Real-time News

A survey by the Central Bank of Brazil shows that Brazilian economists expect the SELIC interest rate to be 14.00% by the end of 2026 and 12.00% by the end of 2027, both unchanged from previous forecasts.

On July 20th, Andy Burnham, the newly appointed leader of the ruling Labour Party, met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace and was appointed the new Prime Minister, authorized to form a new cabinet. Burnham will subsequently deliver his first speech as Prime Minister at Downing Street.

On July 20, Li Qiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council. The meeting emphasized the need to comprehensively address audit rectification efforts, attaching great importance to and seriously treating the problems identified in audits. Tasks should be broken down item by item, responsibilities should be clearly defined and implemented, and lessons should be learned to ensure effective rectification. Budget management should be further strengthened, fiscal and tax system reforms should be deepened, and the efficient use of fiscal funds should be maximized. Audit rectification should be used as a powerful tool to improve work, promote the better implementation of the decisions and policies of the CPC Central Committee, and solidly carry out all tasks in the second half of the year to ensure the achievement of the annual economic and social development goals.

Stifel: Lowered its price target for IBM (IBM.N) from $290 to $235.

On July 20, Premier Li Qiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council. The meeting emphasized the need to address institutional shortcomings, accelerate the enactment, amendment, repeal, and interpretation of relevant laws and regulations, improve supporting policies and measures, and continuously optimize the intellectual property protection environment to support comprehensive innovation. It also stressed the importance of strengthening the high-quality supply of intellectual property rights, deepening reforms in rights distribution, enhancing policy support and market services, and improving the efficiency of intellectual property transformation and application. Furthermore, the meeting called for establishing a comprehensive talent training system, accelerating the development of a high-level, multi-skilled, and application-oriented talent pool, and comprehensively improving the level of intellectual property management and services.

On July 20, Premier Li Qiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council, hearing a report on the supervision of the expansion and quality improvement of the service industry and the planning and construction of the "six networks." The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to fully unleash the development potential of the service industry, improve support policies in a categorized manner, and accelerate the removal of various constraints and obstacles. Productive service industries should strengthen support for technological innovation and value creation, further playing their supporting role in the real economy; consumer service industries should focus on expanding high-quality supply to better meet the diverse and multi-level needs of the people. The planning and construction of the "six networks" should be systematically promoted, implemented quickly according to local conditions and industry needs, with strengthened financial and resource guarantees to ensure the effective construction of major infrastructure networks. At the same time, the relationship between construction and use should be coordinated, with greater emphasis on "soft infrastructure" such as management mechanisms to enhance operational and service capabilities.

On July 20th, a symposium of leading officials from national industrial and information technology departments was held in Beijing. The meeting emphasized that the real economy, particularly manufacturing, is the "main battlefield" for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. It stressed the need to enhance the sense of responsibility and urgency, focusing on their respective roles and responsibilities, prioritizing application-driven development, and deeply implementing the "AI + Manufacturing" action plan to accelerate the development and application of AI, enabling all industries to accelerate their "intelligent upgrade." The meeting called for organizing and implementing an AI application service provider cultivation initiative, fully implementing the "analog-digital resonance" action plan, launching a series of lightweight, low-cost, and easily deployable industry solutions to lower the barriers to entry for SMEs. It also emphasized strengthening the supply of core technologies such as computing power, models, and data, accelerating breakthroughs in intelligent equipment, developing next-generation intelligent manufacturing, supporting iterative innovation of various intelligent consumer terminals, and promoting the popularization of next-generation intelligent devices such as humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces. Finally, the meeting stressed the importance of strengthening the national-level AI open-source community, gathering and sharing high-quality open-source resources such as models and data, increasing efforts in the development and promotion of key standards, and building a solid security barrier for the development of the AI industry.

Bristol-Myers Squibb: Will partner with NVIDIA (NVDA.O) to build the pharmaceutical industry’s “most powerful” artificial intelligence supercomputer.

Andy Burnham arrived at Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles, and is about to take over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

AMC Theatres (AMC.N) rose nearly 14% in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings per share for the second quarter.

July 20th - Morgan Stanley strategists stated in a report that the UK political risk premium has declined as Andy Burnham is set to become the new British Prime Minister on Monday. The strategists noted that geopolitical concerns continue to weigh on UK government bonds, but these concerns are easing. They expect UK bond yields to fall if tensions in the Middle East ease.

Iranian President Pezechzian: Throughout my term, I have never had partisan or factional bias, and no one has been able to claim that anyone was hired or dismissed solely because of political leanings, party affiliation, or even nepotism.

On July 20th, HSBC economists stated in a report that global trade growth could slow if AI-related demand weakens. They pointed out that global trade remains closely tied to the AI cycle, with related goods driving 80% of global export growth in nominal value. These goods account for approximately 80% of Taiwan's total exports and 27% of the US's total imports. They noted that exports excluding technology products have been weaker, with export growth in other categories essentially stagnant since 2024. Furthermore, AI is also supporting growth in services trade. However, they believe that based on capital expenditure forecasts from major global hyperscale cloud service providers, even if AI investment growth slows next year, this AI boom is likely to continue for some time.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally resigned during a meeting with King Charles.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer went to Buckingham Palace to formally resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

British Prime Minister Starmer: I will soon have an audience with the King of England to present my resignation.

Citigroup lowered its price target for IBM (IBM.N) from $375 to $255.