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(Bloomberg) — Asian shares rose Tuesday, buoyed by upbeat US earnings and indications that tensions between Washington and Beijing were easing.

Benchmarks in Japan and Australia climbed with stocks in South Korea jumping over 1% at the open. US equity futures edged higher after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 both rose more than 1% Monday. A gauge of US-listed Chinese companies advanced 2.4%, its best showing in a week. Gold extended gains in early Asian trading, even as some warned about a potential bubble in the precious metal.

The S&P 500 logged its biggest two-day gain since June on Monday, with about 85% of companies beating profit estimates so far. Strong third-quarter earnings helped temper worries over the US government shutdown, while hopes of progress in US-China trade talks lifted sentiment. President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to follow through on a tariff hike on Chinese goods “if there isn’t a deal” by Nov. 1, but said he plans to meet President Xi Jinping next week.

“Thank God for earnings season,” said Callie Cox at Ritholtz Wealth Management. Given the US government shutdown, analysts have been deprived of data for weeks, leading to “panic around headlines,” she said.

Earlier this month, markets were roiled as Trump raised the prospect of a sky-high tariff rate, citing China’s “hostile” export controls. Soybean futures rallied Monday, with growers holding out hope that Trump will make a deal with China to restart stalled American exports.

Separately, shares of critical mineral producers jumped in Sydney on Tuesday after Trump signed an agreement with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to boost America’s access to rare earths and other key materials.

US Inflation

After being delayed by the US government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the September consumer price index on Friday. The data, originally slated for Oct. 15, will give Federal Reserve officials a critical piece of information on inflation ahead of their Oct. 30 meeting.

Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast the core CPI, which excludes food and fuel for a better snapshot of underlying inflation, to have climbed 0.3% for a third straight month as higher import duties continue to gradually filter through to consumers. The projected monthly gain will keep the annual core CPI at 3.1%.

“September core CPI likely moderated slightly due to cooling services prices offsetting additional tariff passthrough into goods prices,” said Oscar Munoz at TD Securities. “Energy prices likely boosted headline CPI.”

Friday’s inflation data may take on greater importance due to the government shutdown-driven data drought, said Rick Gardner at RGA Investments. He still sees a Fed cut in October and noted that a key test will be big tech earnings, with investors looking for clarity on how spending on artificial intelligence is leading to profitability.

“We are seeing the typical seasonal volatility in October, but the recent swings have been relatively shallow by historical standards, as the buy-the-dip mentality appears to be in play,” Gardner said.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:16 a.m. Tokyo time Hang Seng futures rose 1.4% Japan’s Topix rose 0.4% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.2% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1651 The Japanese yen was little changed at 150.61 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1226 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6518 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $110,323.19 Ether fell 0.7% to $3,971.05 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was unchanged at 3.98% Japan’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 1.660% Australia’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 4.12% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $57.45 a barrel Spot gold was little changed This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Chinese-speaking actors evade government restrictions and solicit criminal services through anonymized marketplaces; AI-accelerated ransomware operations signal next evolution of threats

AUSTIN, Texas and GovWare 2025, Singapore – October 20, 2025 – CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today released the 2025 APJ eCrime Landscape Report, exposing a thriving Chinese-language underground ecosystem and the rise of AI-enhanced ransomware operations. Despite the Chinese government’s internet restrictions and eCrime crackdown, anonymized marketplaces remain central to cybercrime activity across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). This ecosystem provides a safe haven for Chinese-speaking actors to buy and sell stolen credentials, phishing kits, malware, and money-laundering services – processing billions in illicit transactions.

At the same time, AI is transforming the ransomware economy. From AI-enhanced social engineering to automated malware development, AI is accelerating every stage of the attack chain – representing a new wave of adversaries executing Big Game Hunting campaigns against high-value organizations across APJ.

APJ eCrime Landscape Report Highlights:

Based on frontline intelligence from CrowdStrike’s elite threat hunters and intelligence analysts tracking  more than 265 named adversaries, the report reveals:

• Chinese eCrime Marketplaces Evade Oversight: Amid tightened restrictions, Chinese underground markets — including Chang’an, FreeCity, and Huione Guarantee — preserve anonymity across clearnet, darknet, and Telegram channels. This decentralized ecosystem remains a hub for Chinese-speaking actors focused on operational security (OPSEC), with Huione Guarantee alone processing an estimated $27 billion USD before its 2025 disruption.
• AI Escalates Big Game Hunting Ransomware Campaigns: AI-accelerated ransomware on high-value targets surged, with India, Australia, and Japan among the most impacted countries. Emerging Ransomware-as-a-Service providers KillSec and Funklocker – leveraging AI-developed malware – accounted for more than 120 incidents. Top targeted sectors included manufacturing, technology, and financial services, with 763 victims publicly named on dedicated leak sites.
• Chinese-Speaking Actors Exploit Japanese Trading Accounts: Coordinated account takeover (ATO) campaigns targeting Japanese securities platforms compromised users to artificially inflate the value of thinly traded China-based stocks. This pump-and-dump scheme, traced to Chinese-speaking threat actors, used shared phishing infrastructure to sell victim data on underground forums, including Chang’an Marketplace.
• eCrime Service Providers Industrialize Attacks: Providers such as CDNCLOUD (Bulletproof Hosting), Magical Cat (Phishing-as-a-Service), and Graves International SMS (Global Spam Service) enabled scalable phishing, malware distribution, and monetization operations throughout the region.
• Remote Access Tools Target Regional Users: Likely Chinese-speaking eCrime actors deployed tools like ChangemeRAT, ElseRAT, and WhiteFoxRAT to exploit Chinese- and Japanese-speaking users through SEO poisoning, malvertising, and phishing attacks masquerading as purchase orders.

“eCrime actors are industrializing cybercrime across APJ through thriving underground markets and complex ransomware operations. Simultaneously, AI-developed malware enables adversaries to launch high-velocity, high-volume attacks,” said Adam Meyers, head of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike. “Defenders must meet this new pace of attack with decisive action, powered by AI, informed by human experience, and unified in response.” 

Download the 2025 APJ eCrime Landscape Report to explore in-depth insights, adversary profiles, and expert strategies for defending against APJ’s evolving cyber threats.

About CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a global cybersecurity leader, has redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.

Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class AI, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities.

Purpose-built in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, the Falcon platform delivers rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance, reduced complexity and immediate time-to-value.

CrowdStrike: We stop breaches.

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© 2025 CrowdStrike, Inc. All rights reserved. CrowdStrike and CrowdStrike Falcon are marks owned by CrowdStrike, Inc. and are registered in the United States and other countries. CrowdStrike owns other trademarks and service marks and may use the brands of third parties to identify their products and services.

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CrowdStrike Corporate Communications

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The changes to Australia’s merger notification regime substantially expand the scope for early-stage economic analysis to support more effective and efficient filings.

The changes to Australia’s merger notification regime substantially expand the scope for early-stage economic analysis to support more effective and efficient filings for merging parties and their legal advisers. Economic analysis can help determine whether filings are necessary, that filings contain only the required level of detail, and that the economic data and analysis required for filings is complete, accurate, and helpful to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

In this brief, Mark Chicu, Nikhil Gupta, Kostis Hatzitaskos, Avigail Kifer, and Andrew Swan identify areas where early-stage economic analysis is likely to be particularly valuable in navigating the new notification process.