Shares of Northern Star Resources increased by more than 9% on Monday after the Australian gold miner turned down a $27 billion takeover proposal from South Africa’s Gold Fields, stating that the offer did not reflect the company’s true worth. Gold Fields had proposed to acquire all of Northern Star through a mix of shares and cash, offering 0.3125 Gold Fields shares and 7.25 Australian dollars in cash for each Northern Star share, as per a statement from Northern Star on Monday. The proposal, received on September 14, initially valued Northern Star at A$38.7 billion ($27.15 billion), which was a 22% premium over its closing price on September 11. However, based on Gold Fields’ closing share price on Friday, September 25, the implied value had decreased to A$36.1 billion. Northern Star’s board unanimously rejected the proposal, describing it as significantly undervaluing the company and highly opportunistic. “Gold Fields has attempted to acquire one of the world’s leading gold portfolios at a price that the Board believes is far below its fundamental value, and at a time deemed highly opportunistic,” stated Northern Star Chairman Michael Chaney. The miner also expressed concerns that the majority of the offer would be in Gold Fields shares and that the proposal was contingent on several conditions. Northern Star informed Gold Fields on Friday that its board saw no benefit in further discussions regarding the proposal. Bloomberg had previously reported that Gold Fields had approached Northern Star regarding a potential takeover.

Hello, this is Anniek Bao writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

Days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Washington having enjoyed a state dinner and a marching band, both sides are still figuring out what the pageantry actually bought them.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister again threatened a “doomsday” war — while offering an olive branch in the same breath.

There is much for investors to digest as markets kick off another trading week, with Treasury yields at their highest since 2007 and oil ticking higher on the Iran standoff.

What you need to know today

Chinese president’s state visit to Washington appears to have produced more personal diplomacy than breakthroughs.

The U.S. and China agreed to reduce tariffs on $30 billion of goods and launch a dialogue on AI. The tariff reductions would apply to U.S. exports such as agricultural goods, wood and cosmetics, as well as U.S. imports including small appliances, toys and decorations, according to a White House statement.

That said, the agreement appears to stop short of any concrete purchase commitment, and the two-month trade truce extension appears constrained compared to analysts’ pre-summit expectations of at least six months.

“There wasn’t complete agreement on everything,” said Peter Alexander, Shanghai-based managing director at Z-Ben Advisors, describing the pair post-summit as “a fraught relationship where neither side is willing to give way, at least not at this juncture.”

On the Middle East conflict, the two leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Tehran is ready for a “doomsday” war with the U.S. but is still pursuing diplomacy so as not to “miss any chance for peace.”

The remarks came days after Araghchi proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming nuclear talks within seven days if Washington accepts Iran’s terms. The warring powers have been locked in an on-again, off-again war since late February, one that’s kept a lid on global oil supply and a foot on the gas pedal for inflation.

The standoff might have led to a near-incident on UK soil: British police arrested five men Sunday on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses near a UK air base used in U.S. strikes on Iran, after a tip that three vans had been spotted heading toward the airfield.

In the markets, stock futures slipped Sunday night following a winning week, as Treasury yields climbed to their highest levels since 2007. Brent crude rose more than 1.9% to $106.31 a barrel, and WTI gained 1.3% to $93.63, after Trump rejected Iran’s ceasefire conditions.

With borrowing costs rising, the AI infrastructure buildout — already historic in scale — is about to get more expensive to finance.

A crack in the chip wall

Beijing has signaled it may let domestic firms, including ByteDance and Alibaba, buy Nvidia’s RTX PRO 5500 chips, The Information reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked the companies to report their purchase plans for the chips, which are built for high-end professional computing — a small but notable thaw as Washington and Beijing feel out common ground after last week’s summit.

After sitting out Thursday’s state dinner that Trump hosted for Xi, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will join Trump for a private White House dinner Sunday, CNBC learned, in what would be their first one-on-one meeting.

The state dinner hosted OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg as well as officials from both governments. A source familiar with the matter said Amodei had a scheduling conflict, prompting Trump to offer him a private audience instead.

China will report its industrial profits for the first eight months of the year on Monday after higher commodity input costs and lackluster domestic demand continue to weigh on manufacturers.

— Anniek Bao

And finally…

Here’s why South Korea wants more control over future regional wars

At the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump to revisit one question in their countries’ military alliance: who would lead their combined forces if war resumed on the Korean Peninsula?

The two sides’ 30-minute summit covered strategic investment, shipbuilding and nuclear cooperation, as well as the transition of wartime operational control, or OPCON, to South Korea.

The renewed attention on OPCON comes after Trump abruptly curtailed the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise between the two countries last month, prompting concerns about combined readiness.

— Lim Hui Jie

It is reported that Chinese officials have obtained F-35 stealth fighter components after parts of the jet were mysteriously rerouted to Hong Kong.

In late May, UPS was transporting a cockpit canopy and a weapons bay door from Australia to the United States when the shipment was diverted, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources.

The sources noted that both items were covered with radar‑absorbing coating to improve stealth, and they could not explain why the cargo ended up in Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles informed reporters that Australia knew about the shipment and is cooperating with the United States and Lockheed Martin to determine how Canberra can help the investigation.

Marles added that, to his knowledge, the missing shipment did not contain any sensitive components, as reported by CNN.

Lockheed Martin, UPS and the Pentagon did not immediately reply to requests for comment from Verum.

The F-35, a fifth‑generation stealth jet built by Lockheed Martin, is sold by the United States only to its closest allies and partners.

For instance, Turkey was barred from the F‑35 programme in 2019 after acquiring the Russian S‑400 air‑defence system, sparking concerns that the S‑400 could be exploited to gather intelligence on the jet’s capabilities.

U.S. prosecutors in 2024 said that China has previously sought F‑35‑related American military data in espionage cases.

Last week, a $24 billion deal to sell F‑35s to Saudi Arabia was cleared, yet several members of Congress have warned that the technology could end up in China’s possession.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D‑IL) stated that the U.S. intelligence community has cautioned that the sale “might place the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The jet is operated by Australia, Belgium and the United States, while Japan, Canada and Singapore have also placed orders for the F‑35.

The United States has also deployed F‑35s in the Iran conflict, during which one aircraft sustained damage from enemy fire, the Department of Defense reported.