Albemarle Corp. reached a preliminary wage agreement with union leaders in Chile on the final day of mediated talks before a strike was due to begin, according to Bloomberg. The union said workers will vote on the deal.

Japanese retail investors are adding to bearish yen wagers even as the currency rallies to its strongest level in months, according to Bloomberg.

Mainland China’s three major A-share indexes opened higher, with the Shanghai Composite at 3,943, up 0.09%, and the Shenzhen Component at 13,788, up 0.63%, according to Ming Pao. The ChiNext Index was the best performer at the open, starting at 3,398, up 1.15%.

BYD (01211) denied a report that its management said vehicles supporting flash-charging technology had an order backlog of about 250,000 units and that capacity would be sufficient by the first quarter of 2027, according to ETNet. Red Star News quoted BYD as saying the information was untrue. Bloomberg also reported that BYD plans to export more than 2.5 million vehicles in 2027, while a Deutsche Bank report based on an investor briefing on Monday (the 7th) said the company raised its 2026 overseas sales target to 1.9 million to 2 million vehicles from 1.5 million. BYD's A-share fell 0.88% in morning trade to RMB85.81.

Hong Kong-listed chip stocks rose on Thursday, with Hua Hong Semiconductor up 4.1% at HK$115.5, SMIC up 1.3% at HK$66.2, Cambricon up 3.5% at HK$285.6, GigaDevice up 2% at HK$495.2, Tensortec up 3.1% at HK$349.8 and Biren Technology up 2.7% at HK$39.24, according to ETNet. The gains came after U.S. chip shares mostly advanced overnight even as the three major Wall Street indexes fell. Qualcomm said it signed an agreement to supply custom AI chips to Amazon, while Amazon bought $4 billion of Qualcomm warrants. Qualcomm shares jumped as much as 8.7% before closing up 3.2%. Intel was also reported to be planning another CPU price increase in early October of up to 10%, sending its shares up 9.1%. AMD rose 5.9% and SK Hynix gained 4.8%.

Longfor Group (00960) fell 2.6% to HK$6.065, with about 3.27 million shares traded for HK$19.89 million, according to ETNet. UOB Kay Hian cut its target price on the stock to HK$8.76 from HK$10.12, a 13.44% reduction, and kept a Buy rating. The Hang Seng Index was down 21 points at 25,295, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 13 points to 8,384 and the Hang Seng Tech Index slipped 21 points to 4,433. Current-month Hang Seng Index Futures rose 20 points to 25,246, at a discount of 49 points. Current-month Hang Seng China Enterprises Index Futures fell 1 point to 8,368, at a discount of 16 points. Current-month Hang Seng Tech Futures dropped 18 points to 4,436, at a premium of 7 points.

The Middle East war intensified on Tuesday as Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen struck several Saudi cities, US forces destroyed multiple Iranian oil tankers, and Iran targeted a US base in Jordan, according to Reuters. The Houthis attacked four cities in southern Saudi Arabia, wounding 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the six-month-old war. As oil markets priced in the Saudi attacks, US Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian crude carriers and posted video, calling it a response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the prior two days, with no Americans harmed. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran will lose tankers each time it tries to hit US naval ships. Iran then fired ballistic missiles at a US base near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement on state media. Iran said the missiles inflicted heavy damage, but Jordan said its air defenses intercepted 18 of 20 missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas and no casualties. Iran has repeatedly targeted US allies during the war, including a July strike in Jordan that killed two US military personnel, and a separate IRGC statement claimed attacks on two US destroyers, which the US military had not addressed. Iran also threatened to target oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, and a maritime security source said a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged at the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan, though responsibility was unclear. After a calm August, renewed US-Iran exchanges drove Brent crude to its highest since July 23; futures jumped another dollar a barrel after the Jordan attack but stayed below $100. The Houthis said they launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory, hitting an airbase in Khamis Mushait and state oil assets in Abha, Najran and Jazan, with NASA satellite images showing thick smoke over the Jazan refinery. Houthi strikes on southwestern Saudi Arabia risk worsening the war's global economic impact by disrupting Middle East energy supplies beyond the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade, but a recent ceasefire there has broken down. The wider Gulf conflict has become a test of wills between the US and Iran, each betting competing blockades will force the other to yield: Washington is guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz to boost oil flows while blockading Iran's exports. Central Command said the destroyed tankers were part of a shadow network funding the IRGC and its regional proxies, part of what Iran calls the "Axis of Resistance" including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shi'ite militias and the Houthis.

Fracture Labs has sued Jump Trading, accusing it of running a "pump and dump" scheme with DIO tokens, allegedly manipulating the token's price for profit during FractureLabs' fundraising.