People are seen at the HSBC bank headquarters in Hong
People are seen at the HSBC bank headquarters in Hong Kong on October 27, 2026, ahead of the bank's third quarter results announcement. Banking giant HSBC said October 27 that net profit in the third quarter rose 45.5 percent year-on-year as the London-headquartered lender continues to restructure operations and cut costs, falling short of market consensus. Peter PARKS/Getty Images

HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered jumped 4.4% and 5.1% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Nov. 10, hours before a US inflation report that came in hotter than economists expected.

The sequence rules out the report as the cause. The US Labor Department scheduled October consumer prices for 8:30 a.m. in New York, 9:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, long after the local market had closed. HSBC finished at HK$143.30 and StanChart at HK$231, in a session when the Hang Seng Index gained 0.44% to 24,557 points.

Consumer prices rose 0.4% from September, against a 0.3% forecast. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.3%, against an expected 0.2%. The department published no annual rate, because last year's government shutdown stopped it collecting data. Bloomberg Economics' Anna Wong and Troy Durie said the report likely settled the question of a December Fed rate hike.

For Hong Kong homeowners, the number that matters is not HIBOR. The HKAB one-month fixing was about 2.59% on Tuesday. Typical new HIBOR-linked mortgages are priced at HIBOR plus 1.3 points, with a cap of 3.25%. The formula gives about 3.89%, but borrowers pay whichever is lower. They are paying 3.25%. On that plan, HIBOR would have to fall below roughly 1.95% (3.25% less the 1.3-point spread) before their rate moved, so rises and falls above that level change nothing. hkabon

The cap is set off the bank's best lending rate, so the exposure is to prime, not HIBOR. HSBC and other major local banks left prime unchanged after the Fed's quarter-point increase in September; HSBC's rate has been 5%. Eric Tso of mReferral Mortgage Brokerage said at the time that banks did not need to follow immediately, noting that Hong Kong lenders did not move until the Fed's fifth hike in September 2022, and then by only 0.125 points.

The Fed held at 3.75%-4% on Oct. 28, with two members dissenting in favor of a hike. It meets next on Dec. 8-9.

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