U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a presentation on the administration’s policies against cartels and human trafficking in the official dining room of the White House on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
China on Thursday concluded its “4th Plenary Session,” a conference aimed at setting the country’s development agenda for the next five years. The Chinese government will focus on self-reliance in domestic consumption, technology, agriculture, and manufacturing.
If you squint a little, you can begin to see traces of government in the American economy and markets, generally considered the epitome of free-market capitalism.
for example, intel Shares rose 7.7% in after-hours trading after the company announced third-quarter sales that exceeded analysts’ expectations. Intel said demand for its processors appears to be recovering.
But we can’t ignore the elephant in the room: the 10% stake in the company that the U.S. government acquired in August. The company’s stock price has risen significantly since the acquisition, and President Donald Trump said the government made between $30 billion and $40 billion from the company’s stock. However, the deal will complicate Intel’s revenue accounting practices, the company suggested in a press release.
Meanwhile, President Trump has pardoned Binance founder Zhao Changpeng, the White House announced Thursday. Mr. Zhao was found guilty in April 2024 of enabling money laundering on Binance.
When asked why President Trump pardoned Zhao, he said, “A lot of people say he did nothing wrong. That’s why I pardoned him at the request of a lot of very good people.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture was aided by “a partnership with a discreet trading platform secretly controlled by Binance.”
Mr. Trump’s penchant for acquiring stakes in American companies and other deals raises the question of whether we are seeing the United States’ four-year economic plan unfold (with a twist).
What you need to know today
Intel beat revenue expectations. Third-quarter revenue was $13.65 billion, beating the LSEG consensus estimate of $13.14 billion. Intel added that demand for its chips exceeded supply.
President Trump pardons Binance founder Chang Peng The move comes two months after the Wall Street Journal reported on a Trump family crypto venture that appeared to be connected to a trading platform “managed by Binance.”
China will encourage consumption in the next five years. According to a translation by CNBC, government leaders stressed the need to “strongly boost consumption” in the domestic economy, according to a reading of the contents of China’s Fourth Plenary Meeting.
The S&P 500 recovers its losses. The index rose 0.58% on Thursday, recovering from Wednesday’s decline. of stox europe 600 Added 0.37%, share is kering Shares rose 8.7% after the luxury conglomerate beat revenue estimates.
(PRO) It’s time to consider dividend stocks, says CIO. Kevin Simpson, founder and chief investment officer at Capital Wealth Planning, said these stocks should rise if interest rates fall as the market expects.
And finally…
Russian President Vladimir Putin inspects a Russia-Belarus joint military exercise codenamed “Zapad-2025 (West-2025)” at the Mulino training ground in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region on September 16, 2025.
Mikhail Metzel | via Reuters
Moscow remains stone silent after Trump antagonizes Russia, saying talks with Putin are “going nowhere”
Days after US President Donald Trump’s “very productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president changed his tune on Wednesday and expressed his dissatisfaction with Moscow. “We canceled our meeting with President Putin, we just didn’t feel it was appropriate to meet,” he said Wednesday.
On Thursday, pro-Kremlin state media including TASS, Radio Sputnik and RIA Novosti did not cover Trump’s comments about Putin and made little mention of the criticism or the canceled meeting.
— Holly Ellyatt
