HONG KONG -- Trading in Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing's new mainland China equity derivatives has almost quadrupled in the four days since their launch, pointing to investors' thirst to hedge their exposure to shares listed on the world's second-largest stock market.

The China A50 Connect futures contract, which ends Singapore Exchange's monopoly on offshore China stock derivatives, debuted on Oct. 18 with the highest first-day trading by value of any futures contract from the HKEX, the world'

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia is eyeing a trial border reopening for international tourists next month after a nearly two-year closure, Tourism Minister Nancy Shukri told Nikkei Asia in an exclusive interview.

Nancy said her ministry has proposed launching travel bubbles by mid-November that would allow visitors access to holiday haven Langkawi and pockets of the southern tip of Johor, which borders Singapore.

She said the ministry has also finalized a list of 10 countries whose fully vaccinated citizens would be allowed to participate, as the government aims to nurse

TOKYO -- In a veiled reference to China's recent aggressive moves on Taiwan, Japan's defense minister pointed to Russia's annexation of Crimea as an example of how an invasion can begin without deploying troops.

Russia's act was an "illegal annexation of Crimea," Nobuo Kishi said on Friday in a video message to the 18th CSIS/Nikkei Symposium. "An invasion may begin without anyone realizing it, and a war may be fought without the use of military forces."

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HONG KONG -- Embattled China Evergrande Group is set to avert its first bond default after remitting $83.5 million to settle a coupon payment it missed last month, according to the state-owned Securities Times.

The company, the world's most indebted real estate developer, could have been declared in default on Saturday, the end of a 30-day grace period for the missed coupon payment.

However, it managed to send the funds due to Citibank, the bond's trustee, on

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan's core consumer prices rose in September for the first time since the country was in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, a sign that rising energy and raw material costs are gradually pushing up inflation.

Analysts expect rising fuel costs to accelerate consumer inflation in coming months, though any increase will be modest compared with other advanced economies as sluggish wage growth weighs on consumption and keeps firms from hiking prices much.

The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI

PALO ALTO, U.S. -- The chipmaker Intel disappointed Wall Street with its latest results outlook, saying that its clients were struggling to assemble notebook computers amid a global component shortage and that a Chinese crackdown on video gaming was hurting sales for data centers.

For the three months that ended in September, Intel recorded $19.2 billion in revenue, up 5% year-on-year, and net income of $6.8 billion, up 60%.

However, its largest revenue

TAIPEI -- Top U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology is in talks with governments around the world, including in Japan, Taiwan and Europe, over expanding its manufacturing footprint as part of a $150 billion, 10-year investment plan, a senior executive told Nikkei Asia in an interview.

Manish Bhatia, executive vice president of Micron's global operations, stressed however that his company's global expansion push is aimed at keeping pace with growing demand and will not contribute to an oversupply in

GOHEUNG, South Korea -- South Korea failed to deliver a satellite into orbit on Thursday, crushing its dream to become the 10th country in the world to reach the milestone using its own technology.

President Moon Jae-in said that the three-stage Nuri rocket could not reach orbit, although it flew as high as 700 km into space after all its three stages separated successfully.

"I am sorry that we could not reach the goal completely, but it's still a very excellent accomplishment

ISTANBUL -- The Turkish central bank cut its key interest rate for the second straight meeting on Thursday, pushing the lira to a record low even as business leaders question the direction of monetary policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The bank lowered the one-week repo rate to 16% from 18%, despite the lira plumbing new lows over the past several weeks. The Turkish currency weakened by nearly 3% against the dollar at one point following the Thursday decision.

The move comes as Erdogan, who has