SOUTH KOREA'S LEE said multiple countries have deployed military assets near the Strait of Hormuz.

Since August global markets have been choppy but the renminbi has traded broadly stable-to-firmer with two-way swings and China’s FX market has remained orderly, with cross-border flows showing net inflows. Wang Yifeng, deputy director at Everbright Securities’ research institute, said the Fed’s recent hike widened the US–China yield inversion but had been largely priced in and was accompanied by a noticeable rise in US Treasury yields. He described the Fed move as preemptive, aimed at bolstering market confidence amid sticky inflation. Domestic export prospects remain reasonably certain and consumer inflation in China is mild, so the effect of US tightening on cross-border flows is judged manageable. China’s monetary policy remains accommodative with ample liquidity to support real-economy financing, and the renminbi has shown resilience—rate moves in major economies are judged to have limited direct impact on the currency.

German Chancellor MERZ said on Thursday the post‑World War II era of an 'unconditional' transatlantic friendship between the United States and Europe 'may be over', at least for the foreseeable future. He pointed to a change in US political attitudes and a new reassessment of the transatlantic alliance that until recently would have been hard to imagine. MERZ has previously been critical of the Trump administration; his remarks echo former chancellor Angela Merkel's 2017 comment that the reliable postwar international order had 'to some extent ended'.