<div id="readability-page-1"><div>OPENING CALL Stock futures and global indexes were retreating Friday as concerns about smaller banks spilled into a second session. Investors dashed for haven assets such as gold and government bonds. Deutsche Bank said disclosures by Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance &#34;raised broader questions over potential credit quality issues.&#34; Bank stocks , large and small, were under fresh pressure premarket. High-flying tech stocks were also taking a knock. More regional banks were due to report earnings before today's bell, including Fifth Third Bancorp and Comerica. Also playing on investors' minds is the recent flare-up of trade tensions with China. The government shutdown , meanwhile, has suspended the September employment report and will delay inflation releases originally slated for publication this week. Stocks to Watch Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp were on pace to extend Thursday's losses following yesterday's disclosures. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley each lost more than 1% premarket. Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and Standard Chartered dropped as international bank stocks were also hard hit. Intel, Nvidia , Strategy and others tech and crypto-linked stocks retreated ahead of the open, pointing to a broader pullback from risk. Watch For: Housing Starts for September; Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for September; earnings from American Express, Fifth Third Bancorp, Comerica, Regions Financial Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads: - Oracle Isn't Answering the Hardest Questions About Its AI Plans - Walmart, Once a Byword for Low Pay, Becomes a Case Study in How to Treat Workers - Chinese Tourists Are Spending Less. Hotel Giant H World Says That's a Good Thing MARKET WRAPS Forex: The dollar fell to an 11-day low against a basket of currencies after Fed governor Christopher Waller said Thursday he supported continued monetary-policy easing . His comments echo those from Fed Chair Jerome Powell earlier in the week. The euro strengthened and could rise further given the multiple factors weighing on the dollar, ING said. The greenback has been hit by Fed rate-cut bets, trade tensions, concerns about loan losses at U.S. regional banks and falling oil prices. Sterling weakened against the euro fell as widespread risk aversion and U.K. fiscal concerns weighed. The yen strengthened further against G-10 currencies. &#34;A risk-off mood dominates markets,&#34; CBA said. The Swiss franc rose to an 11-month high against the euro as investors sought safe-haven assets due to the worries over bad loans at U.S. regional banks. Bonds: The 10-year Treasury yield dropped further below 4%, extending the previous day's trend. Societe Generale said the rally in Treasurys was &#34;driven by U.S. regional bank woes and further dovish repricing of the Fed.&#34; Energy: Oil prices dropped on news that Trump will meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin, easing concerns about tightening supplies . Prices had been supported in recent days on supply worries as Ukraine continued attacks on the Russian oil sector, ANZ said. A further boost came from Trump saying India had agreed to stop purchases of Russian oil. WTI hit its lowest level since May after a bearish U.S. inventories report . Metals: Gold reached another record high as investors bet on the Fed continuing to lower interest rates. ANZ said gold's rally has room to run amid geopolitical, economic and fiscal uncertainty. It forecasts a peak price of $4,600 a troy ounce in mid-2026. ING said gold received an additional boost from souring sentiment on the state of the U.S. credit market. Comex futures' bullish momentum is following through, RHB Retail Research said. At this stage, price movements imply that gold bulls aren't showing any sign of weakness, it added. Copper Prices for the red metal fell as Chinese companies looked to increase metal exports. Commerzbank said it makes sense for China's producers to increase exports given robust metal production coupled with emerging weakness in domestic demand. <pre> TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES </pre> The Auto Industry Is Panicking About Another Potential Chip Shortage The auto industry is digesting a new and potentially damaging supply-chain disruption from an unlikely source: a small Dutch semiconductor manufacturer with an outsize influence on how cars and trucks are made. Nexperia notified customers last week that it was stopping shipments of parts, people familiar with the matter say. The company's chips are used in everything from lights to electronics. The move came after the Dutch government wrested control of the company from its Chinese owner. Nexperia declared the continuing situation a &#34;force majeure&#34; event, the people say, citing a provision that generally can excuse companies from contractual obligations when facing an extraordinary situation. Interactive Brokers Logs Higher Profit, Revenue as Trading Volume Climbs Interactive Brokers Group posted higher profit in the third quarter as traders continued to pour into stocks and options. The online brokerage platform said Thursday that client trading volumes in stocks and options climbed 67% and 27%, respectively, in the quarter. Futures volume, meanwhile, decreased 7%. Customer accounts increased by 32% to 4.1 million, with customer equity up 40% to $757.5 billion. CSX Standoffish as Merger Questions Overshadow Third Quarter Results CSX is wary about any possible merger following the $71.5 billion deal that two of its rivals agreed to this summer. The railroad operator fielded a string of questions during Thursday's third-quarter earnings call about whether CSX would consider a merger in the footsteps of the deal between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Executives responded by emphasizing CSX's strategy as a standalone company and noting the regulatory hurdles its competitors still have to clear. Oracle Stock Whipsaws as Management Discusses Outlook Oracle stock got a lift as executives reassured investors about the profitability of a business renting servers to AI companies, only to fall as the tech giant discussed its broader financial outlook over the next five year. The rally came as Oracle pushed back on a story that ran in The Information last week, which said that gross profit margin at Oracle's fast-growing AI cloud server-rental business was surprisingly low at 14%. Walmart, Once a Byword for Low Pay, Becomes a Case Study in How to Treat Workers Bentonville, Ark.-A decade ago, the largest private employer in the U.S., Walmart, increased its starting wage to $9 an hour. Raising the salaries of nearly half of its more than a million U.S. hourly workers made it the biggest pay raise in history. Investors reacted by sending Walmart shares down 10%, destroying $21.5 billion in market value in hours. This fall, Walmart's experience will be published as a Harvard Business School case study--as a success. Hundreds of executives from Blackstone, Bank of America and other firms traveled to Bentonville, Ark., recently to learn about Walmart's future workforce management and hear the story of the 2015 wage increase from Walmart's chief executive. The move, he says, launched its current sales tear and online advance. Constellation Energy Has the Power That AI Needs. The CEO Is Making the Most of It. As the kingpins of artificial intelligence scramble to secure electricity for their data centers, CEO Joe Dominguez has the goods. His Baltimore-based Constellation Energy is on the brink of producing more electricity than any company on earth. Constellation produces most of its power with 21 nuclear reactors spread across several states, accounting for about a quarter of America's nuclear generation. It also owns wind farms and hydroelectric plants. And it's now acquiring one of the country's biggest operators of natural-gas plants, Houston-based Calpine. When that deal closes, likely before year end, tens of millions of households across the country will depend on Constellation to keep the lights on. Global Markets Largely Down, Gold Extends Streak as Fed Rate-Cut Hopes Grow U.S. stock futures fell slightly. Gold continued its march to new record highs as investors flocked to safe-haven assets amid weakening sentiment on the U.S. credit sector. The dollar fell again, hitting an 11-day low against a basket of currencies after Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller indicated he would vote for a fresh cut to interest rates, echoing comments from the central bank's chair, Jerome Powell, earlier in the week. Chamber of Commerce Sues Over Trump's New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump administration Thursday over hefty new fees in the H-1B visa program, joining the legal campaign against the administration's changes to a program used by some of the biggest tech companies in the U.S. The lawsuit puts the chamber among the few business groups to challenge the Trump administration in court over policies they say will hurt employers. An earlier lawsuit over the $100,000 fee for new visa applications was filed in federal court in California by a healthcare-staffing business and labor unions. Lawsuits over sweeping global tariffs, meanwhile, were brought by small businesses including a wine importer and an educational toy company, not Fortune 500 companies. Oil Prices Drop to the Lowest Level in Nearly Five Years A growing glut of oil and fear of a global economic slowdown have pushed U.S. crude prices to their lowest point since fuel markets were rebounding from the Covid crash. (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires10-17-25 0617ET</div></div>

ZION

Stock futures and global indexes are declining as concerns about smaller banks persist, prompting investors to seek safe-haven assets like gold and government bonds. Deutsche Bank raised questions about credit quality issues following disclosures from Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance. Major bank stocks, including JPMorgan and Bank of America, are under pressure, while tech stocks also face declines. The dollar weakened against other currencies amid Fed rate-cut expectations, and gold prices reached record highs due to ongoing economic uncertainties.

North American Morning Briefing : Banking Concerns Trigger Flight to Safety