world EV leader in 2025.

A wave of postponed Hong Kong initial public offerings by Chinese companies is signaling that an overheated market is beginning to normalize. In Hong Kong trading on the afternoon of the 30th, Citi raised its target price for Guangzhou Automobile Group while maintaining a neutral rating, and JPMorgan initiated coverage of Chery Automobile with an overweight rating. Nomura pointed to accelerating licensing of Chinese new drugs by U.S. companies as a reason for its bullish view on drug discovery-related shares, while Citi issued a buy rating on Xiaomi, expecting a recovery in smartphone margins and an expansion of its EV business through new model launches. Share buybacks in the Hong Kong market totaled 28.6 billion yen across 97 stocks, and Shenzhen Hichain Technology closed at 215.2 Hong Kong dollars on its debut, up 265.7 percent from its offer price. In China, Standard Chartered flagged the possibility of additional monetary easing including cuts to the reserve requirement ratio, and DeepSeek released foundational software for Huawei's Ascend chips, taking a step toward reducing reliance on Nvidia.

BOCI has initiated coverage of Lenovo Group with a bullish outlook on the stock. BOCI noted that the momentum of Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) division, which is driving the company's growth, underscores solid corporate demand for full-stack solutions. It said the ISG division's pre-tax margin is approaching double digits and will become a key driver of profit growth. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, covering April to June 2026, the company's AI-related revenue rose 60 percent year on year to about 9.3 billion US dollars, accounting for 35 percent of total revenue. In its partnership with Nvidia, the first batch of GB300 NVL72 rack products has already shipped, and the Rubin platform is scheduled for mass production in the second half of 2026. BOCI maintained its target price based on an estimated price-to-earnings ratio of 17 times for fiscal 2028, ending March 2028. It had previously valued the company at a P/E of 10 times as a pure hardware business, but raised its valuation as the ISG business grew. It cited rising memory prices weighing on PC and smartphone demand, server delivery delays, tariff issues and geopolitical risks as potential risk factors.

Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said Tuesday that it is "too late" for Europe to fend off an influx of Chinese automakers, but the U.S. still has time to "be considerate" about its decision. Speaking at the Automotive News Congress in Detroit, Farley pointed to Europe, where Chinese automakers' market share went from virtually nothing in 2020 to 12% in August, according to Germany-based Dataforce, while global market share for Chinese brands jumped nearly 70% from 2020 to 2025, according to GlobalData. Farley said Ford's answer is to partner with the Chinese where it lacks intellectual property and can be more capital efficient, such as in Europe or Southeast Asia, and that Ford and China's Geely said in July that Geely planned to build EVs at a Ford-owned Spain plant by early next year through a new manufacturing joint venture. He added that Ford also plans to compete against the Chinese, preparing to launch its "universal electric vehicle" next year with a pickup truck. The Trump administration sent Ford a letter earlier this month expressing "profound concern" about its ties to Chinese companies, and there are bills in Congress that could restrict or even permanently ban Chinese automotive brands from entering the U.S. market.

Goldman Sachs's Asian shipping equity index has risen about 17% this quarter, while its semiconductor equity index fell about 18% over the same period, reflecting that Asian markets are beginning to look for investment opportunities beyond the AI theme. The main driver came from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, one of the benchmark container freight rate indices, which rose for eight consecutive weeks and climbed to its highest level since July 2024. The latest data as of September 18 put the index at about 3,688 points, while freight rates on the route from China to the US East Coast have surged close to the peak seen during the COVID-19 crisis. The main factor is conflict in the Middle East, which has affected shipping both in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, forcing some vessels to reroute, lengthening voyage times and effectively reducing the number of ships in service. There is also pressure from a rush to ship goods ahead of US tariff measures, demand to move cargo before China's Golden Week holiday, and storms in Asia that add to the risk of port congestion. Among Asian shipping stocks that have stood out are TS Lines, SITC International Holdings and Mitsui OSK Lines, while Jefferies has raised its profit estimates for several Japanese shipping companies after the container market proved stronger than expected. For Thailand, the freight rate for a 40-foot container from Bangkok to major European ports rose from about 3,000 dollars in June data to about 4,700 dollars at the end of August, while the rate to the US East Coast rose from about 2,550 dollars to 11,000 dollars over the same period. This situation is especially important as Thailand's export sector is expanding strongly. The Ministry of Commerce reported that exports in August 2026 were worth 34.6187 billion dollars, up 24.3% from a year earlier and expanding for a 26th consecutive month. The ministry said tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, along with energy prices and shipping costs, are key risks to watch for Thailand's export outlook over the remainder of the year. In the Thai stock market, sectors that may draw interest include RCL, PSL and TTA, but the impact of freight rates differs from company to company. RCL operates container shipping, so it is tied fairly directly to the container freight rate cycle, while PSL focuses on dry bulk shipping and TTA has a range of businesses spanning shipping, offshore services, agricultural chemicals and others. What to watch next is how long high freight rates will last, because the answer will affect everything from shipping lines' profits to exporters' costs, import prices and Thailand's trade competitiveness.

BlackBerry QNX and neueHCT said a major German automaker has selected neueHCT's HCT Luna High-Performance Smart Camera Solution for a global passenger vehicle platform that will launch in China. The program will cover vehicles sold in China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea, with production expected to start in 2027 and projected volumes of several million units over the first three years. According to the companies, the deal is the first major global program for the HCT Luna solution using QNX. The solution is built on Horizon Robotics' Journey 6B automotive computing platform and runs on QNX OS for Safety 8.0. The smart camera system supports features such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and traffic light recognition, and is designed to handle situations including vehicle cut-ins, sharp curves, construction areas, and roads where lane markings are limited or absent. QNX said its software provides real-time performance and fault isolation and is certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D.