Finance

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Chinese stocks trading in the U.S. tumbled Friday after former President Donald Trump threatened to sharply raise tariffs on Chinese imports if he returns to office, warning that China has become “very hostile.”
Alibaba and Baidu each slid about 8%, while JD.com and PDD Holdings fell 6.6% and 5.2%, respectively. The iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI), which tracks major Chinese companies listed in the U.S., dropped 5.2%.

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iShares MSCI China ETF Friday

The selloff underscored renewed investor anxiety over escalating U.S.-China tensions, which have flared periodically amid disputes over trade, technology and national security.
Trump accused China of holding the world “captive” through its dominance in rare earth metals. Earlier this week, Beijing tightened its grip on the sector, requiring foreign companies to obtain government licenses to export any products containing rare earth elements that make up 0.1% or more of their total value.
“Friday served as a reminder of how emotion and uncertainty can drive markets,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide.” “It is too early to say with confidence if the comments will trigger the next phase of the trade conflict between the US and China or more negotiating in public, but investors have chosen a wait-and-see tactic.”
Chinese stocks have staged a strong rebound this year, buoyed by signs of economic stabilization and renewed investor optimism after years of underperformance. The iShares MSCI China ETF is still up 32% even after Friday’s pullback.
— CNBC’s Sarah Min contributed reporting. More

Gold and bitcoin surge to record highs as investors hedge against inflation, rising U.S. debt, and a softening dollar.
What is being called the “debasement trade” has accelerated with investors turning to hard assets like precious metals gold and silver, and crypto as alternatives.
October is typically a volatile month for the markets and stocks turned sharply lower on Friday as a new risk popped up amid the rising tensions between the U.S. and China over rare earth elements, with President Trump threatening “massive” new tariffs.

Gold and bitcoin have traded to record highs as investors look for protection in what’s typically a volatile October for the market.
Rising inflation and debt, a weakening U.S. dollar, the government shutdown, and Wall Street’s newest buzz, the “debasement trade,” have all boosted assets beyond stocks and bonds.

“This whole debasement trade is benefiting gold,” Amplify ETFs CEO Christian Magoon said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
The Federal Reserve’s battle with inflation and the mounting national debt have heightened investor concern about long-term currency stability. As of early October, the U.S. gross federal debt stands at around $3.7 trillion, according to Fiscal Data from the Treasury. The U.S. dollar index (DXY) has declined roughly 8% since the beginning of the year.
Both gold and bitcoin are being treated as safe havens in a market shaped by inflation and policy risk. Gold first surged past $4,000 Tuesday, hitting an all-time high. The precious metal continues to rally as uncertainty fuels it. Bitcoin joined gold in the debasement trade as a digital alternative to traditional currencies. The cryptocurrency broke a little over $126,000 early this week, setting a new all-time high.
The so-called “debasement trade” is a bet that government borrowing and money printing will erode the value of the U.S. dollar, and is leading more investors to flock to safe-haven assets. 
“Inflation is substantially above target and substantially above target in all forecasts for next year. It’s part of the reason the dollar’s depreciated,” Citadel’s CEO Ken Griffin told Bloomberg Monday. “Gold is at record highs and the appreciation on other dollar substitutes … in items like crypto, for example, is unbelievable.”

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Performance of gold and bitcoin ETFs in 2025.

The move has not come out of nowhere for gold. It has now bested the performance of all major U.S. equity market indexes year-to-date, and over the past one-year and three-year periods.
Gold continues to attract steady inflows, while silver has gained around 66% since the beginning of the year, with the precious metal surging to $50, an all-time high on Thursday.
“We see silver going from the high 40s to into the 60s over the next 12 months,” Magoon said on “ETF Edge.”
“We’re in the sixth year of limited supply and silver in the trends, from an industrial standpoint, are only getting more bullish for silver,” he added.
October is historically the most volatile month of the year on Wall Street, and Jay Jacobs, BlackRock’s head of equity ETFs, says he’s seeing many clients reposition their portfolios, shifting into global monetary alternatives. Jacobs told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week some traders are seeking non-sovereign assets that behave differently than stocks and bonds, including gold, silver and cryptocurrencies. “People are looking for assets that live outside of the traditional system. That can be a bit of a portfolio,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs said SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and iShares Gold Trust (IAU) remain heavyweight options for gold exposure. Meanwhile, iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is a go-to for silver, and iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is seeing interest from those who want regular exposure.
The bitcoin ETF has recently also been besting the biggest U.S. equity ETFs in weekly flows.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday he would own a combination of gold, cryptocurrencies and Nasdaq tech stocks between now and the end of the year, to take advantage of the rally fueled by the “fear of missing out.” 
Jones shot to fame after he predicted and profited from the 1987 stock market crash.
“Bear markets are tough,” Magoon said. “This is a way to hide out or profit during times of uncertainty,” Magoon said.
But he also added that “often times, bull markets crawl up a ‘wall of worry’. It seems like one of these ‘wall of worries’, that’s going to dissipate, and we’re going to have, I think a good fourth quarter.”
Stocks turned sharply lower on Friday as a new risk presented itself amid the rising tensions between the U.S. and China over rare earth elements, with President Trump threatening “massive” new tariffs.
Jacobs said earlier this week on “ETF Edge” that there is strong momentum going forward and heading into 2026, including enthusiasm around corporate earnings, and optimism surrounding potential rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
According to Fed minutes released Wednesday, policy makers were nearly unanimous that the central bank should cut interest rates, due to weakness in the labor market, but they disagreed over whether there should be two or three total cuts this year, including the quarter percentage point reduction approved at last month’s meeting.
Jacobs said there are reasons for the hot trades beyond stocks and bonds to continue. “If we continue to see geopolitical uncertainty, continue to see inflation uncertainty, people are looking for assets that live outside of the traditional system,” he said.
 Watch the full ETF Edge episode for more on how investors are using ETFs to manage market volatility. More

The list of candidates for Federal Reserve chair is down to five from 11 after a series of interviews with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to sources.
The remaining list of candidates includes Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Fed Governor Christopher Waller — along with Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.
Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder also made the cut.
The individual selected by Trump could be nominated to the Fed — though not necessarily as chair — by January.

After a series of rigorous interviews, some lasting as long as two hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has winnowed down the list of candidates for Federal Reserve chair to five from 11, and that person could be nominated to the Fed — though not necessarily as chair — by January.
According to senior Treasury officials, the remaining list of candidates includes two sitting Fed officials — Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller — along with Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder.

The Treasury plans to hold another round of interviews with all five candidates in the coming weeks and months. The interviews will be led by Bessent and include two senior Treasury officials and two senior White House officials.
With Bessent focused on the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington next week and then traveling to Asia with President Donald Trump on an extended trip, the officials said the interview process might not be wrapped up until after Thanksgiving.
The secretary then intends to send a smaller list to Trump, who will make the final decision. It is likely, however, that this person will first be nominated to be a Fed governor and then nominated later to be Fed chair.
The reason is outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May, sits in a governor’s seat that has only two years remaining. The seat of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, now occupied by Stephen Miran, has a term that ends in January and would allow the new Fed chair to be nominated to a seat with a full 14-year governor’s term.
But the officials said that strategy was not decided and there were other possibilities.

The president has already named Warsh, Hassett and Waller as finalists for the job, so only Rieder and Bowman would be new recommendations to the White House.

Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York City on Sept. 28, 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Compared with previous administrations, the Trump administration has been running a more open process for the next Fed chair, announcing candidates as the list grows and, now, shrinks.
At the same time, the administration, led by the president himself, has been highly critical of Fed policy, repeatedly urging it to lower rates sharply. The president had threatened to remove Powell and actually fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud, accusations she denies.
Cook’s firing has been blocked by lower courts, and the case will be heard in January by the Supreme Court. The attempts to oust Cook have raised concerns about the administration’s commitment to Fed independence, raising the stakes for the new chair appointment and making it a closely followed decision.

BlackRock’s Rieder impresses

The Treasury officials also for the first time provided some insight into Bessent’s thinking about the criteria used to decide who to pick for the job.
Bessent is said to be seeking someone who is open to new ideas about how to run the Fed and monetary policy, and has experience in economics, monetary policy, banking regulation and management.
The secretary recently penned an essay sharply critical of the Fed and called for reviews of the central bank’s policy, structure and mission.
Among his critiques was that the Fed had grown too big and experienced mission creep. That suggests he would prefer a candidate willing to pare down both the Fed’s size and roll back its use of some tools, especially quantitative easing.
The officials said no candidate was leading the pack, but they confirmed recent reports that Rieder had impressed Bessent.
Rieder, a frequent guest on CNBC, has been a well-known fixture on Wall Street for years. His analysis of the fixed income market and the Fed are widely read. He also manages a large department at BlackRock. While not decisive, the officials suggested it could be a plus that Rieder, alone among the five remaining candidates, has never worked at the Fed. More

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Friday that he continues to support lowering interest rates but said the central bank needs to be careful amid conflicting economic signals.
“I want to move towards cutting rates, but you’re not going to do it aggressively and fast, in case you make a big mistake on which way that things go,” he said in a CNBC interview.
The monetary policy comments came shortly after a CNBC report that Waller is one of five finalists to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May 2026.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday that he continues to support lowering interest rates but said the central bank needs to be careful amid conflicting economic signals.
“I’m still in the belief we need to cut rates, but we need to kind of be cautious about it,” Waller said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

On one hand, he said, the U.S. labor market appears to be losing jobs, potentially signaling a broader economic slowdown. On the other, gross domestic product growth remains strong and there remain concerns over inflation, which is still running considerably higher than the Fed’s 2% goal.
“Something’s got to give. Either the labor market rebounds to match the GDP growth, or that GDP growth is going to pull back. So whichever way that goes, it’s got to affect what you do with policy,” Waller said. “I want to move towards cutting rates, but you’re not going to do it aggressively and fast, in case you make a big mistake on which way that things go.”
At its September meeting, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee approved its first quarter percentage point reduction since December 2024. In addition, committee members signaled in their quarterly “dot plot” update of individual members’ expectations that two more cuts were likely before the end of the year.
Waller said he’s comfortable with that pace but doesn’t think the Fed should move faster than that. His new colleague, Governor Stephen Miran, appointed by President Donald Trump, pushed for a bigger half-point reduction and wants to see the Fed lop another 1.25 percentage points off the federal funds rate by the end of the year.
“You can always adjust as you go as the data comes in,” Waller said. “I mean, if you went 75 [basis points] tomorrow, then you have a bit of a problem.”

The monetary policy comments came shortly after a CNBC report that Waller is one of five finalists to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May 2026. Waller recently interviewed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who in turn is sending a list to Trump of the best candidates to lead the central bank.
As part of the process, Waller sat down for what were reportedly lengthy interviews as Trump looks for a central bank more in his liking for lower interest rates. However, Waller said the discussion with Bessent focused squarely on policy.
“It was actually a great interview. I mean, it was a lot of discussion about various aspects of the Fed, talking about various speeches I’ve given my points of view,” Waller said. “I just thought it was great. I mean, really there was nothing political about it. It was all serious economic discussion.”
Waller’s cautious views on policy extend to the economy.
On the labor market, he said the past few months probably saw a loss of jobs. On inflation, he said he continues to think the impact from Trump’s tariffs will be temporary. More

China on Friday announced that starting Oct. 14, it will start charging U.S. ships for docking at Chinese ports.
The move was a direct response to similar U.S. port fees on Chinese ships set to take effect the same day.
The U.S. only accounts for 0.1% of global shipbuilding, versus 53.3% for China, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Pictured here is Shanghai Port’s foreign trade container terminal in Shanghai, China on October 9, 2025.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — China on Friday announced that starting Oct. 14, the country will start charging U.S. ships for docking at Chinese ports — a direct response to Washington for imposing fees on Chinese vessels arriving at U.S. ports, set to take effect the same day.
The U.S. fees “seriously violate” international trading principles and “seriously damages” China-U.S. maritime trade, the Chinese Ministry of Transport said in the announcement, translated by CNBC.

China will charge 400 yuan ($56) per net ton for the U.S. vessels, essentially the same as the $50 per net ton that the U.S. is imposing on Chinese ships. Beijing also matched the U.S. with plans to increase the fees over time through April 17, 2028, with the same effective dates.
In the “short term, this will result in an increase in costs for U.S. consumers, a decrease in profits for shippers, and a small decline in demand for exports to the U.S. in certain categories,” said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
In the longer term, he said there could be more demand for non-Chinese ships. But he didn’t expect an increase in demand for U.S.-made ships due to their high costs and low shipbuilding capacity.
The U.S. only accounts for 0.1% of global shipbuilding, versus 53.3% for China, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That outsized Chinese market share prompted the U.S. to develop a policy, beginning under the Biden administration, to charge Chinese-made ships when arriving at U.S. ports.

The Chinese Ministry of Transport said the fees would apply to vessels owned by U.S. businesses, organizations, individuals and entities holding a 25% or greater stake. Ships flying the U.S. flag or made in Washington would also be charged, the ministry said.
This is “just more tit-for-tat negotiating tactics. The U.S. placed similar fees on Chinese bound vessels and now China is doing the same,” said Peter Alexander, managing director of Z-Ben Advisors in Shanghai.
“The Trump administration continues to underestimate China and this needs to stop,” Alexander said. “There seems to be little consideration given to second and third-order effects of policy choices.”
He added: “China can give as good as it gets and has demonstrated a willingness to take direct action. Have there been any lessons learned by the Americans over the past six months?  It certainly doesn’t seem so.”
The Chinese port fee announcement comes after China doubled down on its export restrictions and broadened its “unreliable entities” blacklist to include chip consulting firm TechInsights, in the last two days.
U.S.-China tensions have remained elevated despite a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, and expectations of a meeting between the two leaders in South Korea in coming weeks.
While Trump has played up progress on a deal for Beijing-based ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations of its TikTok app, China has been less conclusive. More

The analysts forecast sales of new homes will drop by 8% from last year to between 8.8 trillion yuan and 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion to $1.26 trillion).
That’s a far steeper decline than the 3% drop the analysts had predicted in May.
“The government will need to continue to support the sector and demand help restore homebuyers’ confidence,” Edward Chan, director, corporate ratings, told CNBC.

Pictured here is construction on a real estate project in Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province, China on October 9, 2025.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s real estate market is expected to fall more sharply than expected in 2025, extending an industry slump for a fifth-straight year and delaying hopes of a market turnaround, S&P Global Ratings said in a report late Thursday.
The analysts project sales of new homes will drop by 8% from last year to between 8.8 trillion yuan and 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion to $1.26 trillion).

That’s a far steeper decline than the 3% drop the major ratings agency had predicted in May. At the time, the analysts expected the trade war and other external uncertainties would have pushed China to roll out stronger support for the real estate sector, Edward Chan, director, corporate ratings at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC.
The main reason for the weaker outlook is that “homebuyers’ sentiment is still pretty fragile,” Chan said. “So the government will need to continue to support the sector and demand [to] help restore homebuyers’ confidence.”
In September 2024, Beijing called for efforts to “halt” the real estate decline in a high-profile meeting. But after some new measures last year, the political momentum to ramp up further support appeared to slow.

S&P noted that China’s five-year loan prime rate — the benchmark for most mortgages — has only fallen by 10 basis points so far this year, compared with a 60-basis point reduction in 2024. This signals that Beijing isn’t easing policy as aggressively as before, despite the property slump.
In August, three of China’s largest cities eased purchase restrictions to allow buyers to hold multiple properties, but the move mostly applied to units in the less desirable city outskirts, S&P noted.

“If demand can be stabilized first in the higher-tier cities, particularly in the first-tier [largest] cities first, that would probably help the trajectory of the demand recovery to be more sustainable,” Chan said.

Turnaround remains elusive

For now, hopes of a bottom in China’s real estate slump look even more distant.
With sales projected to be 9 trillion yuan or less this year, China’s property market will have halved in just four years, from 18.2 trillion yuan in 2021, according to S&P. The ratings agency expects sales to fall by another 6% to 7% in 2026, with primary home prices down by 1.5% to 2.5%.
In past decades, homebuyers in China have tended to buy apartments ahead of completion. But as developers ran into financial difficulties, construction was delayed, shaking consumer confidence. This prompted Beijing last year to announce a “whitelist” to fund approved unfinished projects.
As of August, completed, but unsold housing inventory had climbed to 762 million square meters, up from 753 million square meters in December 2024, S&P said.

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“The government has been doing quite a lot to assure people [that getting] their apartments isn’t the issue now,” Chan said. “The issue is the overall demand for the nation as a whole seems to be weaker than we expected.”
Going forward, he expects the government will step in, even if incrementally, when market weakness appears.
August saw both a relaxation in some home purchase restrictions and a high-profile acknowledgement by Chinese Premier Li Qiang that the real estate slump remained unresolved, indicating the need for more support.
The following month, sales by China’s top 100 developers rose 0.4% year over year, S&P said, citing industry data.
As developers strive to survive, the report said, “the end result may be a smaller market, but also a healthier and more resilient sector.” More

The U.K.’s biggest retail investment platform, Hargreaves Lansdowne, has urged traders to exercise caution on cryptocurrencies.
“The HL Investment view is that bitcoin is not an asset class, and we do not think cryptocurrency has characteristics that mean it should be included in portfolios for growth or income,” the firm said.
A longstanding U.K. ban on retail investors being able to access crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) was lifted on Oct. 8.

CHONGQING, CHINA – JULY 17: In this photo illustration, a person holds a physical representation of a Bitcoin (BTC) coin in front of a screen displaying a candlestick chart of Bitcoin’s latest price movements on July 17, 2025 in Chongqing, China. (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A major trading platform in the U.K. has issued a stark warning to investors hoping to cash in on relaxed crypto rules: cryptocurrencies should not be in your portfolio.
A longstanding U.K. ban on retail investors being able to access crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) was lifted on Oct. 8. Exchange-traded notes are debt instruments linked to one or more specified assets. In this case, they give traders exposure to digital tokens through the use of a regulated exchange.

The new rules sparked a warning from Hargreaves Lansdowne — the U.K.’s biggest retail investment platform — which urged British retail investors to be cautious.
“The HL Investment view is that bitcoin is not an asset class, and we do not think cryptocurrency has characteristics that mean it should be included in portfolios for growth or income and shouldn’t be relied upon to help clients meet their financial goals,” Hargreaves Lansdowne said in a statement.
“Performance assumptions are not possible to analyse for crypto, and unlike other alternative asset classes it has no intrinsic value.”
When U.K. officials announced earlier this year that the ETN ban would be overturned, they argued the move would support “the growth and competitiveness of the U.K.’s crypto industry.” It was hailed by crypto firms as a major breakthrough for the sector in Britain.
The government also ruled on Wednesday that investors will be able to hold crypto ETNs in stocks and shares ISA accounts, an account where up to £20,000 ($26,753) a year can be invested tax-free.

Big gains, and big losses

Cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized and therefore not regulated by central authorities like governments, have their critics and prices are notoriously volatile. In 2022, a so-called “crypto winter” saw investors lose $2 trillion. Bitcoin — the most commonly traded cryptocurrency — has led to major returns for early investors, however, and was last seen trading around $121,508.

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Bitcoin price

Still, Hargreaves Lansdowne urged investors to consider the risks attached to all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
“While longer-term returns of bitcoin have been positive, bitcoin has experienced several periods of extreme losses and is a highly volatile investment — much riskier than stocks or bonds,” the company said in its statement this week.
The firm said, however, that it recognized that some traders wished to “speculate with cryptocurrency ETNs,” and that it would therefore offer “appropriate clients” the opportunity to do so from early 2026.

Institutional backing

Cryptocurrencies have long divided market watchers, with some major institutions piling into digital assets while others have warned against them.
Last month, Morgan Stanley said it was close to offering crypto trading to retail investors through its E-Trade division. The bank was the first major U.S. bank to offer wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds — a move that others have since followed.
JPMorgan, meanwhile, plans to get involved in the stablecoin space, despite CEO Jamie Dimon being vocal in his criticism of crypto. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has also openly lashed out at cryptocurrencies.
Chris Mellor, head of EMEA ETF equity product management at Invesco, told CNBC on Thursday that he believes digital assets can offer investors a hedge against volatility in more traditional asset classes.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are sometimes considered ‘digital gold’ and questions have been raised around whether bitcoin might one day replace gold as the non-fiat asset of choice,” he said via email. “In our opinion, there is room for both in portfolios. With the caveat that correlations can change, in recent months we have observed that bitcoin has displayed a very low correlation with stocks, U.S. Treasuries and gold.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Green, CEO of financial consultancy DeVere Group, argued that bitcoin’s recent climb past the $125,000 mark was a signal that digital assets have entered the financial mainstream.
“Investors are no longer treating bitcoin as a curiosity at the edge of the market,” he told CNBC. “Volatility still exists, but it is now productive volatility, the kind that accompanies price discovery in a maturing market. Short-term swings are inevitable when capital rotates at this scale.”
Green labeled this “a structural realignment, not a temporary rally” for bitcoin, and pointed to the Trump administration’s favorable policy mix as offering further support for its credibility.
“The hands holding bitcoin have become stronger, more institutional, and more patient,” he added. “Bitcoin, for investors who take a strategic view, remains a solid, enduring investment.”
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne and Hugh Son contributed to this article. More

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Larry Lindsey has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of Fed chair, CNBC’s Eamon Javers reported on Thursday.
President Trump is considering a list of candidates to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for when his term expires in May.

Larry Lindsey, president and CEO of The Lindsey Group
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Larry Lindsey has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of Fed chair, CNBC’s Eamon Javers reported on Thursday.
“I have a very full varied and enjoyable life right now that I don’t want to give up to go through the mill of public life,” Lindsey told Javers via text message on Thursday.

Lindsey was one of the candidates being interviewed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. President Donald Trump has been considering a list of candidates to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for when his term expires in May. More