(1) Stock Market Highlights

- U.S. Market

The U.S. market closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by 344 points or 0.8%, at 42,931 points; the S&P 500 slipped by 0.18%, 

at 5,853 points; the Nasdaq Composite turned positive, up by 0.27%, at 18,540 points; the Golden Dragon Index, reflecting the performance of Chinese concept stocks, fell by 0.8%.

- Hong Kong Market

The Hang Seng Index closed at 20,478, down by 325 points or 1.57%; the H-share Index reported at 7,340, 

down by 131 points or 1.76%; the Hang Seng TECH Index reported at 4,491, down by 108 points or 2.37%.

- Mainland Market

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,268, up by 6 points or 0.2%; the Shenzhen Component Index closed at 10,470, 

up by 113 points or 1.09%; the ChiNext Index closed at 2,210, up by 15 points or 0.69%. The total turnover of the Shanghai 

and Shenzhen stock markets for the day was 2.18 trillion yuan, an increase of 86.3 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day.

(2) Economic Highlights

- This week, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's 2024 Annual Fall Meetings will be held in Washington D.C., 

the capital of the United States. The meetings will discuss globally concerning issues, including the world economic outlook, 

poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.

- Approximately 20 companies in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to go public this week, raising a total of about $8.3 billion, 

reaching the highest single-week level since April 2022. Companies from China, Japan, and India are relatively active in IPOs, 

showing a widespread recovery in the capital markets of the Asian region.

- The International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that despite China's recent introduction of a series of economic stimulus measures, 

it is estimated that oil demand will still be weak next year. It also believes that unless there are significant changes in the geopolitical 

environment, the global oil market will face a supply surplus next year. However, Amin H. Nasser, the CEO of Saudi Aramco, 

the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, is optimistic about the prospects of China's oil consumption, as China has introduced a series of economic stimulus measures.

- UBS has raised its forecast for China's real economic growth this year to 4.8%.

Wang Tao, the head of Asian economic research and chief China economist at UBS Investment Bank, said that China's third-quarter

 GDP exceeded expectations, and with a series of policy support recently introduced by the central government, it is expected that

 China's fourth-quarter GDP, seasonally adjusted, will grow by 6.5% quarter-on-quarter, but the year-on-year growth rate will remain

 at 4.6%. As for the economic growth forecast for 2025, it has been raised by 0.5 percentage points to 4.5%.

Wang Tao estimates that the scale of central fiscal policy support, the effect of real estate and other loose policies will be stronger than expected, 

and the economic growth forecast for next year may be further raised. However, if the United States significantly increases tariffs on China, 

even if China's policy efforts are further intensified, the economic growth for next year will slow down to below 4%.

(3) Corporate News

- Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Communications signed a "Digital Currency Strategic Cooperation Memorandum" (hereinafter referred 

to as the Memorandum), to promote joint innovation and business development in the field of digital currencies, including digital yuan, and to 

jointly promote the development and application of digital currencies. According to the Memorandum, the two parties will establish 

a joint working group to explore and establish a cross-border payment and settlement infrastructure and mechanism for digital currencies, 

to improve the efficiency and convenience of cross-border payment and settlement.

- On October 18th, the People's Bank of China, together with the Financial Regulatory总局 and the Securities Regulatory Commission,

 issued the "Notice on Matters Related to the Establishment of Stock Repurchase and Increase Reloan", establishing a stock repurchase 

and increase reloan to encourage and guide financial institutions to provide loans to eligible listed companies and major shareholders to 

support their repurchase and increase of listed company stocks. On October 21st, several banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, 

the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the China Merchants Bank, and the CITIC Bank announced the launch 

of the first batch of stock repurchase and increase loan business.

- UBS believes that although Bank of China (Hong Kong) faces multi-faceted resistance in terms of revenue, its operating trend is stable. 

It is expected that due to the reduction of impairment expenses under the benign trend of asset quality and the strong non-interest income, 

the bank's net profit for the third quarter will increase by 0.3% year-on-year.

- Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) announced its profit for the third quarter of 2024 to be 13.17 billion yuan

 (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 25.9%. During the period, net revenue was 92.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.5%; 

earnings per share were 2.98 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%, and the market forecast was 2.64 yuan.