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June 25 – The Ministry of Ecology and Environment held its regular June press conference today (June 25). Officials stated that my country has entered its main flood season, and in response to the severe situation of potentially large fluctuations in water quality during this period, the Ministry has acted swiftly and made arrangements. Regarding abnormal water quality fluctuations during the flood season, the Ministry will promptly conduct analysis and consultations, providing point-to-point guidance to local authorities to identify the causes and accelerate rectification. Simultaneously, it will promote joint risk assessment and collaborative countermeasures between upstream and downstream areas, as well as between left and right banks of river basins, to avoid situations where "upstream pollution leads to downstream liability" or "left-bank remediation leads to right-bank relapse," thus forming a closed-loop management system for problem assignment, rectification implementation, and follow-up evaluation.

XPeng Motors announced that the XPeng X9 model has been delivered more than 60,000 times globally.

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. State Department, Johnson: The U.S. Embassy in Caracas reports that all U.S. personnel have been confirmed safe following the earthquake in Venezuela.

Hong Kong-listed tech stocks collectively declined, with Trip.com Group-S (09961.HK) falling over 9%, Alibaba (09988.HK) down nearly 5%, Baidu (09888.HK) and Xiaomi Group (01810.HK) down over 3%, JD.com (09618.HK) down nearly 3%, and Meituan (03690.HK) down over 2%.

On June 25th, the Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission drafted the "Notice on Improving the Service Level of Foreign Investment Projects Throughout Their Life Cycle (Draft for Public Comment)," and is now soliciting public opinions and suggestions. The draft proposes protecting the legitimate rights and interests of foreign-invested enterprises. It also calls for planning and promoting municipal-level legislation on foreign investment. The draft strictly enforces the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system for foreign investment, and strictly prohibits setting separate access restrictions for foreign investment. It continues to implement the special campaign to investigate and rectify hidden barriers to foreign investment, ensures smooth channels for complaints and reports, and severely punishes discriminatory treatment, hidden thresholds, and selective enforcement against foreign-invested enterprises, guaranteeing their equal participation in government procurement and other activities. Finally, it emphasizes fully soliciting opinions from foreign-invested enterprises when formulating policies related to foreign investment.

June 25 - Reuters reported that the U.S. Geological Survey initially estimated the death toll from the Venezuelan earthquake to be between 10,000 and 100,000.

Hong Kong stocks related to new consumption concepts continued to decline, with Laopu Gold (06181.HK) falling more than 7%, Li Auto (02015.HK), XPeng Group (09868.HK), and Xiaomi Group (01810.HK) falling more than 4%, and Pop Mart (09992.HK) falling more than 3%.

On June 25th, Investinglive analysts pointed out that Iran's warning to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard directly escalated Iran's stance on the issue of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and will immediately push up risk premiums for tanker freight rates and crude oil prices. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' warning that ships using unauthorized routes will face penalties is not just rhetoric, but an action statement that gives the Iranian Navy a legal and institutional basis to intercept, board, or seize ships that do not comply with regulations. The mandatory Channel 16 coordination requirement effectively gives Tehran control over information and consent for all ships transiting the strait. For the energy market, the key question is whether this statement is a response to specific alternative routes that the US or Gulf states may propose in the context of normalized shipping after a ceasefire, or whether it represents Iran's preemptive defense of its sovereignty before facing pressure to reopen the transit route. Regardless of the interpretation, it is bearish for supply security but bullish for crude oil prices in the near term.

According to Japanese sources, the earthquake that struck off the coast of Iwate Prefecture around 10:00 a.m. local time on the 25th has injured at least four people.

Market sources indicate that Kioxia plans to list its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) in the United States in April or May next year.

On June 25th, to promote the high-quality and standardized development of my country's computing power token overseas and address common industry challenges such as cross-border compliance, standards systems, and ecosystem collaboration, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), in conjunction with several core units across the industry chain, launched the "Computing Power Token Overseas Expansion Ecosystem Plan." This plan, with its core focus on "understanding the situation, building the ecosystem, and optimizing pathways," targets key links and common pain points across the entire computing power token overseas expansion industry chain. Leveraging CAICT's research accumulation and industry resources in computing power, digital infrastructure, and cross-border data compliance, the plan provides the industry with dynamically updated research results and public services, driving the Chinese computing power token overseas expansion industry from its exploratory stage to a standardized, efficient, and sustainable high-quality development phase.

The Hang Seng Tech Index fell more than 2%, while the Hang Seng Index fell 1.4%.

XPeng Group (09868.HK) shares fell more than 5% in Hong Kong, with turnover exceeding HK$300 million.

On June 25th, Baidu announced the merger and upgrade of its Baidu Wenxin-related websites, unifying them into a new Baidu Wenxin website, a one-stop AI service portal with a fully expanded functional matrix.

On June 25th, Lloyd Chan, senior foreign exchange analyst at MUFG Bank, stated in a research report that the Thai baht and other Asian currencies are under pressure against the US dollar in an environment where US interest rates are expected to remain high for an extended period. He said this "is likely to exert downward pressure on regional currencies in the short term, especially for those with lower yields." MUFG Bank maintains a negative view on the recent performance of the Thai baht. Chan said, "While the Bank of Thailand expects more robust economic growth this year, concerns remain that economic growth remains slow and uneven."

On June 25th, the highest 7-day annualized yield of Tencent Wealth Management's "Current Account +" was 1.4590%, and the lowest was 0.6640%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of WeChat Pay's "Lingqian Tong" was 1.0270%, and the lowest was 1.0020%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of Alipay's "Yu'ebao" was 1.0990%, and the lowest was 1.0000%.

Market news: Kioxia is considering a stock split to make the stock more accessible to buyers.

On June 25th, Bank of Japan (BOJ) policy board member Naoki Tamura stated on Thursday that pushing the BOJ's policy rate towards a neutral level is crucial to avoid being forced to raise interest rates significantly later, and he suggested setting the neutral rate at around 2%. He prefers raising rates every few months to gradually approach the 2% neutral level. He also stated that if the likelihood of upside risks to prices increases, the BOJ should not hesitate to accelerate the pace of rate hikes or significantly raise interest rates. Tamura believes that the underlying inflation rate has reached 2%, and upside risks to prices remain regardless of developments in the Middle East. Furthermore, Japan's situation differs fundamentally from that of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank because the BOJ's policy rate remains below the neutral level, and inflation expectations are not yet fully anchored. Tamura stated that he opposes the BOJ pausing its bond-buying tapering from the next fiscal year, believing that the central bank should quickly normalize its bond holdings.