The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its monthly climate bulletin on Thursday that this year’s El Nifio is expected to strengthen further, peaking in December, and has a near-100% probability of persisting through February 2027. Its intensity could be among the strongest since 1950 and sea surface temperatures are likely to reach record levels. SSTs in the El Nifio core region—the tropical central and eastern Pacific—are forecast to be about 3.7°C above normal for Oct–Dec (6.7°F).

Fed Governor Waller said inflation expectations remain stable.

At the morning close, China's most-active futures contracts were mostly higher: fuel oil surged more than 16%, while methanol, para-xylene (PX), LPG, benzene and styrene (EB) hit daily limit-up; low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) gained over 9% and PTA climbed nearly 9%. On the downside, palladium fell more than 6%, red dates dropped over 3%, platinum and Shanghai silver were down over 2%, and iron ore, peanuts, Shanghai nickel and fiberboard slipped about 2%.