Real-time News

July 17th - According to real-time data from Lighthouse Pro, as of 3:10 PM on July 17th, the film "Kung Fu Women's Soccer" has surpassed 1 billion yuan at the box office.

On July 17, Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, issued a statement regarding recent military-related issues. It was reported that the Philippine Defense Minister recently visited Zhongye Island to participate in activities commemorating the tenth anniversary of the "South China Sea Arbitration Ruling." What is your comment on this? Spokesperson Jiang Bin stated that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, including Zhongye Island, and their adjacent waters. The Philippine Defense Minister, sanctioned by China, is attempting to demonstrate a so-called "tough stance against China" through political posturing and inciting nationalist sentiment, seeking personal political gain, ultimately harming the fundamental interests of the Philippines and its people. The "South China Sea Arbitration Case" was, from beginning to end, a political farce disguised as law; the so-called "ruling" has absolutely no legal effect. China does not accept, recognize, or accept any claims or actions based on this "ruling." No matter how some people in the Philippines perform, it cannot change the historical and legal fact that the relevant islands and reefs belong to China, nor can it shake the firm resolve of the Chinese military to safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.

July 17th - A survey shows that market institutions are raising their expectations for European stocks. UBS was the most bullish in its July survey, predicting the Stoxx Europe 600 index will rise 8% by the end of this year. Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Kepler Cheuvreux also raised their target forecasts. The average forecast of the 18 strategists surveyed is that the index will close at 647 points by the end of 2026. While this level is less than 1% higher than the current level, bearish views are decreasing, with only 5 survey participants predicting a decline in the index. UBS strategist Gerry Fowler said, "Currently, the upside risks may outweigh the downside risks." Beata Manthey, head of European equity strategy at Citigroup, said, "We remain bullish on the outlook for European stocks over the next 12 months and are encouraged by the recent revisions to European corporate earnings forecasts. The recent upward revisions in earnings forecasts are remarkable in terms of magnitude, breadth, and timing."

July 17th – At the "Global Governance and Sustainable Development of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Responses" forum, a sub-forum of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the upgraded "YiJian" 2.0 ethical review intelligent agent system was launched. Building upon its capabilities in basic research ethical review, "YiJian" 2.0 expands its scope to include artificial intelligence ethical review, focusing on AI applications in medicine. It achieves three major upgrades: knowledge rules, intelligent agent capabilities, and application systems, providing more intelligent, efficient, and standardized support for scientific and technological ethical review.

July 17th Futures News: On July 17th, the Shanghai Futures Exchange's energy and chemical warehouse receipts and changes are as follows: 1. Pulp futures warehouse receipts: 312,759 tons, a decrease of 5,074 tons compared to the previous trading day; 2. Pulp futures mill warehouse receipts: 20,000 tons, unchanged compared to the previous trading day; 3. Offset paper futures warehouse receipts: 2,758 tons, unchanged compared to the previous trading day; 4. Offset paper futures mill warehouse receipts: 6,600 tons, a decrease of 40 tons compared to the previous trading day; 5. Fuel oil futures warehouse receipts: 3... 3,660 tons, unchanged from the previous trading day; 6. Petroleum asphalt futures warehouse receipts: 11,290 tons, unchanged from the previous trading day; 7. Petroleum asphalt futures factory warehouse receipts: 20,110 tons, unchanged from the previous trading day; 8. Medium-sulfur crude oil futures warehouse receipts: 2,961,000 barrels, unchanged from the previous trading day; 9. Low-sulfur fuel oil futures warehouse receipts: 0 tons, unchanged from the previous trading day; 10. Low-sulfur fuel oil futures factory warehouse receipts: 0 tons, unchanged from the previous trading day.

On July 17th, Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya stated that TSMC's upward revision of its capital expenditure forecast may have triggered market concerns and led to a sell-off in tech stocks. She pointed out that although TSMC's second-quarter profits hit a record high, its share price failed to gain traction, reflecting the market's perception that chip stocks are currently overvalued. Due to the risk of overcapacity, investors may be increasingly uneasy about large-scale AI infrastructure development, but tech companies continue to spend. Next week, major US tech companies will release their earnings reports, which may improve the recent weak market sentiment. However, there are signs that companies like Alphabet are further increasing infrastructure spending, which could further drag down their share prices.

German semiconductor stocks fell between 3% and 5.6%.

Volkswagen's Workers' Council announced that it will hold a special employee meeting with CEO Blume after the summer break.

As of 3:00 PM Beijing time, spot platinum fell 1.92% and spot palladium fell 1.43%.

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy reported that the country exported 5.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe from January to June.

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy: Azerbaijan's daily oil production was 61,000 tons from January to June.

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy: Oil exports totaled 10.5 million tons from January to June.

July 17th - On July 15th, 2026, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People's Bank of China, met with Naji Issa Belqasim, Governor of the Central Bank of Libya. The two sides exchanged views on the current economic and financial situation, and Sino-Libyan economic and financial cooperation.

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy: Oil production from January to June was 13.3 million tons.

The CEO of Volvo Cars commented on Polestar's shareholding: "We currently hold a 20% stake and have no intention of changing that percentage."

On July 17th, Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Andrew Boak stated that Australian inflation data is expected to remain "somewhat worrying." He indicated that Australia's overall CPI is projected to rise 0.2% month-on-month in June, corresponding to an unchanged year-on-year increase of 4.0%. The Reserve Bank of Australia's inflation target is approximately 2.5%. He added that, looking at core inflation, the cut-off mean consumer price index is expected to rise 0.4% month-on-month in June, corresponding to a year-on-year increase accelerating by 10 basis points to 3.7%. The relevant data will be released on July 29th.

Ukrainian President Zelensky: The Sumy region was attacked by 15 guided-missile bombs; one person was injured in Sumy, and many residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, including libraries, were damaged.

On July 17th, WeRide (WRD.O) officially released its self-developed large-scale physical AI cognitive model, WeRide WITT. Based on the Visual Language Model (VLM) capability, WITT introduces the concept of "smallest physical fact unit" for the first time, integrating multimodal information such as video, images, and text. It breaks down continuously changing real-world scenes into identifiable and verifiable fact units, building a new generation of AI understanding framework centered on physical facts.

According to JLC Network Technology's calculations, as of the tenth working day on July 17th, the average price of benchmark crude oil was $77.87 per barrel, with a change rate of 6.01%. Domestic retail prices of refined oil products saw an increase, with gasoline rising by 300 yuan/ton and diesel by 290 yuan/ton, equivalent to 0.22 yuan/liter for 89#, 0.24 yuan/liter for 92#, 0.25 yuan/liter for 95#, and 0.25 yuan/liter for 0#. Due to the recent significant rebound in crude oil prices, and entering a new pricing cycle, the change rate is expected to continue its positive trend. On the first working day after the price adjustment, the change rate will be 4.8%, corresponding to an increase of approximately 240 yuan/ton. In the short term, international crude oil prices still have room to rebound, and the probability of a new round of price adjustments by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is high, with the adjustment window on July 31, 2026.