Real-time News

On July 16th, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a press conference. Chang Zhaorui, a researcher at the Infectious Disease Department of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that since October 2025, my country's COVID-19 epidemic has remained at the inter-epidemic level for eight and a half consecutive months, indicating relatively low viral activity. The epidemic saw a slight increase in late May this year, but returned to a low-epidemic level by mid-June. Recently, the positive rate of COVID-19 tests at sentinel hospitals nationwide has increased, suggesting that although the epidemic is on the rise, it remains at a low-epidemic level overall. The main circulating strain in my country is still the NB.1.8.1 series variant, and current monitoring shows no new variants that may pose additional public health risks. Currently, the COVID-19 epidemic has evolved into a common respiratory infectious disease, and there is no need for excessive anxiety regarding normal fluctuations in the epidemic.

On July 16th, according to South Korean media reports, SK Hynix raised a massive 40 trillion won (approximately US$30.76 billion) through its listing on the Nasdaq in the United States, aiming to solidify its leading position in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (NVDA.O), the global leader in the AI chip market, offered his congratulations on the listing. According to industry sources, on July 16th, after concluding an event held in Tokyo, Japan the previous day, Huang expressed extreme delight at SK Hynix's American Depositary Receipts (ADR) listing, calling it "extremely successful."

Omron: Will expand its cooperation with NVIDIA in the field of semiconductor wafer inspection technology.

NVIDIA (NVDA.O): Fujitsu, FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries will collaborate to develop a physical AI industrial platform using the NVIDIA platform.

On July 16th, CLSA issued a research report predicting that Baidu's (BIDU.O) core business revenue in the second quarter of 2026 will decline by 4.2% year-on-year to RMB 25.1 billion. Marketing revenue is expected to decline by approximately 22% year-on-year due to continued disruptions to the search business. AI cloud infrastructure revenue is expected to grow by 56% year-on-year to RMB 7.6 billion, while subscription revenue will see its year-on-year growth further accelerate from 184% in the first quarter. Dragged down by a decline in high-margin online marketing revenue and increased investment in model training, CLSA currently estimates that Baidu's adjusted core EBIT in the second quarter will decline by 14% year-on-year to RMB 3.8 billion, with an adjusted EBIT margin of approximately 15%. CLSA believes that Baidu's AI transformation path is not smooth. Insufficient model competitiveness may lead to a further slowdown in the search business, and the lack of MaaS and application revenue in the cloud business will further complicate matters. CLSA has lowered its adjusted net profit forecasts for 2026 and 2027 by 24% and 18%, respectively, and lowered its target price for Baidu's US-listed shares from $176 to $150, while maintaining its "Outperform" rating.

On July 16th, the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance released its June 2026 power battery data. In June, my country's sales of power and energy storage batteries reached 196.0 GWh, a 7.6% increase month-on-month and a 49.1% increase year-on-year. Of this, power battery sales were 133.4 GWh, accounting for 68.1% of total sales, a 5.0% increase month-on-month and a 41.8% increase year-on-year; energy storage battery sales were 62.6 GWh, accounting for 31.9% of total sales, a 13.4% increase month-on-month and a 67.5% increase year-on-year. From January to June, my country's cumulative sales of power and energy storage batteries reached 979.4 GWh, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 48.6%. Of this, cumulative power battery sales were 661.3 GWh, accounting for 67.5% of total sales, a 36.2% increase year-on-year; cumulative energy storage battery sales were 318.1 GWh, accounting for 32.5% of total sales, an 83.4% increase year-on-year.

A senior Bank of Japan official stated that appropriate monetary policy will achieve stable inflation and put the economy on a path of sustainable growth.

JPMorgan Chase raised its price target for ASML (ASML.O) from $2,200 to $2,400.

Market news: The United States will exempt Brazilian beef and coffee from the new 25% tariffs imposed on Brazilian goods.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the Japanese government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to raise the shareholding threshold for holding an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders from the current 3% to more than 5% of the voting rights.

On July 16, Hengfu Holdings (00643.HK) announced that, at the company's request, trading in the company's shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was suspended from 9:00 a.m. on July 16 pending the publication of an inside information announcement.

July 16th - Following reports that incoming British Prime Minister Andy Burnham would appoint current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Bloomberg Sterling Index, which measures the strength of the pound, rose as much as 1% on Wednesday, reaching its highest level since July 2nd, 2025, and remained near that level during Asian trading hours today. The pound's rise came after the Financial Times, citing sources, reported that Burnham had decided to put Mahmoud in charge of the Treasury. The sudden strength of the pound reflects investor relief. The market is currently awaiting Burnham's confirmation of this key appointment after he officially assumes the premiership next Monday. Previously, there had been speculation that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband might be chosen for the position. According to the latest results of a Bloomberg Markets real-time survey, Miliband is considered the least popular candidate for Chancellor.

On July 16th, Barclays analysts stated in a research report that Tencent Holdings (00700.HK) appears to have gained a first-mover advantage in certain segments of the enterprise AI agent field. Tencent's first-mover advantage is particularly encouraging, as the success or failure of the competition at the intelligent agent layer may ultimately determine the winners and losers in the AI field. At the same time, Barclays believes that, thanks to its WeChat ecosystem, Tencent may be one of the few companies capable of launching near-general-purpose consumer-grade AI agents. However, analysts believe that Tencent's progress in the AI field, aside from increasing related investment costs, will not have any direct impact on the company's financial performance in the short term.

July 16th - Hyundai Motor Group of South Korea will acquire SoftBank's stake in Boston Dynamics. Through this transaction, Hyundai Motor Group will gain 100% ownership of Boston Dynamics. The simplification of Boston Dynamics' decision-making and operational processes is expected to accelerate the commercialization of physical artificial intelligence technologies, including the humanoid robot "Atlas."