Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense said on the 18th a projectile launched by Yemen’s Houthi group landed in a residential area of Najran in the kingdom’s southwest, injuring six Saudi citizens and damaging three houses and three cars. Saudi forces and Houthi fighters have recently stepped up reciprocal strikes, and clashes between Houthi forces and Yemen government troops have intensified on multiple fronts.

Elon Musk said X platform usage is at an all-time high.

China International Capital Co says implied rate-cut bets in interest-rate derivatives surged after the October holiday to levels seen before prior PBOC easing. One reason: the rapid fall in government bond yields since late September did not trigger PBOC liquidity tightening. The report judges the PBOC is more likely to ease by shifting the policy-rate anchor—keeping the funding-rate center lower—rather than by blanket cuts to the 7-day reverse repo rate and the LPR. That approach would likely cap further declines in government yields; it probably would not affect outstanding loan rates, though new loan rates could fall modestly. Expectations for next year’s fiscal policy stance remain a key driver of government bond yield direction.