Good morning. Israel and Hamas reach a hostage deal. HSBC plans to privatize a Hong Kong bank at a $37 billion valuation. And the AI boom is counting on a small Dutch city. Listen to the day’s top stories.
— Victoria Batchelor
Israel and Hamas have agreed to terms for the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza, a major breakthrough in the US- and Qatari-brokered negotiations to end their two-year war. Donald Trump, in a Fox News interview, said he expects the hostages to be released “probably” on Monday. Gold and oil edged lower.
HSBC plans to take Hang Seng Bank private in a deal that values the lender at $37 billion. HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery said the transaction “delivers greater shareholder value than buybacks.” Elsewhere in banking, Goldman’s co-head of Spain and Portugal is leaving the company after he wrote scathing political articles about Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Emmanuel Macron said he’ll name a new French prime minister by tomorrow, having for the time being avoided the need to call a snap election that would have deepened the political chaos. Outgoing Premier Sebastien Lecornu said sufficient progress had been made to allow work to begin on forming a new cabinet.
The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb said investors should insure against a stock-market crash as structural issues such as the US debt burden threaten to derail an otherwise unstoppable rally. Check out our Markets Today live blog for all the latest news and analysis relevant to UK assets.
Russian strikes in recent days have wiped out more than half of Ukraine’s domestic natural gas production, according to people familiar, likely forcing Kyiv to spend €1.9 billion on fuel imports to survive the looming winter. Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is breaking Russia’s hold over its former empire.
Chip equipment maker ASML is planning a 100-hectare (247 acre) expansion to meet growth targets, and much is riding on the company’s success.
AI companies are in an arms race to build the infrastructure needed for more powerful models that could one day power self-driving cars and empower robot doctors, and a lot of it needs ASML’s machines.
Europe’s biggest company based on stock market value, ASML is a vital link in the AI food chain because it’s the only producer of the world’s most advanced lithography equipment.
Conventional wisdom says liquified natural gas is the future of energy—bridging the gap between the world abandoning fossil fuels and renewable supplies coming online, Javier Blas writes. But that rosy outlook faces a reckoning. LNG is threatened by a pincer movement involving, ironically, the two old and new sources it’s supposed to bridge: coal and solar.
Bar Leone—an Italian-themed watering hole in Hong Kong—nabbed the top spot in the World’s 50 Best Bars. Last year’s winner, Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City, dropped to No. 2. Barcelona’s Sips and Paradiso came in third and fourth, followed by London’s Tayer + Elementary.
