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Amazon (AMZN.O) CEO's letter: Most of Amazon's capital expenditures in 2026 are expected to become profitable in 2027-2028, and the company has already secured customer orders for some of the expenditures.

On April 9th, the China Center for Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) released the "2025 SME Development Environment Assessment Report," which shows that in 2025, my country's economic development will move towards new and better directions, with continuously improving vitality. Various support policies will be implemented to stabilize employment, businesses, markets, and expectations, leading to a continuous improvement in the SME development environment. Regarding the financing environment, the coverage of inclusive finance will continue to expand, and credit accessibility will continue to improve. The average proportion of inclusive micro and small enterprise loans to total RMB loans in participating cities reached 12.04%.

Amazon (AMZN.O) CEO's letter: Amazon's order volume in India is currently growing at a rate of 25% per month.

Amazon (AMZN.O) CEO's letter: AWS's artificial intelligence business generated over $15 billion in annualized revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and is growing rapidly; the chip business now generates over $20 billion in annualized revenue, with triple-digit year-over-year growth.

Amazon (AMZN.O) CEO's letter: The demand for our chips is huge, and we are very likely to sell rack-wide chips to third parties in the future.

British Defence Secretary Healy: Tell Russian President Putin that we are closely monitoring Russian activities on British undersea cables and pipelines.

British Defence Secretary Healy: We will continue to monitor submarines in and around the UK.

British Defence Secretary Healy: Our armed forces have been deployed to track and contain any malicious activity by Russian vessels.

British Defence Secretary Healy: The operation includes special submarines.

April 9th - The State Council Information Office will hold a regular policy briefing at 3:00 PM on Friday, April 10th, 2026. Assistant Minister of Commerce Yuan Xiaoming and Huang Zhiqiang, Standing Committee Member of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Region, will introduce the "Overall Plan for the China (Inner Mongolia) Pilot Free Trade Zone" and answer questions from reporters.

April 9th - According to US financial media Semafor, former Treasury and State Department officials stated that the Trump administration may extend sanctions waivers for Russian oil this week, paving the way for similar measures against Iranian oil. Last month, the Treasury Department approved sales of previously sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil already in transit at sea, with waivers expiring on April 11th and April 19th, respectively. Treasury Secretary Bessant explained that this latter move was a clever response to minimize the economic impact of a potential war with Iran, predicting it would increase global supply and lower oil prices. Several former officials who oversaw sanctions stated they still expect the Trump administration to extend the Russian oil waiver this week, paving the way for an extension of the Iranian oil waiver later this month. The extension of these two waivers would again demonstrate that the form of sanctions has changed during Trump's second term, shifting from a primary tool for economic pressure to an occasional tool for exerting influence in the markets.

According to the Financial Times, the OECD's new chief economist said that governments that hastily cut fuel taxes after the outbreak of the war with Iran must quickly eliminate those costly, widespread energy subsidies.

On April 9th, Helen Jewell, Chief Investment Officer for Fundamental Equities at BlackRock, stated that earnings forecasts for equities will need to be lowered due to the inflationary impact of the Middle East conflict. "Current earnings forecasts for this year are still as high as 15% to 18%, so there is considerable room for downward revisions," she said. She added that forecasts of stable earnings in the consumer sector are unconvincing, especially considering the impact of interest rates and inflationary pressures from the Middle East situation. There are already initial signs that earnings forecasts may change. After analysts raised their forecasts for weeks, Citigroup's U.S. Earnings Momentum Index turned negative last Friday, with the number of downward revisions exceeding the number of upward revisions—the largest in nearly a year. Nevertheless, analyst forecasts remain high amid high uncertainty and the risk of soaring price pressures. Compiled data shows that the market consensus is for S&P 500 earnings per share to grow by 16% this year, which would be the strongest performance since 2021. The Q1 earnings season officially kicks off next week. Jewell stated that the earnings growth potential of energy and materials stocks offsets the downside risks to sectors such as aviation, indicating that overall earnings will be relatively stable.

On April 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media that contacts between Russia and the United States regarding the Ukraine issue are still proceeding informally and confidentially. Lavrov stated that the US had offered to act as a mediator, but is currently preoccupied with other matters, and "for a long time, there has been no clear prospect of resuming dialogue." He explained that because the US uses the same group of people on all foreign policy fronts, dialogue on the Ukraine issue has stalled to some extent.

According to US financial media Semafor, the Trump administration will continue to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Karas: The EU is assessing its policy on unexpected energy taxes.

Sultan Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company: The Strait of Hormuz must be fully open and unrestricted.

Sultan Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company: 230 oil tankers are expected to be fully loaded with oil and ready to set sail.

On April 9th, Citigroup analysts wrote in a report that U.S. luxury credit card spending increased year-over-year in March, driven by continued strong spending from wealthier consumers. Luxury brand credit card spending rose 7% last month, marking the third consecutive month of growth. Analysts noted that spending increased despite heightened geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic risks, leading to subdued consumer sentiment. They estimated that luxury watches and jewelry were the segments with the largest increases in spending. Swiss watch groups and EssilorLuxottica are among the European luxury stocks most affected by the U.S. market. Analysts stated that Hugo Boss and Burberry are the two companies least reliant on the U.S. market.

Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company: Energy security and global economic stability depend on the unconditional opening of the Strait of Hormuz.