Venezuela's interim president Rodriguez said an earthquake damaged or destroyed 250 buildings.

By 23:00 local close, China's domestic front-month commodity futures were mixed. Decliners: 20# rubber down over 3%, rubber down nearly 2%, iron ore and coke down more than 1%, soda ash down nearly 1%. Advancers: propylene up nearly 3%, low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) and LPG up more than 2%, polypropylene up nearly 2%, Soybean No.1, fuel oil and palm oil up more than 1%.

Chinese A-shares at midday: Shanghai Composite +0.36%, Shenzhen Composite +1.46%, ChiNext +2.01%, STAR 50 +4.18%. Storage-chip names triggered a wave of limit-ups, including Taiji Industrial. Securities stocks rallied; Zhongxin Jiantou and Changjiang Securities hit limit-up. Also outperforming: optical communications, baijiu, insurance, construction machinery and warehousing/logistics. Underperforming: lithium, innovative drugs, oil, nonferrous metals and power. Market turnover in the first half-day exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan.