News

Central Bank Indonesia survey: Indonesian retail sales rose 1.3% year-on-year in August.

JPMorgan Chase lowered its price target for PepsiCo from $138 to $137.

For most of 2026, the market's bearish logic on US power companies can be summarized in one sentence: no company was willing to sign long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for data centers in the PJM (Principal-Jackson Interconnected Region) grid area. Last week, Amazon broke this deadlock. This Tuesday, Google joined in, and its deal is more than five times the size of Amazon's. Goldman Sachs analyst Wijaya said after the Amazon agreement was announced: "We all know how quickly the market winds in the power industry can change." And now, in just one week, the market winds have changed twice. More importantly, the real key catalyst has yet to arrive. On October 12, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to rule on the regulatory framework for large-scale electricity loads in PJM. If the IRAS mechanism is ultimately approved and largely retains the currently proposed regulatory requirements, then starting in mid-2027, all large data centers built in the PJM grid area must secure their own additional power supply, or they will have to accept priority power curtailment in the event of a grid emergency. However, the number of existing nuclear reactors in the United States is ultimately limited, and the nuclear power resources available for long-term power purchase agreements are not inexhaustible. Therefore, we believe that Google's purchase of 3,590 megawatts is likely only the lower limit of its future procurement scale, not the upper limit. Within just seven days, two hyperscale cloud computing companies have successively signed long-term agreements with the largest nuclear power operator in the United States. Meanwhile, the valuation of independent power generator (IPG) stocks in the United States remains at only about 7 times EBITDA, and investor positions in uranium-related stocks are also low. The market is currently facing two diametrically opposed assessments. One possibility is that the market pricing is correct: political factors and regulatory agencies will continue to restrict the development of IPG, keeping this sector at a long-term valuation discount. The other, which we believe is much more likely, is that other large technology companies will soon join the competition, queuing up for the same batch of nuclear power resources. Of course, regulatory risks still exist. After all, FERC has already postponed the implementation of the RBP mechanism once, and it is entirely possible that the relevant decision will be postponed again, which requires continuous monitoring.

The Trump administration announced measures to adjust the Permanent Worker Certification Program (PERM). This program allows companies to sponsor foreign workers holding H-1B and other visas who are already working in the U.S., helping them obtain legal permanent resident status. Given the importance of H-1B visas to the U.S. IT outsourcing business, this policy change may have some impact on India and Indian IT companies; however, it should be noted that the reliance of these companies on H-1B visas has generally decreased in recent years. Furthermore, according to the Financial Times, OpenAI's current annualized revenue is about $20 billion lower than the company's previously released expectations, which may partly explain the recent weakening of investor sentiment in semiconductor stocks. Overall, the Asian macroeconomy has so far shown strong resilience. Taiwan's exports in September increased sharply by 61% year-on-year, and South Korea's current account surplus remains high, equivalent to about 20% of GDP at an annualized rate. Our baseline forecast is that export growth will slow moderately in the future, but given that current economic activity remains at a high level, we expect the trend of artificial intelligence investment to continue until 2027, or even longer.

Shell (SHEL.N): We continue to monitor Hurricane Isaias to assess its potential impact on our assets and operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

On its first day of trading, Hong Kong-listed ESW Computing (01256.HK) opened 0.65% lower. The company offered approximately 1.57 billion H shares globally at an issue price of HK$1.55, raising a total of HK$2.434 billion. The company is a Chinese provider of chip products based on the RISC-V architecture.

The Hang Seng Index (HSI) opened 155.47 points higher, or 0.65%, at 23,941.26 on Friday, October 9th; the Hang Seng Tech Index opened 11.81 points higher, or 0.29%, at 4,085.19 on Friday, October 9th; the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index opened 46.84 points higher, or 0.58%, at 8,057.42 on Friday, October 9th; and the Hang Seng Red Chip Index opened 15.29 points higher, or 0.38%, at 4,045.1 on Friday, October 9th.

The yield on Japan's two-year government bonds fell 1.5 basis points to 1.915%.

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama: The Japanese version of the "DOGE Initiative" is crucial for the Sanae Takaichi Cabinet to implement a budget that promotes economic growth while maintaining fiscal sustainability.

The yield on Japan's 30-year government bond fell 5.5 basis points to 4.065%.

The Japanese government has announced it will restart spending reviews and expand the scope of its review of public funds and subsidies.

Japanese chip-related stocks fell sharply, with Kioxia down 4.5%, SoftBank Group down 5.8%, and Renesas Electronics down 4.1%.

NI225 fell 1.00% intraday, while SoftBank's decline widened to 5%.

The NI225 index opened down 548.66 points, or 0.79%, at 68,493.45 on Friday, October 9th. The South Korean stock market was closed today for Hangul Day.

The yield on Japan's 5-year government bond fell 2.5 basis points to 2.360%.

Japan's household spending rose 0.1% month-on-month in August, below the expected 0.5% and the previous month's figure.

Japan's household spending in August fell 3.1% year-on-year, compared to a forecast of -3.60% and a previous reading of -3.60%.

According to The Information: Nvidia (NVDA.O) will invest in chip competitor D-Matrix.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index opened 34.00 points higher, or 0.39%, at 8694.90 on Friday, October 9.

Amid recent media reports that the US military is actively preparing to resume strikes against Iran, Trump has stated that the US and Iran are having productive discussions and that an attack on Iran will not be launched before the midterm elections (November 3). Looking back, on June 21, 2025, Trump announced that the US had completed strikes against Iran's three nuclear facilities—Foldo, Natanz, and Isfahan—codenamed "Midnight Hammer." Prior to "Midnight Hammer," the White House stated that Trump would decide within "two weeks" whether the US would join Israel in its war against Iran. However, when he made this statement, he had already effectively decided to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. And on February 27 of this year, less than 24 hours before Israel and the US launched their war against Iran, Trump claimed he had not yet decided whether to go to war. But in reality, he had already authorized the attacks.