Weekend Brief: Nasdaq Slides Into Correction, Binance Gets Hacked, Oil Prints $104 - What Monday Opens With

Friday delivered a coordinated risk-off session on both sides of the Pacific, and the weekend opens with three storylines that will shape Monday's open: a tech complex sliding into correction, a crypto exchange in crisis mode, and an energy market that refuses to cool. Here is the data-backed picture - and the cushion hiding under it.

The Friday shock, both sides of the Pacific

China's growth boards led the Friday close: ChiNext fell 4.13% to 2,413.63, the STAR 50 lost 5.48% to 1,160.84, the Shenzhen Component dropped 2.73% and the Shanghai Composite closed 1.44% lower at 3,599.02. Then New York took the baton:

• Dow: -1.09% to 51,770.31
• S&P 500: -1.82% to 7,580.07
• Nasdaq: -2.86% to 25,437.00
• Nasdaq 100: now down 10% from its October high - correction territory

The damage concentrated where the AI trade lives. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 8% at the lows. Intel collapsed around 30% - its worst day since 2024 - after a Q4 guide far below expectations, and its five-year CDS spiked to a record near 128 basis points. AMD and Qualcomm lost more than 11%, TSMC 6.08%, ASML 6.44%, Nvidia 4.52%. VIX jumped as much as 36.5% intraday to 23.52, the highest print since April. Reddit cratered 29%, its worst session since its IPO.

Gold broke below $3,900 - a one-year low, more than 30% off this year's high - with silver down 6% and Shanghai night-session gold and silver futures closing -3.51% and -6.8%.

Energy is the other trade

WTI December crude settled +2.08% at $104.12. October alone added 17.75% - a fourth straight monthly gain, and more than 52% across the stretch. Brent December closed at $117.64.

Persian Gulf tensions and the Russia-Ukraine conflict keep disrupting flows: the US State Department has ordered non-emergency staff out of its embassy in Saudi Arabia, citing security risks. Shanghai's night-session crude futures closed +4.25%.

The windfall side is just as stark. ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and TotalEnergies booked a combined $56.3 billion in adjusted net profit for the quarter - the third-highest combined haul on record - with refining margins at all-time highs. European natural gas joined: UK futures added 5.46% Friday and are up 38.85% in October; Dutch TTF is up 43.21% this month.

Crypto's weekend stress test

Binance confirmed an attack on its hot wallets, executed through the known multi-signature protocol EIP-7702, affecting roughly $6.3 billion in assets. Co-CEO He Yi put net affected funds at a little over $3 billion - around 2% of user assets - and said withdrawals should resume within 42 hours, with a full proof-of-reserves report promised by Monday.

The FBI is coordinating the investigation; the CFTC chair has floated federal registration for exchanges, and the Secret Service says it is working with Circle to trace and freeze stolen funds. Monday's PoR report is likely to be the single biggest crypto catalyst of the week - in either direction.

The cushion under the selloff - and the Monday watch list

For all of Friday's carnage, the overnight cushions are calm. FTSE China A50 futures last printed 12,816.72, roughly flat (+0.05%) against Friday's settlement; Hong Kong's Hang Seng night futures closed +0.25% at 23,345. The night session has largely digested the US slide - a sign Monday's A-share open is more likely to gap flat than gap down hard.

Five things on the watch list:

1. Tuesday's US midterm elections (Nov 3) - strategists note a split government has historically meant less change and lower uncertainty for risk assets.
2. Fed speakers turned hawkish - Dallas Fed's Logan said she still sees at least two more 25-basis-point hikes; St. Louis Fed's Musalem wants further tightening soon.
3. Gold's positioning reset - washed-out longs cut both ways; the 100-week average near $3,870 is the nearby line in the sand.
4. AI credit risk is now tradable - the FT reported BlackRock has told clients Anthropic may not get an investment-grade rating immediately after listing, reportedly expecting a high-junk grade; Intel's and Broadcom's default-insurance costs hit records Friday.
5. China's own catalysts - TCL Zhonghuan halts from Nov 2 for a major asset restructuring (plan due by Nov 16), and JD's 11.11 festival reported AI-product sales up 100% year on year.

The setup for Monday

Friday was a positioning flush, not (yet) a fundamentals break: earnings beats keep landing, but the AI financing trade is suddenly repricing at the credit layer, energy is transferring wealth to refiners, and crypto is running its own bank-run drill. The night session says A-shares open Monday roughly flat - what happens after depends on whether the PoR report lands clean and whether the Fed's hawkish chorus grows another voice.

Data sources: Sina quote endpoints (A-share and global index closes, pulled Oct 31 05:00-07:10 Beijing time, percentage moves cross-checked against previous closes) and Wallstreetcn live wires, Oct 30 15:00 - Oct 31 07:00. Company statements and media reports are labeled as such; forward-looking items are expectations, not facts. Nothing here is investment advice.

This weekend brief is published by Yijinmoming Finance, a daily retail-sentiment digest for China's A-share market covering sentiment indexes, forum scraping and cross-checks on every number.