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On August 26, NASA announced that two astronauts on the International Space Station successfully installed and connected a backup high-speed ground-to-air communication antenna during a spacewalk lasting approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes. The two astronauts who exited the spacecraft were NASA astronaut Anil Menon and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adno. During a spacewalk on August 18, they removed a malfunctioning ground-to-air communication antenna. Due to the lengthy operation, they were unable to install a replacement antenna that day. In this mission, the two successfully installed and connected the backup communication antenna and secured the previously removed malfunctioning antenna to a spare parts platform on the space station's truss structure.

SK Innovation: Weak demand for electric vehicles has impacted its battery separator business.

On August 26th, the highest 7-day annualized yield of Tencent Wealth Management's "Current Account +" was 1.1950%, and the lowest was 0.7060%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of WeChat Pay's "Lingqian Tong" was 1.0110%, and the lowest was 0.8710%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of Alipay's "Yu'ebao" was 1.0340%, and the lowest was 0.9000%.

August 26th - According to foreign media reports, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Meta Platforms (META.O) has discussed the possibility of reaching a settlement during the trial of a major case involving allegations that Meta intentionally designed Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive for teenagers. The case exposes Meta to potential legal risks amounting to billions of dollars, as top law enforcement officials in 29 states are attempting to seek massive financial penalties on behalf of the public and to mandate changes to the platforms' operations. Meta denies the allegations and accuses the attorneys general of seeking unreasonable product design changes and "outrageous damages." According to Meta's own calculations, if it loses the trial, the company could face fines of up to $1.4 trillion, an amount close to its market capitalization and unprecedented in legal history. A settlement would likely result in a much lower amount.

On Wednesday, August 26, the Hang Seng Index opened 124.14 points higher, or 0.49%, at 25,635.24; the Hang Seng Tech Index opened 34.44 points higher, or 0.75%, at 4,622.98; the H-share Index opened 55.18 points higher, or 0.65%, at 8,500.55; and the Red Chip Index opened 3.39 points higher, or 0.08%, at 4,232.46.

Bank of Japan: Bank of Japan policy board member Naoki Tamura will replace Kazuo Ueda at the Jackson Hole meeting and will not be given an interview opportunity to the media.

Futures News, August 26th: Crude oil prices fell for two consecutive days, leading to a bearish sentiment in the fuel oil market. Traders are adopting a wait-and-see approach, with fears of further declines gradually intensifying. While news is unstable, tight supply of some fuel oil products is supporting prices. The market is experiencing a tug-of-war between upstream and downstream players, and today's trading is expected to be partially stable with some areas seeing slight declines to adjust volume.

A preliminary agreement on temporary shipping routes across the Taiwan Strait is expected to be reached. International crude oil prices are trading at low levels. A chart provides a quick overview of the pre-market crude oil prices converted between domestic and international markets.

Spot gold and silver prices continued to fluctuate. A chart provides a quick overview of the pre-market prices of precious metals, converted between domestic and international prices.

According to Futures News on August 26, as of 8:30 AM Beijing time, spot platinum rose 0.03% and spot palladium rose 0.08%.

As of 8:30 on August 26, 2026, Brent crude oil, WTI crude oil and other commodities saw the largest fluctuations. A chart reviews the overnight price changes in the international market and their corresponding theoretical mappings in the domestic market.

According to The Information, OpenAI had been hiring a large number of salespeople from Salesforce (CRM.N) to market its AI technology to large enterprises. Now, some of these salespeople have returned to Salesforce, further exacerbating the restructuring of OpenAI's enterprise sales team.

On August 26, in response to the US announcement of a new round of sanctions against Iran, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Ansari stated on the 25th that the US sanctions against Iran are unilateral. Ansari emphasized that Qatar is continuing its efforts to bring the US and Iran back to the negotiating table, and urged all parties to sincerely participate in the mediation efforts promoted by Qatar, Pakistan, and other regional countries. Qatar supports resolving the current crisis through dialogue. Ansari stated that the immediate priority is to restore freedom of navigation and return the Strait of Hormuz to its pre-war open state.

Japan's corporate services price index rose 0.4% month-on-month in July, compared with a previous reading of -0.4%.

Japan's corporate services price index rose 3.6% year-on-year in July, down from 3.20% in the previous month.

Artificial Intelligence: 1. Spain plans to introduce stricter regulations for data centers. 2. Anthropic estimates the potential market size to exceed $30 trillion, surpassing SpaceX IPO expectations. 3. OpenAI: Its self-developed Jalapeno chip outperforms Nvidia's GB300 in testing. Other: 1. Jack Ma increases his holdings, having purchased over HK$600 million worth of Alibaba shares in Hong Kong over several days. 2. Institutions: Storage shortages are expected to lead to a 4.7% year-on-year decline in flat panel display shipments. 3. SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion Starship launch site in Louisiana. 4. Nine Chinese companies, including Fusion Engineering, will collaborate on the development of high-temperature superconducting high-field tokamak magnets. 5. Apple releases new products including the Mac mini powered by M6 and M5 Pro chips, and the Mac Studio using M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Micron Technology (MU.O) President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 40,000 shares of common stock on August 21 at an average price of $968.9 per share, for a total value of approximately $38.7562 million.

On August 26th, according to foreign media reports, South Korean AI service platform Wrtn Technologies completed a funding round valued at 1.2 trillion won (approximately $870 million) to support its global expansion. The Seoul-based startup stated in a press release that it raised approximately 100 billion won in its Series C funding round. Following this round, Wrtn's total funding reaches approximately 230 billion won. The statement also noted that Wrtn's North American AI narrative platform, OOC, has achieved monthly revenue exceeding 10 billion won since its launch in May. The platform allows users to create or enter fictional worlds and interact with AI characters. Riding this momentum, Wrtn expects its annual revenue to exceed 200 billion won this year, a significant increase from approximately 47 billion won last year.