China's factory activity shrank for a seventh month in October, dragged by a drop in new export orders as the boost from months of front-loading to beat U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats finally wore off, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.0 in October from 49.8 in September, a six-month low, the National Bureau of Statistics' survey showed on Friday, remaining below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and missing a forecast of 49.6 in a Reuters poll. Policymakers had banked on producers rushing goods to the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing, Reuters reported. Trump's face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.

Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow's two biggest oil companies, multiple trade sources said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow, to comply with the U.S. sanctions imposed over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

China's Communist Party elite vowed on Thursday to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technological self-reliance, moves it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States, Reuters reported. As expected, the Party's Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people's livelihoods - long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritised manufacturing and investment - without giving many details.

Shoppers all over the world are buying more stuff from China than ever before. Even Americans are, despite the rising cost of tariffs. The only people who aren’t, it seems, are those in China, the New York Times reported. That is at the heart of a very big problem for China’s top leadership as it tries to steer a weakening economy through the volatility of the trade war with the United States. China depends on the world’s consumers to keep its economy steady, a point that was made clear on Monday by its latest economic update.

With trade hostilities between the world’s two economic superpowers back on, China has sent the unmistakable message that it is ready to fight. A week ago, it invoked its grip over virtually the entire global supply of critical materials, breaking a delicate trade détente between the two countries. Beijing feels it has another ace card: its booming factories. Even in the face of sky-high tariffs by President Trump, China’s manufacturing sector is helping to maintain growth and give the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, a stronger hand to face down the United States.

Canada offered tariff relief on some steel and aluminum products imported from the U.S. and China, a government document showed, in efforts to help domestic businesses battered by a trade war on two fronts, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney is negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. His team also met with Chinese counterparts last week in an effort to secure relief on Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods. Canada's economy has come under strain as the impact of tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.

Chinese doctor Lisa Zhu took full advantage of consumer goods subsidies this year, buying three air conditioners and a washing machine - the big-ticket spending policymakers want to see from households as they target roughly 5% economic growth. But there is a catch. China's 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) subsidies, equivalent to about 0.2% of gross domestic product, are punching above their weight this year, with analysts saying the spending they incentivised had a greater impact on growth than their size.