What's in this episode:

• Unusual Business Idea: Halloween is a $13 billion business in the U.S., but Asian authorities remain wary due to past incidents.
• Top Bit: Trump-Xi Trade Truce:
  
  • Truce Duration: One year of calm; Trump to visit China in April.
• • China’s Concession: Suspension of rare earth export controls for 12 months and a commitment to import 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans annually.
• • US Concession: Tariffs on Chinese goods halved from 20% to 10%; delay of new tech export bans.
• • Left Unspoken: No progress on TikTok, Nvidia chips, or Taiwan.
• Number of the Day: $1.8 Trillion—The projected size of the Asia-Pacific private credit market by 2027. Emerging Asia faces a $1.7 trillion USD annual financing gap.
• Market Bit: Fed Cut & Asia:
  
  • Fed cut rates by 25 basis points. Nomura expects no further cut in December.
• • A stronger dollar pulls capital from India/ASEAN toward stable markets like Japan, Korea, and China.
• • HKMA cut its base rate to 4.25%.
• Startup of the Day: ZEPETO (Korean Metaverse):
  
  • 400 million registered users; 20 million monthly active users.
• • Unicorn valued at >$1 billion USD.
• • Hosted virtual stores for brands like Gucci and Walmart.
• Short News of the Day:
  
  • Space: China reaffirms goal to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.
• • Diplomacy: Japan and South Korea reaffirmed ‘future-oriented’ relations following a “warm” summit.
• • Talent: Harvard researcher Xie Zhenfei joins China’s leading virology institute in Wuhan.
• • Japan: Authorities consider allowing police to use rifles due to 13 deadly wild bear attacks since April.

What's in this episode:

• Financial Markets: Fed cut rates by 0.25 pp to 3.75–4.00%. Singapore’s ETF market hit a record S$16.3 billion AUM (+40% YoY).
• Top Bit: China’s Super-Rich Smash Records:
  • China now has 1,434 super-rich individuals; total wealth rose 42% to 30 trillion CNY ($4.1T USD).
  • 376 people made the list for the first time this year, with 60% of the Top 100 coming from high-tech and industrial sectors.
  • India is catching up with 358 billionaires (+30% YoY).
• Number of the Day: 993 million—Total monthly active users across China’s AI apps in September. However, nearly 60% of standalone AI apps lost users, showing rapid market consolidation favoring super-apps.
• Market Bit: Amazon Turns Korea into an AI Hub:
  • AWS will invest over $5 billion by 2031 in Korean data centers (Incheon/Gyeonggi).
  • The project is part of AWS's $40 billion pledge across 14 APEC countries (2025–2028).
  • Korea is becoming AWS’s Asian nerve center for AI and sovereign data.
• Head of the Day: Rupert Hoogewerf (胡润): Founder of the Hurun Report, the definitive ranking of China’s wealthiest, charting the economy’s transformation over the last 25 years.
• Short News of the Day:
  • US-South Korea Deal: Agreed on a $350 billion trade and defense package, including approval for S. Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines in the US.
  • China Finance: Pledged deeper financial opening, granting 20+ new licenses to foreign banks since 2019.
  • HSBC: Launched Innovation Banking in Singapore with $1.5 billion earmarked for high-growth Southeast Asia companies.
  • Japan: Anthropic opened its first Asia office in Tokyo, citing tenfold regional sales growth.

What's in this episode:

• Unusual Business Idea: Baijiu’s Decline—China’s 50% liquor is losing popularity; producers are launching milder versions for younger audiences.
• Top Bit: The AI Dilemma: Entry-level salaries in Hong Kong are at a seven-year low, dropping for the first time since 2018. Simultaneously, China's robotics market is expected to exceed $100 billion USD by 2028, driving huge demand for AI talent.
• Financial Markets: SK Hynix sets new records with 11.4T KRW (~$8B USD) in profit. Shares are up 200% YTD. Shanghai Composite Index briefly topped 4000.
• Number of the Day: >50%—For the first time since 2019, more than half of Americans favor cooperation and dialogue with China.
• Market Bit: Japan’s $550B US Investment Package: Tokyo pledged $550 billion by 2029 (in exchange for reduced auto tariffs). Key investments include $100 billion for nuclear/SMRs and $25 billion for power grids.
• Head of the Day: Tang Binsen (Chi Forest): The founder built the zero-sugar, zero-calorie brand like a tech product. 2024 Revenue was 10 billion RMB (~$1.4 billion USD).
• Short News of the Day: Digital Yuan rollout in Hong Kong via 17 local banks. Uber partnering with Chinese robotaxi firms, aiming to deploy 100,000 robotaxis by 2027. Indonesia emerges as Asia’s second largest app growth engine.

What's in this episode:

• Unusual Business Idea: A Tokyo café where customers pay to dress as maids and serve the staff.
• Top Bit: The Takaichi-Trump Summit: Japan pledges to raise its defense budget to 2% of GDP and offers $550 billion in U.S. investments in exchange for tariff reductions. The summit highlights Japan’s difficult economic and security balancing act with China.
• Asian Markets Rally: The Nikkei 225 cracks 50,000 for the first time; the KOSPI surges past 4,000. Key stocks like SoftBank, Advantest, and Samsung Electronics lead the surge.
• Japan-China Economics: Trade continues, but Japan's direct investment in China has hit a decade-low, with companies diversifying to partners like Vietnam and Malaysia.
• Number of the Day: 90 million—The total number of battery swaps completed by Chinese EV maker Nio, which now performs over 100,000 swaps daily.
• Market Bit: Seres IPO: Huawei’s EV partner targets a $1.7 billion Hong Kong IPO after a massive turnaround in profitability, embodying the "technology first, cars second" ethos of China's auto sector.
• Head of the Day: Hu Weiwei, The Mobike Maker: The story of the founder of Mobike, who sold the bike-sharing platform to Meituan for a reported $2.7 billion USD in a perfectly timed exit.
• Short News of the Day: South Korean chaebol meeting with Nvidia CEO on AI chips, easing tensions after Germany's Foreign Minister postponed a China trip, and a major fusion energy breakthrough by Japan’s Helical Fusion.

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: Today, we break down Porsche’s first quarterly loss as a public company, the details behind a strong but volatile Hong Kong IPO, and the surprising truth about Korean reunification sentiment. Plus, the Chinese word for slacking off at work.

What's in this episode:

• Human Interest Story: The wild life-twist of a Japanese truck driver who found out he was switched at birth.
• Asian Stock Markets: Record highs for the Nikkei 225 and KOSPI driven by trade talk hopes and AI enthusiasm.
• Top Bit: Porsche's Free Fall: The luxury car maker reports its first quarterly loss since its IPO, plunging 95.9% due to a costly EV strategy reversal, weak China demand, and U.S. tariffs. China's market is demanding software and speed over traditional luxury.
• 
  
• Number of the Day: 53% – The percentage of South Koreans who still believe reunification with the North is necessary, with younger generations showing diminishing interest.
• Market Bit: Fibocom IPO: Chinese module maker Fibocom has a disappointing Hong Kong debut despite strong revenue growth, highlighting margin pressures in the maturing smart device industry.
• 
  
• Word of the Day: 摸鱼 (mō yú): The Chinese term that literally means "to catch fish in murky water," used to describe secretly slacking off at work.
• Short News of the Day:
  • SoftBank approves another $22.5B for OpenAI, contingent on a shift to a for-profit structure.
  • 
    
  • Thailand and Cambodia sign a Trump-brokered expanded ceasefire agreement.
  • 
    
  • China unveils a bionic jellyfish robot designed for covert underwater surveillance.

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