Real-time News

July 22nd - Driven by overnight gains in US tech stocks, South Korea's semiconductor sector surged in early trading. As of 9:11 AM local time (8:11 AM Beijing time), Samsung Electronics rose 5.79% to 274,000 won; SK Hynix rose 8.50%, briefly touching 2 million won, its first such move since July 15th. Overnight in the US, Nvidia rose 1.97% as its next-generation AI server platform, Vera Rubin, entered mass production and began supplying major customers; Micron surged 12.17%, and Broadcom rose 2.21%, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 5.21%. Additionally, SK Hynix's ADR rose 13.75% overnight, closing at $171.94. In terms of fund flows, foreign investors are currently net buyers of 717.6 billion won in the South Korean electrical and electronics sector, while individual and institutional investors are net sellers of 370.6 billion won and 345.8 billion won, respectively.

July 22 (Futures News) – Crude oil continued its upward trend, boosting confidence among fuel oil market participants to support higher prices. Refineries increased supply and were reluctant to sell at low prices, but downstream traders moderately replenished their inventories and remained cautious in their purchases. Market buying activity was slow, and fuel oil prices steadily climbed. It is expected that today's trading will see some areas remain stable while others may see slight increases.

Futures News, July 22nd - According to foreign media reports, Brent crude oil futures rose on Tuesday, hitting a five-week high, influenced by the US-Iran conflict and the Houthi threat to impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia. This will help boost the early performance of Malaysian crude palm oil futures. The El Niño phenomenon, which may threaten palm oil production in Southeast Asia, also provides support for prices. The Malaysian Meteorological Department stated that with the strengthening of El Niño, Malaysia will experience record-breaking high temperatures next year, raising concerns about declining palm oil production. However, weak demand for Malaysian palm oil exports will limit the market's rebound momentum.

July 22 – According to the South Korean media outlet *Chosun Ilbo*, the South Korean government stated that it has held a meeting with major exporters to discuss stabilizing the exchange rate through strengthened government-business cooperation. Heo Jang, the Second Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, held the meeting on July 21 at the Seoul Government Building with major exporters including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor & Kia, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hanwha Marine, and Samsung Heavy Industries. Heo Jang stated that prior to the exporters' meeting in June, the Korean won had depreciated to around 1550 won against the US dollar. However, with exporters increasing foreign exchange settlements, shipbuilding companies increasing forward foreign exchange sales, and capital inflows from SK Hynix's ADR issuance, the won has recently fallen back to the high range of 1400 won against the US dollar, alleviating the imbalance between foreign exchange supply and demand. He predicts that with continued strong semiconductor exports in the second half of the year, South Korea's foreign exchange supply and demand situation will further improve. Participating companies stated that they will further cooperate with the government to stabilize foreign exchange supply and demand, promote the continued improvement in the recent supply and demand trend, and contribute to maintaining stability in the foreign exchange market.

July 22 – The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced today that the "Notice on Organizing and Carrying Out the Construction of National-Level Zero-Carbon Factories" has been officially released. my country will organize and carry out the construction of national-level zero-carbon factories and zero-carbon computing facilities. The notice clarifies the application requirements for national-level zero-carbon factories, selecting manufacturing enterprises and computing facilities with a certain construction foundation, clear construction goals, and a clear implementation path, and committing to completing the construction goals within the specified period, and including them in the national-level zero-carbon factory construction list.

July 22 - Topsports (06110.HK): Following the trading session on July 21, the Group received formal notification from Nike that its online sales of Nike products in mainland China will be completely terminated effective January 1, 2027. Given that revenue from sales of Nike products through the online platform accounted for approximately 22% of the Group's total revenue for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2026, this termination will have a significant negative impact on the Group's business in the short term.

New York gold futures rose above $4,100 per ounce, up 0.44% on the day.

The White House announced that President Trump will attend a handover ceremony at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday.

Court documents show that the U.S. Department of Justice has proposed that Maduro's case be heard in June 2027.

Japan's seasonally adjusted merchandise trade balance for June was -881.932 billion yen, compared to a forecast of -502.1 billion yen and a previous reading of -90.4 billion yen.

Japan's Ministry of Finance reported that preliminary crude oil imports in June fell 13.7% year-on-year. Liquefied natural gas imports in June rose 6.2% year-on-year to 4.718 million tons.

Japan's Ministry of Finance reported that Japan's exports to the United States rose 13% year-on-year in June, exports to the European Union rose 20.3% year-on-year, and exports to Asia rose 22.7% year-on-year.

July 22 – The largest utility company and data center developer in the United States has signed a pledge by President Trump to “protect electricity bills,” agreeing to bear more costs for the increased electricity demand generated by running artificial intelligence (AI) models, in an effort to alleviate concerns that AI will drive up residential electricity prices. According to a White House signatory list obtained by The Wall Street Journal, nearly 200 organizations, including NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Equinix, and Digital Realty, have joined the initiative. White House officials said Trump is expected to formally announce the pledge at an event held by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday. Republican governors such as Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp have also signed the pledge and plan to attend.

Japan's merchandise imports rose 25.4% year-on-year in June, below the expected 21% and the previous month's 12.50%.

Japan's merchandise exports rose 19.3% year-on-year in June, below the expected 18.6% and the previous figure revised from 17.00% to 16.80%.

Artificial Intelligence: 1. Dark Side of the Moon reportedly in talks for pre-IPO funding at a $50 billion valuation. 2. Tencent Cloud: Will deploy domestically produced computing power and NPO supernodes on a large scale. 3. AI escapes the sandbox; OpenAI acknowledges being hacked by Hugging Face. 4. The White House plans to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in research funding to AI and individual scientists. 5. Tibo, OpenAI's product manager: Codex and ChatGPT Work have surpassed 10 million weekly active users. 6. Google releases a series of lower-cost Gemini models. 7. Nuclear energy companies Oklo and X-energy have joined the Trump administration's new nuclear reactor construction plan. 8. Google releases emini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, both upgraded versions of existing lightweight models. Other: 1. The Federal Communications Commission: The Trump administration is considering banning the import of military-grade drones. 2. Supermicro significantly raised its gross margin guidance, causing its stock price to surge in after-hours trading. 3. Rumors circulated that SK Hynix was in talks to acquire Intel's Ohio chip campus; Intel denied this. 4. TSMC is reportedly planning to raise wafer foundry prices starting in 2027, with increases of up to 10%. 5. Global energy storage system shipments reached 328 GWh in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 87.9%. 6. Apple will partner with Klarna to launch an "upgraded" device leasing program. 7. The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission issued the "Implementation Plan for Deepening Technological Innovation and Integrated Application of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) (2026-2030)".

Market news: British Prime Minister Burnham will announce that from January next year, public transport fares across England will be capped at £2.

Lynas, an Australian rare earth company, reported that its neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) production in the fourth fiscal quarter was 1,857 tonnes.