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1.11926
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Gold
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Real-time News
On October 15th, a U.S. official stated on Wednesday that the Trump administration is considering easing sanctions on so-called "shadow fleets" of ships that have transported oil and petroleum products from countries including Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. This move aims to lower currently high global shipping rates. This comes shortly after President Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel fuel, a decision that drew strong criticism from Ukrainian President Zelensky, several European governments, and some Republican senators. The official revealed that the current discussion focuses on whether the U.S. should allow previously sanctioned ships to transport "legal oil." "Legal oil" here refers to crude oil or petroleum products not subject to U.S. sanctions, rather than Russian and Iranian oil restricted by sanctions. The official stated that this move aims to encourage more refined petroleum products and crude oil to be shipped out of the Gulf region.A research report from CICC states that they expect the Fed to pause rate hikes in October and resume in December. However, a slowdown in the pace of rate hikes does not necessarily mean a shift towards looser monetary policy; the Fed is likely to maintain a relatively tight policy stance over the next year.On October 15th, as the global sell-off in chip stocks continued, investors became increasingly cautious about the sustainability of the AI investment boom and the profit prospects of related companies, causing Japanese and South Korean stock markets to open lower. The Nikkei 225 index fell more than 3% intraday, and Kioxia fell more than 8%. The South Korean KOSPI index fell for the seventh consecutive trading day, with intraday losses reaching as high as 6%, hitting its lowest level since July 31st. Semiconductor heavyweights were the main drag, with Samsung Electronics shares falling more than 7% and SK Hynix shares falling more than 8%. Subsequently, the Korea Exchange activated its side-tracking mechanism on the KOSPI index, suspending algorithmic selling.The yield on Japans 5-year government bonds fell 3.5 basis points to 2.335%.On October 15th, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law, seeking to prevent him from serving as a key government diplomatic envoy on a volunteer basis without disclosing his personal finances and potential conflicts of interest. CREW argues that Kushners deep involvement in major U.S. diplomatic affairs should make him a formal government employee, subject to relevant financial disclosures and ethical standards. Kushner currently runs an investment firm managing billions of dollars in foreign assets and is involved in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine, and the U.S. and Iran. Kushners lawyers claim the lawsuit has no legal basis and state that external ethics compliance advisors and government ethics lawyers have confirmed that his volunteer service arrangements comply with regulations. The White House maintains that Kushners business activities are unrelated to diplomatic work and that he bears all related expenses himself.
