☕️ Mahathir’s police report against Anwar over the Malaysia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

USD9.12 mil (RM37.65 mil). That’s how much the highest-priced comic book ever was sold for. Three brothers stumbled upon the comic book, an original copy of the June 1939 first edition of Superman, in a remarkably pristine condition. The comic was given a rating of 9.0 on a 10-point scale, topping the previous record of 8.5, leading to its high valuation. The Man of Steel comic also easily beat the previous highest-priced comic book ever sold, which was a copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 work that first introduced Superman. It was sold for USD6 mil in 2024. And to think, the comic cost 10 cents when it was on the newsstands in 1939!

On Asian comics, a new One Piece flagship store will be launching soon in the heart of Tokyo on Dec 5, featuring merchandise from the manga, anime, and Netflix live-action series, with over 500 store-exclusive items. This marks the largest Cross Store dedicated to a single intellectual property by Bandai Namco Holdings. These stores bring together toys, figurines, and other products produced by the company’s subsidiaries under single brands. Bandai Namco operates 12 such Cross Stores. The most impressive number, however, is that the company generated almost JPY140 bil (RM3.7 bil) in overall sales from the One Piece IP in the fiscal year ended Mar 2025, behind only the Dragon Ball and Mobile Suit Gundam franchises. The new flagship store is expected to further enhance the value of the One Piece IP.

Apple single-handedly drove Singles’ Day smartphone sales growth, accounting for 26% of all smartphones sold over the month-long event, with total sales across brands increasing 3% from a year earlier. Excluding Apple, Singles’ Day smartphone sales actually declined 5% overall, which reflects a cautious consumer environment drained of momentum, according to research firm Counterpoint. Xiaomi phones accounted for the second-largest share of smartphone sales with 17%, while Huawei saw the biggest decline among major brands with its share falling to 13%. As an aside, data provider Syntun said overall sales for Singles’ Day totalled CNY1.7 tril (RM992.4 bil) across platforms.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Mahathir’s police report against Anwar over the Malaysia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement
Tun Dr Mahathir has lodged a police report against PM Anwar, saying the Malaysia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART) was signed without the proper approvals and is therefore unconstitutional. Mahathir argues the deal should have gone through the Agong, Dewan Rakyat, Council of Rulers, and government, and also complains the 400-page document hasn’t been made public and gives too much authority to the US. He’s particularly worried it limits Malaysia’s Bumiputera trade privileges for US goods. So far, over 139 similar reports have been filed nationwide. The ART, signed with Donald Trump on Oct 26, aims to boost economic ties, but MITI Minister Tengku Zafrul says it doesn’t undermine Bumiputera policies and has challenged Mahathir to point out any problematic clauses.

PTPTN repayment exemption for first-class private university graduates
The Higher Education Ministry is looking to bring back the PTPTN loan-repayment exemption for first-class graduates from private universities in the B40 and M40 groups, a benefit that currently only applies to public-university students. The details are still being worked out.

Recent data shows households receiving STR aid are the biggest borrowers and payers, with over 900,000 having fully repaid RM13.89 bil and another 450,000 paying RM4.17 bil on schedule, while RM10.23 bil is still owed. For households not on STR earning under RM8,000, nearly 59,000 borrowers have cleared RM703.45 mil, with RM657.79 mil paid on schedule and RM539.35 mil still outstanding. Higher-earning households (above RM8,000) have 136,000 borrowers who settled RM1.54 bil, with RM362.36 mil on schedule and RM257.56 mil still owed. PTPTN tracks household income only at the time of application, based on parents’ or guardians’ earnings.

Early settlement discounts for fixed-rate hire-purchase loans
Banks to reward early loan payoffs starting next year. Banks will start giving “goodwill discounts” to customers who settle their old fixed-rate hire-purchase loans early. This is aimed at helping people stuck with the old flat-rate and Rule of 78 loan systems, which will be replaced for new loans under the Hire-Purchase (Amendment) Bill 2025. The discount amount depends on your loan terms and how early you pay it off. It’s open to individuals and micro or small businesses, but only if your account isn’t more than 90 days overdue, under legal action, or being restructured. The initiative will continue until all affected loans are settled, likely taking up to nine years while borrowers who stick to the original schedule won’t be affected by the old Rule of 78 at all.

Spotlight: Genting Malaysia

The Bad: Genting Malaysia staying listed after takeover bid falls short
Genting Malaysia will stay listed after Genting Berhad fell just short of the 75% stake needed to take it private, closing its offer on Dec 1 with 73.13% ownership (plus 0.20% still being checked). The RM2.35-a-share bid for Genting Malaysia (GENM) was about 10% higher than GENM’s last traded price, but advisers had warned it was too low. Genting gradually raised its stake from 50% in early Nov, extending the deadline to Dec 1, but still didn’t hit the threshold to reduce public shareholding spread below 25%. The takeover closed as GENM awaits a New York decision on one of three downstate casino licences.
Read: Bursa’s Guidance Note on Public Shareholding Spread

The Good: Genting Malaysia’s New York casino expansion
Genting Malaysia’s unit, Genting New York LLC, has reached the final review for one of New York’s three casino licences, with the Gaming Commission expected to decide by Dec 31. Alongside Bally Corp and Queens Future LLC, Resorts World New York City could be NYC’s only full-service casino until around 2030, rolling out live table games from June 2026. Analysts say the expansion eases funding worries, with Maybank projecting RM1.93 bil in net profit by 2030. Genting’s USD 5.5 bil (RM23.19 bil) plan includes a 500,000 sq ft gaming floor, 6,000 slots, 800 tables, 2,000 hotel rooms, a 7,000-seat venue, 30+ F&B outlets, meeting spaces, and 10+ acres of green space, with state tax revenue expected from Jul 2026.

IRB’s 10-year cap on tax-exempt status for non-profits
The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has set a 10-year cap on tax-exempt status for non-profits including charities, religious bodies, education funds, and community NGOs that can receive tax-deductible donations, effective retroactively from Nov 27 2025. The limit applies to organisations under Section 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967, with IRB issuing updated notifications for approvals ending Dec 31. Existing approvals before Nov 27 remain valid until they expire, while compliance audits continue throughout, and failure to meet conditions could see tax-exempt status revoked and income taxed under Schedule 6.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

China cracks down on calls for accountability over deadly Hong Kong blaze
As calls mounted for accountability following Hong Kong’s worst fire in nearly eight decades last Wednesday, some activists have been detained by the Chinese authorities for allegedly inciting “anti-China and pro-chaos elements” amid their criticism. Three people have been arrested over the weekend, including a university student who created an online petition calling for greater transparency and accountability from the government. China’s national security office in Hong Kong appeared to condemn the petition before its removal, accusing activists of using the banner of “petitioning the people” to “incite confrontation and tear society apart”. So why is China so wary about these? It could be due to the semi-autonomous status of Hong Kong, even though part of the mainland.
Fun fact: This “One Country, Two Systems” principle, which came into place when the British handed over HK back to China will expire in 2047.

The crackdown is said to be the latest sign of the narrowing space for dissent in Hong Kong following Beijing’s sweeping overhaul of the semi-autonomous territory’s political and legal landscape in response to the anti-government protests in 2019. Hong Kong was once known for its raucous media, a vibrant civil society and political diversity but the space for dissent has dramatically reduced since the mass anti-government protests in 2019. At least 151 people were killed in Wednesday’s blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong’s northern district of Tai Po, the worst fire in the city since at least 1948.

Tech
Apple lags in AI, chief steps down from company
Apple is lagging behind its competitors when it comes to rolling out generative AI features in its products. In June 2024, the company debuted its AI product suite, Apple Intelligence, but it has yet to fully integrate them into their products. The company has teased an AI-forward upgrade to Siri for more than a year, but the rollout has repeatedly been postponed.

The company announced on Monday that its head of AI, John Giannandrea, is stepping down from the company and will be replaced by longtime AI researcher Amar Subramanya. Subramanya previously worked as the corporate vice-president of AI for Microsoft and also spent 16 years at Google, where he was the head of engineering for its Gemini AI Assistant, a program seen as a leader in the industry.

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold to debut in Singapore soon
The Galaxy Z TriFold is debuting in Singapore as early as Dec 19, marking Samsung’s bid to strengthen its presence in a niche sector where competition, particularly with Chinese brands, is expected to intensify. The new model will first go on sale in South Korea on Dec 12 and be rolled out in China, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates within 2025. The US launch is expected as early as the first quarter of 2026. It is said to be priced at about KRW 3.59 mil (USD 2,445 or RM10,104 or 5.94x minimum wage) and unfolds into a 254 mm (10-inch) display, using three panels. It is nearly 25% larger than Samsung’s latest foldable Galaxy Z Fold 7 model.

Another reason for no phones before age 12
A new study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday has found that children who had a smartphone by age 12 were at higher risk of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep. The study suggests that the younger the children were when they got their first smartphones, the greater their risk of obesity and poor sleep. Researchers did the study by analysing data from more than 10,500 children who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study — the largest long-term look at children’s brain development in the United States to date. The researchers also focused on a subset of children who hadn’t received a phone by age 12 and found that a year later, those who had acquired one had more harmful mental health symptoms and worse sleep than those who hadn’t.

Read the study here.

Shorts:

1. Bangladesh sentences British MP to prison
   British MP Tulip Siddiq, also the niece of the former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for a corruption case involving the acquisition of plots of land in Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh). Hasina herself is also said to have misused her power as a PM in the transaction. Hasina and Siddiq did not appoint lawyers to defend the charges but have dismissed them as politically motivated, with Hasina saying that “No country is free from corruption”, and that the corruption needs to be investigated in a way that is not itself corrupt. Who guards the guards now?

2. 753 dead and one mil people evacuated in Indonesia flood 
   As heavy monsoon rains and tropical cyclones battered parts of Asia this week, about 3.2 mil people have been affected and 2,600 injured in Indonesia alone. A million people have been evacuated from high-risk areas, and 753 people have died. Survivors, many of whom are staying in evacuation shelters, have described how powerful currents of water arrived rapidly and submerged villages. The season’s monsoons often bring heavy rains that can trigger landslides and floods, but this year’s downpours were compounded by a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait, devastating parts of Sumatra and Southern Thailand, where 181 people were killed.
   Last week’s tropical storm Seynar is “exceptionally rare”. Cyclones at the equator is rare due to the lack of Coriolis force - the force caused by Earth’s rotation that makes air curve. To put it into perspective, see the last image in the carousel below - very interesting.
   Watch: The Coriolis effect explained

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Survival series: Stayin’ Alive

1. Steps to take when stung by jellyfish.

2. What to do when you are alone, facing an impending heart attack? Take deep breaths, cough hard and strong - repeat.

Apologies for the error yesterday - the 3M method to manage your money here.

Random and funny - this man went viral for breakdancing in a town hall meeting to protest rising property taxes. Comments are hilarious.