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(Reuters) -China's No. 1 automaker BYD considers Spain to be its top candidate for a third car factory to serve the European market, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters, as the company seeks to grow sales on the continent. A BYD assembly plant, joining two other planned factories in Hungary and Turkey, would be a significant boost for the carmaker that competes with Tesla, and would also bolster Spain's aim of becoming a major hub for electric vehicle production. One of the sources said Spain is favoured by BYD because of its relatively low manufacturing costs and clean energy network. While it is known that BYD has been looking for a third plant to serve the European market, Spain's emergence as a frontrunner has been previously unreported. ANY DECISION NEEDS SIGN-OFF IN CHINA BYD country manager for Spain and Portugal Alberto De Aza told Reuters last month that Spain would be an ideal location for further expansion of BYD's European manufacturing footprint because of its industrial infrastructure and cheap electricity. A third source cautioned that the company has not communicated any final decision and was still considering other countries besides Spain. A final decision on the plant, which should come before the end of the year, will need to be approved by Chinese regulators. Reuters reported in March that BYD has looked at other countries including Germany, though that has been debated internally because of high labour and energy costs. Both Spain's Industry Ministry and BYD declined to comment. BYD AIMS TO MAKE ALL CARS FOR EUROPE LOCALLY IN THREE YEARS BYD's sales in Europe jumped 280% in the first eight months of the year from the same period in 2024 after the automaker began selling plug-in hybrids as well as fully electric cars. Reuters reported in April that BYD had overhauled its European operations to boost sales by hiring more managers and adding dealerships. Diplomatic and business ties between Spain and China have warmed considerably in recent years. Last year, Spain abstained on a European Union vote on tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. China's government privately told automakers to halt investments in European countries that supported those tariffs, Reuters reported last year. Germany voted against the tariffs. Spain, Europe's second-largest car-producing nation, has attracted major investments including from Germany's Volkswagen and China's Chery and CATL since it announced a 5 billion euro ($5.8 billion) plan in 2020 to attract EV and battery manufacturing using EU pandemic relief funds. BYD aims to produce all EVs for sale in Europe locally within three years, which would help it avoid EU tariffs. Its planned factory in Hungary is currently under construction, though sources told Reuters in July that BYD has pushed back its timeline for mass production at the plant until next year. Its Turkish plant is due to open in 2026.   ($1 = 0.8618 euros) (By Reuters Staff; Editing by Nick Carey and Jan Harvey)

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By Anmol Choubey (Reuters) -Indian textile exporters are seeking new buyers in Europe and offering discounts to existing U.S. customers to cushion the blow from steep U.S. tariffs of as much as 50%, industry executives said. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs in August on Indian imports, placing them among the highest for any trading partner, and affecting goods and produce ranging from garments and jewellery to shrimp. A Mumbai-based garment exporter, who sought anonymity ahead of signing export contracts, said his company was prioritising diversification into European Union markets and that an early trade deal with the bloc would help boost shipments from India. Trade talks between India and the EU have entered a decisive phase, as their teams work intensively to meet a year-end target for signing a free trade pact. The EU is India's largest trading partner for goods, with two-way trade of $137.5 billion in the fiscal year to March 2024, for an increase of nearly 90% over the past decade. Indian exporters are stepping up efforts to meet the EU's tougher standards on chemicals, product labeling, and ethical sourcing, textile exporters said. Exporters are upgrading production facilities to meet these standards, said Rahul Mehta, whose website describes him as the chief mentor of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India. Exporters are also keen to reduce their dependence on the United States, Mehta added. The United States was India's largest market for textiles and apparel in the fiscal year to March 2025, taking nearly 29% of total exports of roughly $38 billion. Some exporters have started offering discounts to retain U.S. customers, said Vijay Kumar Agarwal, chairman of Mumbai-based Creative Group, whose U.S. exports make up 89% of its total shipments. If U.S. tariffs continue to bite, the company could lose 6,000 to 7,000 of its 15,000 workers, and after six months may consider moving production to Oman or neighbouring Bangladesh, Agarwal said. (Reporting by Anmol Choubey; Editing by Rajendra Jadhav, Mayank Bhardwaj and Clarence Fernandez)

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By Anjana Anil (Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Tuesday as early signs of a thaw in U.S.-China trade tensions bolstered market sentiment, alleviating concerns over global fuel demand. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday President Donald Trump remains committed to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month as both countries try to de-escalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls. He added that there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected. Brent crude futures rose 18 cents, or 0.28%, to $63.50 a barrel by 0000 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $59.65 a barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.27%. In the previous session, Brent settled 0.9% higher, and U.S. WTI closed up 1%. The prospect of improved trade relations between the world's two largest economies has historically buoyed oil markets, as investors anticipate stronger global growth and increased fuel demand. However, recent developments, including Beijing's expanded export controls on rare earths and Trump's threats of 100% tariffs and software export restrictions starting November 1, have weighed on sentiment. Last week, oil prices posted weekly losses and touched their lowest levels since May. Trump had also cast doubt on a potential meeting with Xi during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea scheduled for October 30-November 1, saying on Truth Social that "now there seems to be no reason to do so." While the selloff in markets now looks to be limited by Washington and Beijing's more conciliatory tone, geopolitics are expected to remain in the spotlight. "The oil industry continues to navigate geopolitical issues," Daniel Hynes, an analyst at ANZ, said in a note. "China announced that it would levy U.S.-owned ships arriving at its shores, including oil tankers. That sparked several last-minute cancellations and a jump in shipping rates," Hynes added. Limiting the market's upside, Trump on Monday declared the end of the two-year-long Gaza war that has upended the broader Middle East. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia said in its monthly report on Monday that the oil market's supply shortfall will shrink in 2026, as the wider OPEC+ alliance moves ahead with planned output increases. (Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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BEIJING/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The United States and China on Tuesday will begin charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. China said it had started to collect the special charges on U.S.-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels but clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies. In details published on Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, which also include empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair. The China-imposed extra port fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year, following an annual billing cycle beginning on April 17. Early this year, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen that country's grip on the global maritime industry and bolster U.S. shipbuilding. An investigation during former President Joe Biden's administration concluded China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties. The U.S. is scheduled to also begin collecting fees on October 14. Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be most affected, shouldering nearly half of that segment's expected $3.2 billion cost from those fees in 2026. China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on U.S.-linked vessels from the same day. Jefferies analyst Omar Nokta noted that 13% of crude tankers and 11% of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.  "This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows," Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers Inc said in a research note. In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100% tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1. Administration officials hours later warned that countries voting in favor of a plan by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping this week could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges. China has publicly supported the IMO plan. "The weaponisation of both trade and environmental policy signals that shipping has moved from being a neutral conduit of global commerce to a direct instrument of statecraft," Xclusiv said. Shares in Shanghai-listed COSCO rose more than 2% in early trading on Tuesday. The company said its board had approved a plan to buy back up to 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million) worth of its shares within the next three months to maintain corporate value and safeguard shareholder interest. The shipping firm did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries about the potential impact of the port fees. ($1 = 7.1337 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Liz Lee in Beijing; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen, Brenda Goh in Shanghai and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, as the global race to boost production of AI chips has tightened supply and driven up prices of conventional memory chips, the tech giant's mainstay. Strong demand for conventional memory chips used in artificial intelligence servers helped offset weaker sales of advanced AI chips of Samsung, which has been lagging rivals in the race to supply to Nvidia, analysts said. The world's leading memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 12.1 trillion won ($8.5 billion) for the July-September period, up 32% from a year earlier and well above a 10.1 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate. That would mark its best quarterly profit in 13 quarters. Samsung shares rose as much as 2.9% after the announcement to 96,000 won, their highest level since January 2021, notching up a 79% gain so far this year. "The third-quarter earnings surprise came from the chip business," said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities. Although progress in supplying advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to major clients such as Nvidia was slower than expected, gains in commodity memory, supported by tight supplies, helped cushion the impact, analysts said. "Samsung is a big beneficiary of growing demand for commodity chips," said Sohn In-joon, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities. Sohn attributed the earnings beat to stronger-than-expected prices of commodity DRAM and NAND chips, stemming from demand for AI data center servers, and lower chip inventory by chipmakers that gave them bargaining power in pricing. Analysts said Samsung also benefited from narrower losses at its foundry unit, which makes logic chips, as utilisation rates helped ease fixed-cost pressures. The company said revenue would likely rise 8.7% to a record high of 86 trillion won from a year earlier, also helped by the weaker South Korean currency. Samsung is expected to release detailed results including a breakdown of earnings for each of its businesses on October 30. SHORTAGE STOKES CONVENTIONAL CHIP PRICES Analysts said memory makers' focus on investing in advanced chips in recent years may have limited the production of conventional chips, which extended a supply shortage and spurred price increases for conventional chips. Prices of some DRAM chips, widely used in servers, smartphones and PCs, jumped 171.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to TrendForce data. Analysts expect the commodity memory supply shortage to continue into 2026. Following OpenAI's success with ChatGPT, big tech companies have established longer-term plans to expand their spending on AI-related investments, including data centres and servers capable of handling the growing workloads from AI services. While recent chip supply deals with major tech companies, such as Tesla and OpenAI, eased investor concerns about Samsung, analysts cautioned that uncertainties remain, including potential U.S. tariffs that could hurt chip demand, an intensifying trade war between the U.S. and China, as well as China's tightened export controls on rare earth materials used in advanced chips and manufacturing equipment. Samsung has been the world's biggest memory chipmaker for three decades but it is facing increasing competition in advanced AI chips after losing its No. 1 DRAM market share to SK Hynix in the first quarter of this year. Its rivals, SK Hynix and Micron, have benefited from robust memory chip demand driven by AI, while Samsung's exposure to China, where advanced chip sales are restricted by the United States, has constrained its growth. Analysts expect Samsung’s HBM sales to gradually improve after the company made meaningful progress in supplying its latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia following delays in recent quarters, though some said shipment volumes remain limited. Samsung is betting on next-generation HBM4 products to narrow the gap with SK Hynix. Morgan Stanley said in a report that Samsung is on track with next-generation HBM4 development, working closely with major U.S. customers. Commercial shipments and sales contributions are expected to begin in 2026. ($1 = 1,427.1000 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)

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By Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October as the two sides try to de-escalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday. The latest rupture followed China's announcement on Thursday that it would dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. That drew a sharp countermeasure from Trump on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world's two largest economies into a spiral. Bessent said there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected. "We have substantially de-escalated," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.  "President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on." Trump and Xi had planned to meet during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum hosted by South Korea in late October. China's Commerce Ministry on Tuesday said it had informed the U.S. in advance it planned to tighten its rare earth controls, and confirmed that the two sides remain in communication, adding that a working-level meeting took place on Monday. But the statement from a Commerce Ministry spokesperson warned "the U.S. cannot ask for talks while simultaneously threatening new restrictive measures." Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, after Wall Street's main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher on Monday, following Bessent's signal that trade negotiations between the two superpowers remain on track. Trump's threat on Friday sparked a big sell-off at a time when investors and top policymakers were already growing anxious about a frothy stock market fueled by an investment boom in artificial intelligence that some officials fear could hurt future employment. Bessent said there would be U.S.-China staff-level meetings this week in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual gatherings. "The 100% tariff does not have to happen," Bessent said. "The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we'll see where it goes." US PUSHBACK AGGRESSIVE Still, Bessent called the China move provocative and said the U.S. pushed back aggressively.  The United States has been in contact with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and democracies in Asia, he said. "China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us," Bessent said. China blamed the United States for the rising trade tensions on Sunday and called Trump's latest threatened tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods hypocritical. It defended its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment. China dominates the market for such elements, which are essential to tech manufacturing. Under China's new regulations, foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material. This applies even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies. The United States would reject licensing requirements from China, Bessent said in the interview on "Mornings with Maria." (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, David Lawder and Joe Cash in Beijing; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alistair Bell and Lincoln Feast.)

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By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, as the global race to boost production of AI chips has tightened supply and driven up prices of conventional memory chips, the tech giant's mainstay. Strong demand for conventional memory chips used in artificial intelligence servers helped offset weaker sales of advanced AI chips of Samsung, which has been lagging rivals in the race to supply to Nvidia, analysts said. The world's leading memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 12.1 trillion won ($8.5 billion) for the July-September period, up 32% from a year earlier and well above a 10.1 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate. That would mark its best quarterly profit in 13 quarters. Samsung shares rose as much as 2.9% after the announcement to 96,000 won, their highest level since January 2021, notching up a 79% gain so far this year. "The third-quarter earnings surprise came from the chip business," said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities. Although progress in supplying advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to major clients such as Nvidia was slower than expected, gains in commodity memory, supported by tight supplies, helped cushion the impact, analysts said. "Samsung is a big beneficiary of growing demand for commodity chips," said Sohn In-joon, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities. Sohn attributed the earnings beat to stronger-than-expected prices of commodity DRAM and NAND chips, stemming from demand for AI data center servers, and lower chip inventory by chipmakers that gave them bargaining power in pricing. Analysts said Samsung also benefited from narrower losses at its foundry unit, which makes logic chips, as utilisation rates helped ease fixed-cost pressures. The company said revenue would likely rise 8.7% to a record high of 86 trillion won from a year earlier, also helped by the weaker South Korean currency. Samsung is expected to release detailed results including a breakdown of earnings for each of its businesses on October 30. SHORTAGE STOKES CONVENTIONAL CHIP PRICES Analysts said memory makers' focus on investing in advanced chips in recent years may have limited the production of conventional chips, which extended a supply shortage and spurred price increases for conventional chips. Prices of some DRAM chips, widely used in servers, smartphones and PCs, jumped 171.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to TrendForce data. Analysts expect the commodity memory supply shortage to continue into 2026. Following OpenAI's success with ChatGPT, big tech companies have established longer-term plans to expand their spending on AI-related investments, including data centres and servers capable of handling the growing workloads from AI services. While recent chip supply deals with major tech companies, such as Tesla and OpenAI, eased investor concerns about Samsung, analysts cautioned that uncertainties remain, including potential U.S. tariffs that could hurt chip demand, an intensifying trade war between the U.S. and China, as well as China's tightened export controls on rare earth materials used in advanced chips and manufacturing equipment. Samsung has been the world's biggest memory chipmaker for three decades but it is facing increasing competition in advanced AI chips after losing its No. 1 DRAM market share to SK Hynix in the first quarter of this year. Its rivals, SK Hynix and Micron, have benefited from robust memory chip demand driven by AI, while Samsung's exposure to China, where advanced chip sales are restricted by the United States, has constrained its growth. Analysts expect Samsung’s HBM sales to gradually improve after the company made meaningful progress in supplying its latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia following delays in recent quarters, though some said shipment volumes remain limited. Samsung is betting on next-generation HBM4 products to narrow the gap with SK Hynix. Morgan Stanley said in a report that Samsung is on track with next-generation HBM4 development, working closely with major U.S. customers. Commercial shipments and sales contributions are expected to begin in 2026. ($1 = 1,427.1000 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)

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By Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October as the two sides try to de-escalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday. The latest rupture followed China's announcement on Thursday that it would dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. That drew a sharp countermeasure from Trump on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world's two largest economies into a spiral. Bessent said there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected. "We have substantially de-escalated," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.  "President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on." Trump and Xi had planned to meet during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum hosted by South Korea in late October. China's Commerce Ministry on Tuesday said it had informed the U.S. in advance it planned to tighten its rare earth controls, and confirmed that the two sides remain in communication, adding that a working-level meeting took place on Monday. But the statement from a Commerce Ministry spokesperson warned "the U.S. cannot ask for talks while simultaneously threatening new restrictive measures." Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, after Wall Street's main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher on Monday, following Bessent's signal that trade negotiations between the two superpowers remain on track. Trump's threat on Friday sparked a big sell-off at a time when investors and top policymakers were already growing anxious about a frothy stock market fueled by an investment boom in artificial intelligence that some officials fear could hurt future employment. Bessent said there would be U.S.-China staff-level meetings this week in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual gatherings. "The 100% tariff does not have to happen," Bessent said. "The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we'll see where it goes." US PUSHBACK AGGRESSIVE Still, Bessent called the China move provocative and said the U.S. pushed back aggressively.  The United States has been in contact with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and democracies in Asia, he said. "China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us," Bessent said. China blamed the United States for the rising trade tensions on Sunday and called Trump's latest threatened tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods hypocritical. It defended its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment. China dominates the market for such elements, which are essential to tech manufacturing. Under China's new regulations, foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material. This applies even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies. The United States would reject licensing requirements from China, Bessent said in the interview on "Mornings with Maria." (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, David Lawder and Joe Cash in Beijing; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alistair Bell and Lincoln Feast.)

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BEIJING/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The United States and China on Tuesday will begin charging port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. China said it had started to collect the special charges on U.S.-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels but clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies. In details published on Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, including for ships built by China and empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair. The China-imposed port fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year, following an annual billing cycle beginning on April 17. Early this year, President Donald Trump's administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen that country's grip on the global maritime industry and bolster U.S. shipbuilding. An investigation during former President Joe Biden's administration concluded China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties. The U.S. is scheduled to also begin collecting fees on October 14. Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be most affected, shouldering nearly half of that segment's expected $3.2 billion cost from those fees in 2026.  China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on U.S.-linked vessels from the same day. Jefferies analyst Omar Nokta noted that 13% of crude tankers and 11% of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.  "This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows," Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers Inc said in a research note.  In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100% tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1.  Administration officials hours later warned that countries voting in favor of a plan by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping this week could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges. China has publicly supported the IMO plan.  "The weaponisation of both trade and environmental policy signals that shipping has moved from being a neutral conduit of global commerce to a direct instrument of statecraft," Xclusiv said. (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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By Gregor Stuart Hunter SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, with an uneven recovery taking place across regional equity markets after signs that trade negotiations between the U.S. and China remain on track. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures advanced 0.3% to extend the rebound from Monday's session on Wall Street after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said U.S. President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October. Wall Street's main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher on Monday, led by chipmakers, after Trump struck a more conciliatory tone about U.S.-China trade tensions. Broad gains for global equities had gone abruptly into reverse on Friday after Trump announced 100% tariffs on China, reviving memories of the market volatility after April's "Liberation Day" announcement. The selloff only halted after a conciliatory message from the U.S. president on the Truth Social network. Citi analysts wrote in a research report that they do not expect an escalation of trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. "The reason is not so much the reassuring President Trump tweet over the weekend, but the fact that China may be the only country with bargaining power, where the U.S. may have to be more flexible in its negotiation stance."Asian stocks were led by a 2.2% increase in Taiwanese stocks and a 1% gain for South Korea's Kospi index as Samsung Electronics on Tuesday projected a 32% rise in third-quarter operating profit from a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates as demand for conventional memory chips helped offset the company's weaker high bandwidth memory chip sales. Japan's Nikkei stock index was last down 1.2% as the country's markets reopened after a holiday, while Australian shares edged 0.1% lower. Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was last up 0.1% at 152.40 yen. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was last trading at 99.289. Traders continue to expect easing from the Federal Reserve later this month is a near-certainty. Pricing of Fed funds futures implies a 97.8% probability of a 25-basis-points cut to interest rates at the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting on October 29, compared with a 98.3% chance a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. The euro was barely moved at $1.1566 after French President Emmanuel Macron rejected calls to resign on Monday, as his latest government was threatened by two no-confidence motions that could bring it down by the end of the week. Brent crude was last up 0.4% at $63.56 per barrel after an OPEC report on Monday showed world oil supply is expected to closely match demand next year as the wider OPEC+ group increases production, marking a change from last month's outlook, which projected a supply shortfall in 2026. Gold gained 0.7% to $4,138.39 per ounce, showing little sign of pausing for breath as precious metals continue to set records. Bitcoin was last down 0.9% at $114,789.90, while Ether slipped 1.5% to $4,223.14. (Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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