Valero top executive said ethanol export demand remains robust and the company is allocating all ethanol production capacity to expand exports.

Foreign media reported that on Thursday South Korea elevated its cyber alert level for the private sector and launched emergency measures after a critical vulnerability was discovered in the PHP web programming language. The presidential office said the National Security Office convened an emergency meeting on Thursday with intelligence, defense and science officials to assess responses across the public sector, private companies and the military. The Ministry of Science and ICT issued security guidance to about 28,000 firms registered with chief information security officers (CISOs), 5,900 members of the government information‑sharing network, and to critical infrastructure operators, web‑hosting providers and data‑center operators.

Hang Seng Index slid 2.7% intraday, breaking below the 23,000 level; the Hang Seng TECH Index dropped 4.38%. The artificial intelligence sector plunged, with Tianshu Zhixin (09903.HK) and Zhipu (02513.HK) both down more than 9%.