Real-time News

Hang Seng Index futures closed down 0.28% at 25,371 points in overnight trading, a discount of 100 points.

According to official Colombian statistics, the death toll from the earthquake has risen to 304.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the US has reportedly lowered its expectations for reaching a US-Canada trade agreement on Tuesday. US President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Carney are expected to speak again on Tuesday local time.

On August 19, Rezaei, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, stated that Washington's inability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz exposes the gap between the US's claimed control and its actual capabilities, marking the beginning of a "post-American order" in the Persian Gulf. Rezaei wrote, "The gap between the US's inability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, yet its claim to control it, is greater than the 7,000-mile distance between Washington and the Strait of Hormuz." He added, "Welcome to the 'post-American order' in the Persian Gulf." "Some dreams are too far removed from reality." This followed a post by US President Trump showing a map labeling the Strait of Hormuz as "new US territory."

August 19th - Wildfires broke out in eastern Belgium on August 14th. The Liège provincial governor's office reported on the 18th that the fires are now under initial control, with approximately 3,000 hectares burned. Because the nature reserve where the fires occurred contains peat wetlands, smoldering underground fires may continue. Firefighters have strengthened their surface firefighting efforts.

August 19th - As of 2:30 PM closing, the Shanghai Gold futures contract fell 0.95% to 949 yuan/gram, the Shanghai Silver futures contract fell 2.95% to 15,620 yuan/kilogram, and the SC Crude Oil futures contract rose 0.85% to 580 yuan/barrel.

Market news: Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and several other regions of Ukraine.

On August 19th, following recent cybersecurity incidents that raised concerns about the potential for AI tools to go out of control, OpenAI announced it will adopt a more stringent system to monitor and secure its AI models under development. OpenAI stated it plans to further track the behavior of its most capable, yet-to-be-released models when solving problems and using various online tools, aiming to alert its security team within 30 minutes of detecting concerning behavior. OpenAI also stated that it has added controls to prevent certain AI models from connecting to the internet to perform higher-risk tasks. Furthermore, OpenAI will require stricter isolation measures, known as "sandboxing," during the training and evaluation of AI models. The OpenAI announcement mentioned that following the Hugging Face incident, it immediately suspended inference tasks on cutting-edge models in its research cluster that could potentially execute code. It has temporarily slowed its expansion, including pausing reinforcement learning training for the latest deployed models for two weeks. The largest cutting-edge reinforcement learning training program remains suspended pending security verification.

On August 19, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued multiple statements on the 18th, stating that it continued its attacks on Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian health ministry also issued a statement that day, saying that an IDF airstrike in the western port area of Gaza City resulted in 20 deaths and injuries. The IDF statement claimed that it launched attacks that day against "several commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)" in the Shati area of the Gaza Strip, specifically targeting a meeting of Hamas's "Nuhba" forces. The Palestinian health ministry in the Gaza Strip also issued a statement on the same day, saying that an IDF airstrike in the western port area of Gaza City resulted in the deaths of six people, including a child, and injuries to 14 others.

On August 19, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf stated that both US Treasury Secretary Bessant and US Defense Secretary Hegseth had "completely exceeded their capabilities." Ghalibaf posted, "The Americans believe that increasing pressure on Iran will yield concessions that were never included in the agreement." "Stop waiting for these clowns to conjure rabbits out of their hats; go clean up the mess you created." Earlier that day, Ghalibaf announced that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until Washington met Iran's demands.

OpenAI: The largest planned frontier reinforcement learning training is still on hold, pending completion of safety verification.

Hamas: The organization and Palestinian factions remain committed to advancing the agreement.

Hamas: Israel’s recent attacks in Gaza demonstrate that Netanyahu is attempting to “deliberately undermine negotiations and weaken” regional and international efforts to advance Trump’s plans.

OpenAI: Following the Hugging Face incident, we have paused our research on cutting-edge model inference that could potentially execute code within clusters.

According to Axios, OpenAI is rewriting its main security documentation following the Hugging Face incident.

On August 19th, Gabriela Santos of JPMorgan Asset Management warned that the concentration risk of the "AI factor" has spread from the equity market to the fixed income market. While the investment logic of the AI supercycle still holds true, investors increasingly need to remain cautious. Santos stated, "You can be very bullish on everything related to AI, but at the same time, you still need to be very careful in constructing your portfolio." Santos noted that the July correction in tech stocks highlighted the risks of overcrowded holdings. That month, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index plummeted 21%, its biggest monthly drop since 2008; the South Korean KOSPI also plunged 22%. Santos stated that this market turmoil underscored the importance of controlling portfolio size, using leverage appropriately, and diversifying beyond AI. She added, "That's where things get complicated. Because you can't just consider traditional risk factors, industries, or regions, or even just asset classes, because now that AI 'tentacle' has reached everywhere."

Ukrainian energy company DTEK: A Russian attack has severely damaged a thermal power plant in central Ukraine, which has now ceased operations.

On August 19th, Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi stated on the 18th that recent conflicts demonstrate that countries without US military bases suffer less damage, while US military bases cannot even protect their own interests from resistance forces. Araqchi pointed out that Qatar and Pakistan have played an effective mediating role between Iran and the United States, and relations between Tehran and Qatar are currently very good. He emphasized that a new security concept for the Middle East must be based on "common security" and addressing economic imbalances; without comprehensive cooperation, lasting peace in the Persian Gulf region is impossible.