Lunch Break: BoE to 4%, Dow prices the blue wave, Seoul pays the invoice

Lunch Break — the MoneyTurkey desk in under four minutes. Homepage first for 5 November.

London. The Bank of England raised Bank Rate to 4.00% from 3.75% — first hike since August 2023. The MPC voted 8–1; Catherine Mann wanted 4.25%. CPI was 3.5% in September; the Bank sees inflation near 5% by mid next year. Sterling held near $1.35; the 10-year gilt sat about 5.15%; FTSE 100 traded near 10,900, up about 0.7%. Full story: BoE hike to 4%.

Blue wave, Asia invoice. Wall Street priced the midterms: Dow +1,569 (+3.03%) to 53,356 — best day since April 2025. Seoul paid the bill: KOSPI −5.28% to 5,383.80 (lowest close since April); foreigners sold about ₩3 trillion (~$2.2bn); the won weakened to about 1,342 per dollar. Desk: Andrew’s Corner · KOSPI dump.

Options. Cboe proprietary index options averaged a record 6.9 million contracts a day in October (+25% YoY). SPX ADV 5.5 million; same-day SPX expiry about 3.6 million (~65%). Cboe ADV record.

Politics. Ra’am’s eight seats lift Eisenkot to 56 recommendations. Netanyahu sits at 46 after United Torah Judaism declined. 61 needed — Eisenkot five short; Joint List’s 11 undecided. Eisenkot / Ra’am.

Crypto. Thailand’s SEC filed against Bitget operator BG Limited for unlicensed trading; site, domains and app blocked from Dec. 5. Seoul wants a fourth crypto-tax delay — the 22% levy pushed toward 2029, lined up with CARF. Bitget block · Korea tax delay.

Commodities. China November diesel exports on track near 800k tons (vs 1.33m Aug / 1.8m Sep). Gold futures climbed about 1.8% to ~$4,147 as Brent held near $96 after Wednesday’s nearly 9% plunge. China diesel · Gold.

That’s Lunch Break for 5 November. Full desk on MoneyTurkey — Mira Vale.