Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific.

Asian stocks retreated for a second day and Treasuries edged lower as rising oil prices fueled concerns that inflation may stay elevated and nudge central banks to raise interest rates. MSCI's Asia Pacific equities index fell 0.9%, with nine of its 11 industry groups in the red. Benchmarks in Japan, South Korea and Singapore declined, along with mainland China as trading resumed after a holiday. We speak to Bloomberg MLIV Strategist Mark Cranfield.

And -  Samsung Electronics Co. reported a nearly nine-fold rise in quarterly operating profit, though that was still just shy of sky-high expectations elevated by relentless spending on the AI infrastructure buildout. The world's largest memory chipmaker posted a record preliminary operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.1 billion) for the quarter through September. But even those record results still fell short of the average analyst's forecast. Revenue came to 195 trillion won, also lower than expectations. Shares were flat during early morning trading in Seoul Thursday.  Bloomberg TV host Haidi Stroud-Watts spoke to Sanjeev Rana, CLSA Head of North Asia Semiconductors Research.