BANGKOK – U.S. officials pressed Beijing on market access issues for Mastercard Inc and Citigroup Inc during at least two bilateral meetings with Chinese counterparts in Bangkok this week, according to a U.S. Treasury official. 

The Treasury delegation, led by Deputy Secretary Francis Brooke, held bilateral meetings with officials from the People’s Bank of China and the finance ministry on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance meetings and the IMF-World Bank annual gathering this week, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meetings.

The talks included market access for U.S. companies, including Mastercard, Visa and Citigroup, the official said, adding that regulatory approval was part of the agreement reached during the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping during the latter’s state visit in Washington last month.

The sideline meetings in Bangkok continued discussions on implementing these deals, the official said.

The PBOC, China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Chinese embassies in Singapore and Thailand, the U.S. Treasury Department press office and Visa did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Citigroup and Mastercard declined to comment.

The progress follows China’s Oct. 13 approval for Visa Inc. to begin preparing a wholly owned domestic card-clearing business. Visa has up to a year to prepare before it applies for an operating license, the PBOC has said.

China has opened much of its financial sector to foreign firms since 2018, gradually lifting foreign ownership caps on services such as securities, futures and fund management. It still limits cross-border capital flows and has kept state-backed domestic players dominant in payments. 

Mastercard currently operates yuan card payments in China through a local joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing Corp., which began operating in 2024. The pending approval would allow it to operate as an independent entity, the person said. 

Citigroup — which has hired several dozen employees for its China unit — is seeking a wholly owned securities license to conduct A-share brokerage, underwriting, research and principal trading businesses in the onshore market, two people familiar with the industry said, requesting anonymity for discussing private matters.

One of the two people close to Citigroup said the bank planned to increase its China securities staff to about 100.

The bank applied in late 2021, and Reuters reported last month that approval could come soon. 

Trump and Xi are expected to meet in person for the third time this year in Shenzhen, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. 

“The move suggests the US-China trade environment remains benign, and Beijing is keen to keep up the momentum,” said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group. 

Licensing U.S. financial firms is a “limited concession” on market access, she said, though it signals China is continuing to open up, and “this should marginally bolster investor confidence in Chinese assets.” 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit the world’s largest oil refinery in Jamnagar, India, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, as diesel prices surge ahead of U.S. midterm polls.

The International Energy Agency has warned that constraints on the diesel market will likely keep prices elevated into the next year. To ease diesel prices, which affect American truckers, farmers, and shippers, U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month paused sanctions on Russia to allow supplies from Moscow in the global market.

The Trump administration is using this trip to focus on business deals rather than policy and politics as Americans remain focused on the economy ahead of the midterm polls, experts told CNBC.

Not only is Ambani’s flagship company Reliance investing in a U.S. refinery and is a key buyer of Venezuelan oil, but its strong ability to supply diesel has put Jamnagar on the map during Rubio’s visit, they added.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State announced that Rubio will be traveling to Samarkand in Uzbekistan and from there to Mumbai and Jamnagar in India, with no mention of a stop in New Delhi, between Oct. 17 and 22.

Rubio, who is on his second trip to India this year, will meet with some senior Indian officials and with business leaders “to promote opportunities for commercial investment and economic cooperation,” according to the release.

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said Rubio will travel to Jamnagar to visit Reliance’s refining complex and hinted that Ambani would meet the U.S. official, according to Bloomberg. Given Ambani runs Reliance, “I’d imagine he’d be there,” Gor said, according to the report.

Later in an interview with Indian media outlet NDTV, Gor said that the visit to Jamnagar was scheduled given Reliance’s “incredible” investment in the U.S. refinery project. Reliance did not respond to emails sent by CNBC seeking details on the visit. The State Department did not respond to CNBC’s queries sent outside of working hours.

The U.S. is facing exceptionally high diesel prices ahead of its November midterm elections, and the Trump administration has been looking for ways to increase fuel availability, Arpit Chaturvedi, South Asia Advisor at strategic advisory firm Teneo, told CNBC.

Jamnagar has “considerable export-oriented refining capacity,” making a strong case for the U.S. to explore refined-product supplies, including diesel, he added.

Ambani, who SpaceX founder Elon Musk referred to as the real boss of India last week, has been developing ties with the Trump administration. In March, U.S. President Donald Trump thanked Reliance for its “tremendous investment” in the first new refinery project in the U.S. in the last 50 years.

Reliance, which is majority-owned by the Ambani family, has also emerged as the second-largest buyer of Venezuelan crude outside of the U.S., even as Indian state-owned firms remain largely unmoved by Trump’s appeal to buy more of it.

Rubio will also use the visit to highlight “Reliance’s plans for a large, new refinery in Texas, which is the site of heated midterm U.S. election races drawing national attention,” said Atman Trivedi, a partner at Washington-based DGA Albright Stonebridge Group.

Reliance’s is also “well-positioned to sell diesel,” and other refined petroleum products to the U.S., he added.

The Jamnagar refinery is the world’s “largest and most complex single-site refinery” with crude processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day, according to Reliance.

Shares of Hybe, the company behind K-pop supergroup BTS, surged 10% on Friday as investors weighed an upbeat third-quarter earnings outlook fueled by its artistes’ global concerts.

Hybe’s third-quarter revenue is expected to reach 1.5 trillion won ($1.11 billion), up 106% from a year earlier, while operating profit is projected at 172.2 billion won, according to local brokerage firm iM Securities. Concert revenue is expected to come in at 717 billion won, nearly tripling from a year earlier.

The share price gain on Friday outperformed the broader Kospi, which rose 2.9%.

BTS’ ongoing world tour featured 16 stadium shows in North America and eight in Europe during the third quarter.

Thiat, alongside expanding tours by newer acts including Enhypen, Katseye and Cortis, helped drive concert attendance to nearly 3 million during the quarter, potentially marking a quarterly record for the company, the report said. 

Western markets accounted for more than 70% of total concert attendance for the first time, reflecting Hybe’s growing international reach as its newer artistes expand their presence in North America and Europe, according to the report. Despite currency headwinds, concert, merchandise and licensing revenues are expected to reach record levels. 

While higher royalty payments to established artistes and initial touring costs for newer groups are expected to weigh on margins, the brokerage forecasts Hybe to maintain a double-digit operating margin, supported by the scale of BTS’ world tour.

CGS Securities analyst Jiwoo Oh told CNBC after Hybe’s second-quarter earnings that while concerts and appearances carry steeper costs for the company due to higher revenue sharing with artistes, merchandise, content and fan club businesses help boost the companies bottom line significantly. 

She also pointed out that in its second quarter, Hybe delivered an 11.8% operating margin in the second quarter of 2026, with artist-direct revenue accounting for 72% of total sales and concerts alone accounting for 45% of total sales. 

“We believe this demonstrates that stadium-scale operating leverage can more than offset the higher cost base associated with concerts,” she added.

After Hybe reported second-quarter results on July 28, the company’s shares crashed, wiping out as much as $1.96 billion in market cap in less than 24 hours. 

Analysts said then that the sell-off was caused as profit margins missed expectations, despite revenue and operating profit reaching record highs, according to analysts.

The iM Securities report said that the profitability of newer bands such as Katseye and Cortis in Western markets will be likely key to reducing the company’s reliance on BTS, the report showed. 

Still, stronger-than-expected demand for additional BTS concerts in Japan and the Middle East, as well as encore performances, could also lead to upward revisions to the company’s 2027 earnings forecasts, iM Securities added.

Kyobo Securities, which expects third-quarter concert revenue to reach 724.4 billion won, expressed optimism around Hybe’s newer acts, stating “growth among younger artists is becoming more visible alongside BTS’ tour.”

Cortis is selling around 600,000 albums per month on average, demonstrating strong fandom demand, the brokerage said, while Katseye is expanding its overseas presence on the back of global streaming and album performance. 

Fund outflows and a rising energy bill are expected to keep putting pressure on India’s rupee, even as the central bank works to slow depreciation.

Over the last several days, the currency has recovered from 96.79 rupees per dollar to the 95-level, aided by the Reserve Bank of India’s latest measures. But while those will provide short-term relief, the currency is expected to weaken toward the end of the year and mid-2027, and a 100 rupee-per-dollar mark could not be ruled out, strategists said.

The RBI’s steps will slow the rupee’s depreciation, but they cannot “fully offset the fundamental pressures stemming from elevated oil prices, a wider current account deficit, and a challenging global capital flow environment,” Hanna Luchnikava-Schorsch, head of Asia-Pacific economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told CNBC.

Her firm sees the Indian currency trading around 97 per US dollar by end-2026 and at 98 rupees by mid-2027. Singapore-based Mizuho Securities also expects the rupee to slide to 98 rupees against the greenback by late 2026 and early next year, Vishnu Varathan, head of macro strategy for APAC at the firm, told CNBC.

“The RBI is determined to do whatever is necessary to ensure orderly movement in the foreign exchange market,” Sanjay Malhotra, the governor of the RBI, said in an interview with local Indian media outlet Moneycontrol on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the central bank announced measures that will make it expensive to take speculative bets on the rupee and restrict rebooking of cancelled foreign exchange derivative contracts.  It also opened a special window to meet the entire daily dollar requirements of three public sector oil marketing companies, ring-fencing this trade from spot markets.

The steps offer “short-term to medium-term stability, not long-term structural support,” Devarsh Vakil, head of research at HDFC Securities, told CNBC,

These steps come just months after the central bank in June launched a special scheme, known as the Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) deposits, that offered incentives to non-resident Indians for making foreign currency deposits in Indian banks.

While this boosted the RBI’s foreign exchange reserves by $105 billion, global adverse conditions forced the central bank to make “aggressive” intervention in spot markets to counter the pressure on the rupee, global brokerage Nomura said in a report on Saturday.

Since the close of the program on Aug. 30, the rupee has fallen 1.9% against the dollar, and the RBI’s interventions to curb the decline “through dollar sales” have resulted in foreign reserves falling by $51 billion as of Oct. 2, Indian brokerage Ambit Capital said in a report on Wednesday.

FCNR-B, along with other currency swap measures announced in June, has led to forward dollar commitments of $200 billion that reduce the RBI’s effective reserve cover, “leaving the rupee vulnerable to further depreciation,” the report said.

India’s import cover stands at around 6.2 months, its lowest since the U.S. taper tantrum in 2013, it added.

India, which remains the world’s fastest-growing major economy, is among the countries most vulnerable to supply disruptions caused by the Iran war. The South Asian country meets nearly 85% of its fuel needs via imports, with the Strait of Hormuz being a key supply route before the war.

High energy costs, coupled with record exits of foreign investors from its capital markets due to risk aversion and the lack of artificial intelligence play, have kept the rupee under pressure.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens last month to avoid foreign travel and buying gold, to ease the pressure on the local currency. He had made a similar call in May, amid the growing risks to the economy from the Iran war.

A move towards 100 rupees per US dollar cannot be excluded, Luchnikava-Schorsch said, adding that the scenario could play out “if oil prices rise further, portfolio outflows resume and the current account deficit widens beyond current expectations.”

Foreign portfolio investors have sold direct Indian equities worth $32.5 billion this year through Oct. 13, according to the data of Indian depository NSDL.

The rupee is likely to remain under pressure for the financial year ending in March 2027, Harsimran Sahni, associate director and head of treasury at Indian firm Anand Rathi Global Finance, said.

“Businesses should strengthen their hedging strategies and stress-test their foreign currency exposures,” Sahni said, adding that RBI interventions can moderate volatility but cannot offset external imbalances “indefinitely.”

If sustained capital outflows coincide with elevated crude prices and a widening current account deficit, the rupee could move toward the 100 per dollar mark, he said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday reported a record third-quarter profit that beat estimates, powered by an unrelenting global appetite for AI chips.

Here are TSMC’s third-quarter results against LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

• Revenue: 1.49 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($46.36 billion) vs. NT$1.47 trillion
• Net Income: NT$763.1 billion vs. NT$746.34 billion expected

The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted a record net profit for a sixth straight quarter, reporting 68.7% surge in the reported quarter from a year earlier.

TSMC’s third-quarter operating margin came in at 58.7%, exceeding the upper end of its guidance range of 58%, showcasing the pricing power enjoyed by the company as the AI boom fuels demand for semiconductors.

TSMC forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion, representing a 14% sequential increase and a 58% jump from a year earlier at the midpoint of its guidance range, according to the company’s earnings call.

The chipmaker expects its capital expenditure from 2026 to 2028 to be significantly higher than in the previous three years, as it continues to ramp up investments to support growing customer demand.

TSMC’s stronger-than-expected results and upgraded full-year revenue outlook underscore how demand for advanced chips continues to outpace its production capacity, with the company’s elevated capital spending reflecting confidence in sustained growth over the coming years, Sravan Kundojjala, an analyst at SemiAnalysis, told CNBC via email.

TSMC expects its fourth-quarter business to be supported by continued strong demand for its advanced chipmaking technologies, including the ramp-up of its 2-nanometer process.

Kundojjala also highlighted TSMC’s careful approach to capacity expansion, adding that the chipmaker is assessing whether customers have the financing and supporting components needed to deploy AI systems.

“Even after those checks, TSMC says demand remains well above its supply capacity,” he said, adding that it reinforces confidence in the AI buildout while ensuring investment decisions reflect customers’ ability to deploy the chips they order.

Advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and more advanced technologies, made up for 79% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the reported. The 3-nanometer chips accounted for the largest share of its revenue in the third quarter at 33%, followed by 5- and 7-nanometer chips.

By platform, high-performance computing accounted for the largest share of revenue at 68%, followed by smartphones at 21%. Meanwhile, automotive was the fastest-growing segment on a quarter-on-quarter basis, with 23%  growth rate.

TSMC said demand for AI chips remains strong, driven by the growing adoption of agentic AI and open-source AI models, which are expected to make AI more accessible and fuel demand for advanced semiconductors.

The company’s free cash flow surged to NT$476.56 billion in the third quarter, from NT$139.38 billion a year ago.

TSMC also pointed to rising demand for AI accelerators, processors used in agentic AI applications and networking, adding that semiconductors are set to play an increasingly important role in the global AI supply chain.

TSMC also said it had completed construction of its second fab in Arizona and is installing equipment, with mass production expected to begin in the third quarter of 2027, slightly ahead of its previous schedule.

TSMC board approved NT$7.00 cash dividend for the second quarter. During its second-quarter earnings announcement in July, TSMC had outlined plans to expand its U.S. manufacturing footprint, including a total planned investment of $265 billion in Arizona.

The chipmaker is also reportedly considering expanding beyond Arizona, evaluating a potential investment in Texas as it looks to further strengthen its U.S. manufacturing presence.

Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore.

Welcome to the latest edition of “Inside India“ — your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, whose plans to launch satellite communications and dominance over the Indian telecom market have drawn the ire of Elon Musk last week, has a more pressing worry.

Jio Platforms, the company at the center of Musk’s remarks, is coming up with a record IPO issue soon, but its valuation demands have met with pushback from investors who seem unconvinced of the company’s positioning as a tech business.

Any thoughts on today’s newsletter? Share them with the team.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s telecom and digital services business Jio Platforms, which was called “monopolistic” by Starlink founder Elon Musk last week, has lowered its valuation ahead of its initial public offering next week.

Jio Platforms is the largest telecom operator in India with over half a billion subscribers but has been positioning itself as a tech company and not just a traditional utility provider, experts told CNBC, but disagreed on whether these demands were valid.

Jio Platforms’ IPO will raise up to 302 billion rupees (nearly $3.2 billion) at a price band of 1,065 rupees to 1,119 rupees per share, its parent company Reliance Industries said in a stock filing on Wednesday. This values the company at around $108 billion—lower than the valuations of over $130 billion floated a year ago.

Jio’s enterprise valuation has shrunk to $118 billion from the $133 billion expected earlier, global brokerage Nomura said in a report on Sunday based on Bloomberg news last week that revealed the IPO pricing details.

Reliance Industries, the parent company of Jio Platforms, did not respond to CNBC’s emails seeking comments.

An equity valuation of $108 billion places Jio lower than India’s second-largest telecom company Bharti Airtel, which currently trades at a market capitalization of over $117 billion, as per LSEG data.

“Following its listing, Jio will likely need to demonstrate growth to public shareholders,” the report said, adding that the era of “easy subscriber gains” is ending and tariff hikes are likely to become “the primary driver of earnings growth.”

As per the information shared in Jio Platforms’ IPO papers, the company’s ARPU was 214 rupees ($2.25) per month while that of its competitor Airtel was 257 rupees for mobile, 527 rupees for home internet and 158 rupees for digital TV services.

Based purely on average revenue per user, a key metric for telecom companies, Jio’s discount to Airtel seems justified, but Jio wants to be seen as a tech company and not just a utility player.

Through the IPO, Jio Platforms plans to clear off its legacy telecom debt, which will free up internal cash flows for its second phase of growth, according to Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research.

Jio plans to use the funds raised by the IPO to pay off its telecom business debt of 275 billion rupees, according to its IPO papers.

The next phase of investment will involve funding the company’s “gigawatt-scale green AI infrastructure” and low-earth-orbit satellite network, Shah said, placing it in the realm of tech businesses.

He pointed out that global tech majors like Meta and Google, which hold nearly 10% and 8% stakes respectively in Jio, are not exiting their investments via the IPO—proving their willingness to wait for the next phase of growth.

During the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June, Ambani told shareholders that Jio will “demonstrate to the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value.”

He highlighted that, as per the World Intellectual Property Organization, Jio Platforms’ ranking in terms of “velocity of innovation through patents” jumped to 20 from 340 a year ago.

This was also when Ambani announced Jio Platforms’ plan to enter the satellite communication space in India, an area that has drawn interest from Musk’s Starlink. Last week, Musk said that his company has spent “five years complying with every single law and requirement” of the government and blamed Ambani for the delays in the launch of Starlink.

But even as the world’s first trillionaire and India’s second-richest businessman contest to provide internet to the remote areas of India, some experts are not convinced Jio Platforms has enough to be defined as a tech company.

Jio Platforms wants tech prices, but they have “no product expertise” as of now, Anurag Singh, managing partner and founder of U.S. based Ansid Capital, told CNBC.

He added that while Indian investors may buy Jio’s tech pitch due to lack of choice, “global investors won’t.” For now, Reliance is a utility company and will need significant investment to transform into a tech player, Singh said.

As ‘Cockroach’ protests grow over alleged voter fraud, Modi defends India as ‘mother of democracy’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday defended India as a “mother of democracy,” as protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter fraud are intensifying.

India calls JD Vance’s comments about immigrants ‘deeply offensive’
India on Friday called comments by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance about immigrants from the country “deeply offensive”. A day earlier, Vance said that foreign and local companies “cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”

India’s retail inflation jumps to 5.54% in September, above estimates
India’s headline inflation rose to 5.54% in September from 4.82% in August, adding pressure on the country’s central bank to further tighten monetary policy. The consumer price index print was slightly above economists’ expectations of 5.40%

The Indian billionaire investing in Trump’s refinery project is also buying more Venezuelan crude
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which is investing in a historic U.S. oil refinery project proposed by President Donald Trump, has now emerged as the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude outside the U.S.

Oct. 15: India unemployment data for September

Oct. 21: Jio Platforms IPO opens

—Corrects number of Jio Platforms subscribers in second paragraph of “The big story” section.

Meta- and Google-backed Jio Platforms, India’s largest telecom operator, is looking to raise up to 302 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) through an initial public offering of shares.

Jio Platforms will sell 270 million shares in IPO priced between 1,065 rupees and 1,119 rupees apiece, from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23. Reliance Industries, the parent company of the telecom operator, said in an exchange filing.

The share sale will be India’s largest ever in rupee terms, but the second largest in dollar terms, marginally trailing the Hyundai Motors IPO that raised $3.3 billion in 2024. As per estimates provided by Indian market intelligence firm Prime Database, Jio was expected to raise around 377 billion rupees through its IPO.

At the top end of the price range, Jio Platforms is valued at around $108 billion, much lower than previously expected. While Jio Platforms has been positioning itself as a tech company and not just a traditional utility provider, investors seem unconvinced.

Jio Platforms, at its core, is a telecom company, Deven Choksey, managing director of Mumbai-based DRChoksey Finserv, told CNBC.

While entertainment or gaming applications owned by Jio Platforms increase data consumption, the company earns revenues primarily from selling internet data, he added.

Jio is the largest telecom company in India with over half a million subscribers, but at its current price it will be valued less than Bharti Airtel, the second largest player in the country. Bharti Airtel has a market cap of $117.5 billion, as per LSEG data.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s flagship company, Reliance Industries, owns more than a 66% stake in Jio Platforms, followed by Meta Platforms‘ affiliate Jaadhu Holdings that owns nearly 10% and Google International, which owns 7.7%, as per LSEG data.

Neither Meta nor Google will sell their stake in the company, according to the IPO papers.

Jio Platforms also plans to roll out satellite communications services in India, putting it at the center of the spat between owner Ambani and Starlink’s Elon Musk. Jio is reportedly looking to set up a network of around 1,600 LEO satellites and 23 ground stations to expand connectivity across India.

Musk, last Saturday, accused Ambani of blocking Starlink’s launch in India to maintain his “monopolistic exploitation” of the Indian market.

BANGKOK — The Philippine central bank is planning for a “Godzilla” El Niño on top of a prolonged oil shock, as the Southeast Asian nation tries to rein in inflation from three-year highs.

Governor Eli Remolona said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas now sets policy using scenarios that factor in oil prices and the severity of the weather event. “We have the regular, ordinary El Niño, which is bad, and then we have the Godzilla El Niño, which is really, really bad,” he said Wednesday on a panel at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok.

The worst of El Niño’s impact on prices is still to come, with the effects expected from November through February, he said, adding that maintaining price stability remains the central bank’s priority.

“We’re holding our breath,” he said, “but we have to be prepared for the worst.”

The looming weather risk is adding fresh pressure on one of Southeast Asia’s most vulnerable economies. Philippine inflation accelerated to 7.2% in September from 6.1% in August, with rice prices up 18%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The world’s biggest rice importer is also exposed to food supply risk. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel has warned that a fresh drought could squeeze domestic supply. Larger Philippine purchases could add demand to a global market already jolted by El Niño and export curbs. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has raised its rice price index for six consecutive months to a 20-month high.

The central bank lifted its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 5% in August to keep a lid on the runaway inflation.

The BSP should deliver another quarter-percentage hike next week to 5.25%, followed by another same-sized hike in December, according to Aris Dacanay, senior ASEAN economist at HSBC Bank, in a note Wednesday.