Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and US President Donald Trump have signed an agreement to secure the supply of rare earths and critical minerals, responding to China's tightened export controls. The deal aims to create resilient supply chains through coordinated economic policy and investment, with Takaichi expressing a desire to usher in a "golden age" of US-Japan relations and Trump praising Japanese orders for US military hardware.

Record trading in single-stock options and leveraged ETFs has amplified volatility in major U.S. equities, with individual companies now seeing daily moves of more than $100 billion in market value. Analysts say retail investors account for about 60% of single-stock options trading, while leveraged ETFs and zero-day options are magnifying price swings around Big Tech earnings.

UBS has applied for a national bank charter to expand its US offerings, aiming to enhance services for wealth management clients by including payments, checking and savings accounts. The move is part of UBS' strategy to improve its US wealth management unit, which generates significant revenue but faces high expenses.

HSBC's third-quarter profit before tax dropped by 14% year over year to $7.3 billion because of higher operating expenses, including $1.4 billion in legal provisions. However, the bank beat expectations, with net interest income rising by 15% to $8.8 billion. Revenue reached $17.8 billion, surpassing estimates.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are reportedly preparing to enter the London gold vaulting and clearing market, seeking to rival JPMorgan Chase's dominance amid surging investor demand for the metal. The move would expand the number of clearing members in a market that stores over $1 trillion in gold, as the London Bullion Market Association works to make access more open.

MMSB Murmurs JPMorgan’s gold vault monopoly is finally getting company.

Citi and Morgan Stanley smell opportunity as bullion fever grips investors, and in a market this old-school, even the vault keys are starting to look like power plays. -- Matt

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon expressed confidence in the stability of the credit markets, stating that recent high-profile firm failures do not indicate a systemic risk. He emphasized that issues such as the collapse of First Brands Group and Tricolor Holdings are isolated incidents and do not reflect broader credit market instability. "I don't see anything in the context of a handful of bad credit situations that's leading me to say we have a systemic issue around the corner," Solomon said.

Tom Hayes, the former UBS trader recently exonerated in the Libor-rigging scandal, has filed a $400 million lawsuit against UBS, alleging the bank made him a scapegoat to avoid criminal prosecution. Hayes, whose conviction was overturned in July, claims UBS portrayed him as the "evil mastermind" to protect senior management.

Dinosaurs were thriving until a catastrophic asteroid strike 66 million years ago, contrary to the belief that they were already in decline, according to research published in the journal Science. The study, led by Andrew Flynn of New Mexico State University, dated the Naashoibito Member rock formation and found that the youngest dinosaur fossils were just 350,000 years before the mass extinction, suggesting a diverse dinosaur population at the time.