Real-time News

JPMorgan Chase raised its price target for UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) from $466 to $516.

On July 21, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the theme of "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan," introducing the relevant situation regarding accelerating the construction of a strong transportation nation and improving the modern comprehensive transportation system. Xu Chengguang, Vice Minister of Transport, stated at the conference that the overall goal for the 15th Five-Year Plan period is to basically complete the construction of a modern comprehensive transportation system. Regarding optimizing the transportation structure, the focus is on promoting the upgrading and digital transformation of transportation infrastructure. By 2030, approximately 80,000 kilometers of infrastructure will be upgraded, a new round of rural road improvement will be implemented, and 500,000 kilometers of rural roads will be newly built or renovated. In terms of strengthening system integration, the focus is on improving the comprehensive transportation system of modern metropolitan areas, implementing a project to improve intercity commuting efficiency in metropolitan areas, accelerating the construction of 20 international and 80 national comprehensive transportation hub cities, implementing a multimodal transport initiative, and removing bottlenecks and obstacles. The goal is to promote the improvement of multimodal transport functions at 1,000 major freight nodes within approximately five years.

Huahong Grace Semiconductor's A-shares and H-shares both rose, with A-shares up over 10% and H-shares up over 7%.

July 21 - According to a press conference held by Shanghai Customs, Shanghai's foreign trade imports and exports reached 2.55 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%, of which exports reached 1.14 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.1%; and imports reached 1.41 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.4%.

July 21 - According to Iranian sources on the 21st local time, in response to the US attack on Iran, Iranian ground forces used surface-to-surface missiles to strike the US HIMARS high-mobility rocket system at the Arifjan base in Kuwait.

On July 21, Xu Chengguang, Vice Minister of Transport, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, my country's national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network will exceed 6 million kilometers, the main framework of "6 axes, 7 corridors and 8 channels" will have a completion rate of 91%, the high-speed rail operating mileage will exceed 50,000 kilometers, the expressway mileage will reach 199,000 kilometers, the number of berths of 10,000 tons and above in ports will reach 3,061, the total number of transport airports will reach 270, and the world's largest and most beneficial postal and express delivery network will be built.

July 21 – Capital Economics strategist Thomas Mathews stated in a report that gold remains valuable as a hedge against a stock market crash. Recently, gold's performance has arguably been more of a "risk" asset than a "safe" one, given its recent price volatility, which has mirrored that of the benchmark S&P 500. Gold's poor performance amidst Middle East conflicts appears to have weakened its supposed inflation-hedging role. However, the link between gold and real bond yields appears to remain intact, and any decline in real yields is expected to boost gold. If the US economy is hit and prompts the Federal Reserve to significantly cut policy rates, the recent positive correlation between gold and the stock market will not be sustained.

On July 21, it was reported that the highest 7-day annualized yield of Tencent Wealth Management's "Current Account +" was 1.4500%, and the lowest was 0.7710%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of WeChat Pay's "Lingqian Tong" was 1.0520%, and the lowest was 0.9220%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of Alipay's "Yu'ebao" was 1.0670%, and the lowest was 0.9860%.

On July 21st, Z.ai announced the completion of a 1GW-level domestically produced AI computing power data center, utilizing entirely domestically produced AI chips. Simultaneously, Z.ai also officially completed its acquisition of XCore Sigma, a domestic AI heterogeneous computing power software company. XCore Sigma originated from the Compiler Laboratory of the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has long been deeply involved in heterogeneous computing power software stacks and compiler optimization, considered one of the top AI infrastructure teams in China. Sources indicate that these two moves respectively fill two key gaps in computing power supply and release capabilities. The former provides the computing resources needed for large-scale model training, while the latter improves the utilization rate of heterogeneous chips, reduces inference costs, and enhances model deployment efficiency through basic software capabilities such as compilers, runtimes, and inference engines.

On Tuesday, July 21, the Hang Seng Index opened 7.49 points higher, or 0.03%, at 25,150.54; the Hang Seng Tech Index opened 3.51 points higher, or 0.07%, at 4,755.66; the H-share Index opened 0.71 points lower, or 0.01%, at 8,381.19; and the Red Chip Index opened 4.19 points lower, or 0.1%, at 4,069.11.

Hang Seng Index futures opened 0.29% higher at 25,225 points, a premium of 82 points.

Samsung Electronics announced that it will form a robotics business unit.

South Korea's exports surged 52.3% year-on-year in the first 20 days of July, driven by a robust semiconductor export boom fueled by the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Data released by South Korean customs on Tuesday showed that exports totaled $54.9 billion from July 1st to 20th, compared to $36 billion in the same period last year. Imports, meanwhile, increased by 20% to $42.7 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $12.2 billion. By industry, semiconductor exports continued to lead the overall growth, surging 180% to $22.1 billion. Automobile exports, however, declined by 10.6% to $3.24 billion. In terms of export destinations, exports to China nearly doubled to $13.3 billion, while exports to the US increased by 39.6% to $8.96 billion. As of Monday, South Korea's cumulative exports this year reached $551.2 billion, a 48.7% increase year-on-year.

Yesterday, crude oil prices drove benzene prices up significantly, but due to the prospect of easing tensions in the Middle East, both crude oil and benzene futures fell in overnight trading. The benzene market is expected to open lower and trend downwards this morning.

Geopolitical disturbances continue to affect oil prices, and it is necessary to closely monitor changes in the geopolitical situation. A chart provides a quick overview of the pre-market conversion prices of crude oil between domestic and international markets.