Daily Brief: US Tells Gulf Allies to Prepare for Iran Attack

The United States has told Gulf allies to prepare for possible strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported, as Houthi attacks on Saudi oil sites continued. Record results from SK hynix lifted South Korean stocks, Israel's election count left neither bloc with a majority, and Brazil's defeated presidential candidate left for the United States.

US reportedly tells Gulf allies to prepare for Iran strikes

The United States has told Gulf Arab states to prepare for a "short, intense" military campaign against Iran after the 3 November midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has not made a final decision, the newspaper said. A Patriot air defence system is moving to the region. The White House declined to comment on "sensitive military plans that may or may not exist". Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reiterated that Tehran's conditions for ending the war must be met, TASS and Bloomberg reported.

SK hynix record profit lifts Kospi past 6,000

SK hynix, the South Korean memory chipmaker, reported record third-quarter operating profit of 83.33 trillion won ($62.8 billion) on Wednesday, up 632% from a year earlier and above analysts' forecasts. Revenue rose 328% to 104.62 trillion won on demand for high-bandwidth memory used in artificial intelligence (AI) servers. The company announced a 100 trillion won shareholder return plan. Its shares rose 10.9%, and South Korea's Kospi index closed 6.6% higher at 6,012.44, the Korea Times reported.

Netanyahu bloc leads count, short of majority

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc led the count from Tuesday's Israeli general election but remained short of a majority on Wednesday. With about half of votes counted, it had 55 of the Knesset's 120 seats, against 49 for the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot and 16 for Arab parties, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Ynet reported. Turnout was 77.7%, the highest since 1999, the Central Elections Committee said. Netanyahu called for a "strong government of the right". Eisenkot said: "The public has voted for change."

Houthis claim missile strike on Ras Tanura

Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they had hit Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom's largest, with a ballistic missile, causing a fire. Saudi authorities did not confirm the strike. A fire near the Aramco export terminal was contained in the early hours, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Saudi forces said they intercepted ballistic missiles fired towards Riyadh and the Eastern Province. The Houthis have escalated attacks on Saudi Arabia since September.

Flávio Bolsonaro leaves Brazil for United States

Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil's defeated presidential candidate, left Brazil for the United States on Tuesday, US officials told Reuters and CNN, a day after a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports in a money-laundering investigation. A senior State Department official said Washington would issue visas to him and his family. Argentine media reported he flew out via Puerto Iguazú, which Argentina denied. He denies wrongdoing. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the move shameful, saying: "Brazil is their second nation, the US is their first."

Chip stocks lift Wall Street as Fed meets

US stocks rose on Tuesday as chipmakers rallied ahead of Big Tech results this week. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% to 7,722.60 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.2% to 26,477.81, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 52,377.57. Broadcom climbed 4% after banks and Blackstone agreed to finance $63 billion of its AI chips for Anthropic. The Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting and is expected to hold its rate range at 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday.

Boeing shares slump on 737 production delay

Boeing shares fell 10.7% on Tuesday after the planemaker said it would reach its target of building 47 737 jets a month in early 2027, later than its earlier summer 2026 goal. Boeing posted an adjusted third-quarter loss of 34 cents a share, wider than the 21-cent loss analysts expected, according to LSEG data. Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said Boeing would miss its target of about 500 737 deliveries this year. It forecast free cash flow of $3 billion next year, below analysts' expectations of $5.5 billion.

Oil falls as Iran diplomacy continues

Oil prices fell on Tuesday as diplomatic contacts involving Iran eased some concern over Middle East supply. Brent crude settled down $1.93, or 1.7%, at $113.88 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell $1.86 to $99.90. Prices stayed near six-month highs as there is no agreement to end the war and shipping disruption continues. In Asian trade on Wednesday, WTI rose 0.5% to $100.37, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Finnish and Norwegian leaders call Putin

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a rare phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Most Western European leaders have shunned direct contact with Putin since 2022. The two leaders urged de-escalation and discussed planned US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi in early November, the Finnish presidency said. "Ending the war requires direct discussions," Stubb said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the call. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the effort was "not coordinated" with the rest of Europe.

Zelenskiy says Ukrainian forces on the offensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday his forces were retaking territory in several offensives and that Ukraine's battlefield position was the strongest "in some time", Reuters reported. He described an operation near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region in which troops used underground gas pipelines to advance more than 15 kilometres behind Russian lines, killing more than 100 Russian soldiers and capturing over 30, the Kyiv Independent reported. Russia says its forces are advancing along the whole front.

Trump links midterm acceptance to "honest" vote

Trump said on Tuesday he would accept the results of the 3 November midterm elections "if they're honest elections", speaking to reporters before leaving for a rally in Texas. Trump also said he had told the Justice Department to sue Alaska over its Senate race, where two candidates named Dan Sullivan are on the ballot. The department has pressed California over a list of about 20,000 alleged non-citizen voters, which state officials dispute.