Crimea regional governor Sergey Aksyonov said on social media that Ukrainian armed forces attacked the region overnight from the 24th to the 25th, killing two people, including a child, and wounding two. Ukrainian officials said overnight from the 24th to the 25th Russian forces used drones, artillery and aerial bombs to strike Sumy, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, injuring at least nine.

Overnight spot gold dipped below $4,000/oz, with the Shanghai Gold Exchange Au99.99 spot contract slipping back into the '8' price band. At Caibai Jewelry's Xicheng flagship in Beijing, 10g and 20g investment bars were the most sought-after items; 10g basic bars and 20g zodiac horse bars were sold out by around noon, roughly three hours after trading opened. The store quoted a 100g bar at 88,310 yuan; customers exhausted multiple bank-card balances, paid cash and completed remaining amounts via WeChat Pay or Alipay.

The PBOC conducted 370.5 bln yuan of 7-day reverse repos today. With 300.0 bln yuan of 1-year MLF and 248.0 bln yuan of 7-day reverse repos maturing, open-market operations resulted in a net liquidity withdrawal of 177.5 bln yuan.