Morning News

Source: Wall Street Insights

## Market Overview

Driven by AI-related demand, the three major U.S. stock indexes extended their gains, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both hitting record highs; Amazon surged over 3%, while Tesla retreated more than 4%. Semiconductor stocks closed higher for the third consecutive session, rising nearly 3%. Micron Technology, which raised its Q3 revenue guidance, jumped 10%, whereas NVIDIA declined for two straight days. After Jensen Huang expressed optimism about AI systems' demand for memory, memory chipmaker SanDisk skyrocketed nearly 28%. Huang also stated that the Rubin rack does not require water chillers, triggering a broad decline in cooling equipment manufacturers, among which Johnson Controls closed down over 6%.

The pan-European stock indexes closed at record highs for the third consecutive day.

U.S. Treasury bond prices edged lower. The U.S. Dollar Index rebounded to near a more-than-three-week high. The British pound reversed gains after hitting a three-month peak, while the offshore yuan rose nearly 100 pips intraday to reclaim the 6.98 level. Cryptocurrencies pulled back after a rally, with Bitcoin falling over 3% from its intraday high and breaking below the $92,000 mark.

The metals rally continued: Gold touched a one-week high intraday, with COMEX gold futures up over 1% at one point; Silver surged more than 6% intraday, approaching the record high set last week; LME copper climbed over 3% intraday, closing above $13,000 per ton for the first time ever and hitting record highs for two consecutive days; LME nickel jumped over 10% intraday, logging its biggest gain in more than three years. Shanghai nickel futures closed at the daily limit during the night session.

Crude oil pulled back to a more-than-one-week low, dropping over 2% intraday.

During the Asian trading session, the Shanghai Composite Index refreshed a more-than-decade high and set a record for the longest winning streak in history. The commercial aerospace sector rallied again, the Hang Seng Tech Index rose over 2%, non-ferrous metals soared, and Shanghai silver futures gained more than 8% in the daytime session. Asian stock markets posted the strongest annual start on record, with both Japanese and South Korean stocks surging sharply.

## Top News

Sanae Takaichi hinted at possible military intervention in the Taiwan Strait. In response, China's Ministry of Commerce announced a ban on the export of dual-use items to Japanese military users.

The People's Bank of China clarified its key priorities for 2026: to strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, and flexibly and efficiently utilize various monetary policy tools such as reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate reductions.

Reports indicated that the Trump administration is discussing plans to acquire Greenland, including military options.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on tariff-related issues this Friday.

Divisions persist within the Federal Reserve: Raphael Bostic emphasized the need for "fine-tuning" monetary policy, while Loretta Mester stated that interest rates should be cut by more than 100 basis points this year.

The "Coalition of the Willing" reached a consensus that Britain and France will deploy troops to Ukraine after the signing of a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement.

Venezuela's Attorney General stressed that Nicolás Maduro enjoys absolute immunity, and the acting president stated that Venezuela is not ruled by external forces.

NVIDIA's CFO said that by the end of 2026, the company's data center chip revenue "will definitely" exceed the $500 billion forecast made last October. Jensen Huang noted strong demand from Chinese customers.

Competing with NVIDIA, AMD launched the MI440X at CES to capture the enterprise-grade AI data center market. Intel unveiled its key AI PC chip at CES: the debut of the 18A process technology, coupled with a 60% performance improvement, marking a "strategic inflection point" for the company.

## Market Closing Report

### European and U.S. Stock Markets

- S&P 500: +0.62%, closing at 6,944.82 points

- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.99%, closing at 49,462.08 points

- Nasdaq Composite: +0.65%, closing at 23,547.173 points

- Europe STOXX 600 Index: +0.58%, closing at 605.28 points

### A-Share Market

- Shanghai Composite Index: +1.50%, closing at 4,083.67 points

- Shenzhen Component Index: +1.40%, closing at 14,022.55 points

- ChiNext Index: +0.75%, closing at 3,319.29 points

### Bond Market

By the end of the trading session, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note stood at approximately 4.17%, rising about 1 basis point intraday; the yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury note was around 3.46%, also up roughly 1 basis point during the day.

### Commodity Market

- WTI Crude Oil Futures (February contract): -2.04%, closing at $57.13 per barrel

- Brent Crude Oil Futures (March contract): -1.77%, closing at $60.70 per barrel

- COMEX Gold Futures (February contract): +1%, closing at $4,496.1 per ounce

- COMEX Silver Futures (March contract): +5.72%, closing at $81.039 per ounce

- LME Copper Futures: +about 1.9%, closing at $13,238 per ton

- LME Nickel Futures: +nearly 9%, closing at $18,524 per ton

# Detailed Top News

## Global Highlights

Sanae Takaichi hinted at possible military intervention in the Taiwan Strait. In response, China's Ministry of Commerce announced a ban on the export of dual-use items to Japanese military users and for military purposes. According to Shanghai Observer, China has decided to prohibit the export of all dual-use items to Japanese military users, for military purposes, and for any other end - user applications that help enhance Japan's military capabilities. Organizations and individuals from any country or region that transfer or provide relevant dual - use items originating from the People's Republic of China to Japanese organizations and individuals in violation of the above - mentioned provisions will be held legally liable in accordance with the law.

The People's Bank of China has clarified its key priorities for 2026: to strengthen counter - cyclical and cross - cyclical adjustments, and flexibly and efficiently utilize various monetary policy tools such as reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts. The meeting emphasized that promoting high - quality economic development and a reasonable recovery of prices should be important considerations in monetary policy, and various monetary policy tools including reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts should be used flexibly and efficiently. It will establish an institutional arrangement to provide liquidity to non - banking institutions under specific scenarios and give full play to the role of two monetary policy tools supporting the capital market. It will also strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of the financial market, continuously crack down on illegal and irregular activities in the financial market, strengthen the supervision of virtual currencies, and keep combating related illegal and criminal activities. Meanwhile, it will steadily develop the digital renminbi.

Report: The Trump administration is discussing plans to acquire Greenland, including military options. According to CCTV News, senior U.S. officials stated that the Trump administration is discussing plans to obtain Greenland, including purchasing the territory from Denmark, establishing a free association agreement with Greenland, and military means have also been listed as one of the options.

Leaders of seven European countries including Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement stating that Greenland belongs to its people. According to Global Times, in a telephone interview with The Atlantic magazine on the 4th, U.S. President Trump said that Venezuela may not be the last country the United States intervenes in, and claimed that "we definitely need Greenland". In the joint statement, the leaders of the seven countries said that Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe, which is crucial to international security and transatlantic security. It must be achieved through joint efforts with NATO allies including the United States and by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. "These are universally applicable principles, and we will continue to defend them," the statement said.

Trump's next target? Danish Prime Minister: If the U.S. "seizes" Greenland by force, it will mean the end of NATO. Trump said that the United States "absolutely needs Greenland" and gave a timetable: "We will reconsider the issue of Greenland in about two months. Let's talk about Greenland again in 20 days." Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen warned that if the United States chooses to launch a military attack on another NATO country, everything will come to an end, including NATO and the security system established since the end of World War II.

All eyes are on this Friday as the U.S. Supreme Court may issue a ruling on the tariff issue. The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled January 9th, Friday, as the opinion release date, which means the court may rule on the legality of President Trump's global tariff policy on that day.

Divisions persist within the Federal Reserve. Bostic emphasized "fine - tuning", while Mester said interest rates should be cut by more than 100 basis points this year. Federal Reserve officials have sent different signals on the future interest rate path. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin emphasized that the policy is in a "delicate balance" to deal with the rising inflation rate and unemployment rate, and interest rates have reached a neutral level. In contrast, Fed Governor Loretta Mester stated that the data supports further interest rate cuts, with the magnitude possibly exceeding 100 basis points this year.

The "Coalition of the Willing" has reached a consensus that Britain and France will deploy troops to Ukraine after a Russia - Ukraine peace agreement is reached. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the "Coalition of the Willing" meeting to assist Ukraine in Paris, France on Tuesday and signed a letter of intent. Britain and France will deploy troops to Ukraine if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace agreement.

Venezuela's Attorney General stressed that Maduro enjoys absolute immunity, and the acting president said Venezuela is not ruled by external forces. Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that the current head of state enjoys absolute personal immunity. This is not only a personal right, but also a constitutional principle with universal effect and a basic norm of international law. Forcibly taking away, abducting, illegally depriving President Maduro and his wife of their freedom within Venezuela and taking them to other countries are legally acts of international abduction and illegal deprivation of freedom, and manifestations of state terrorism. Venezuela's National Guard said it has deployed troops nationwide.

Metals rally! LME nickel rose more than 10% intraday, New York silver surged over 6%, and LME copper hit record highs for consecutive sessions. LME nickel recorded its largest intraday gain in more than three years, and Chinese buying has driven nickel prices up more than 20% in two weeks. Shanghai nickel closed at the daily limit. LME copper broke through the $13,000 per ton mark intraday for the first time in history on Monday and rose more than 3% intraday on Tuesday. The market's expectation of higher U.S. tariffs has led to inventories being "locked in the United States". The sharp rise in silver futures was driven by the entry of Chinese retail investors. Resonating with geopolitical risks and interest rate cut expectations, New York gold futures rose more than 1% intraday, approaching the record high set before Christmas.

The $500 billion revenue forecast is too conservative! NVIDIA's CFO said it "will definitely" exceed that. Lisa Su led AMD to make a big splash at CES with its "AI ecosystem", boasting the start of the "yottabyte - scale computing era". To support the needs of 5 billion users in the future, AMD launched the "computing power monster" Helios platform and made a military order to improve chip performance by 1000 times within four years. With the computing power of new consumer - end products surpassing that of Intel, AMD is breaking through both cloud and terminal markets, triggering a new round of global computing power competition.

Competing with NVIDIA, AMD launched the MI440X to seize the enterprise - level AI data center market. AMD released the MI440X chip for enterprise data centers at CES and demonstrated the high - end Helios system. It previewed that the performance of the MI500 series to be launched in 2027 will be 1000 times that of the flagship product in 2023. CEO Lisa Su appeared with the co - founder of OpenAI, emphasizing that the demand for computing power is far from being met, aiming to further break NVIDIA's market monopoly and compete for tens of billions of dollars in AI hardware orders.

Intel released key AI PC chips at CES: debut of 18A process + 60% performance improvement, marking a "strategic inflection point" for the company. Intel officially launched the Panther Lake AI PC chip based on the 18A process, marking the large - scale mass production of this advanced process, with a 60% performance improvement over the previous generation. Laptops equipped with this chip opened for pre - order on January 7th and will be launched globally on January 27th. CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company has fulfilled its commitment to deliver 18A products in 2025, and Senior Vice President Jim Johnson stated that 2026 will be a "strategic inflection point for the entire industry and the company".

## Selected Research Reports

Ray Dalio's annual review: Fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar depreciate, and the high returns of U.S. stocks are just an "accounting illusion", while gold outperforms everything. In his 2025 review, Ray Dalio said that the 18% increase in U.S. stocks is actually an "accounting illusion" caused by the depreciation of fiat currencies, and it actually fell 28% when priced in gold. With a 39% increase, gold has established its position as a value anchor and reserve asset. He warned that the current valuation of U.S. stocks has been extremely stretched, social crises caused by unbalanced profit distribution are quietly accumulating, and foreign capital is shifting to non - U.S. markets and physical assets due to geopolitics and unilateralism.

Two main lines of current commodity trading - "de - dollarization" to buy gold, "strong security" to buy metals. Zheshang Securities believes that geopolitical risks and de - dollarization are reshaping the commodity cycle. The core trading logic is divided into two main lines. First, gold is replacing the U.S. dollar as the anchor for central bank reserves. 95% of central banks are expected to continue to increase their holdings, supporting gold prices to be dominated by geopolitical premiums instead of real interest rates. Second, the hoarding of strategic materials triggered by "strong security" has promoted the revaluation of military industrial metals. In 2025, the prices of tungsten and cobalt rose by 229% and 120% respectively.

## Domestic Macro - economy

Li Qiang met with South Korean President Lee Jae - myung. According to Xinhua News Agency, on the morning of January 6th, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council met with South Korean President Lee Jae - myung, who is on a state visit to China, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. China is willing to strengthen market opening and connectivity with South Korea, actively promote cooperation in emerging fields such as high - end manufacturing, artificial intelligence and new energy, deepen industrial integration and connection, and jointly cultivate new drivers of development. China welcomes South Korean enterprises to expand investment in China and hopes that South Korea will provide convenience for Chinese enterprises to invest in South Korea.

Bank of America is bullish on China's consumer stocks for three reasons: low base, deep undervaluation, and "convertible bond - like" defense. Bank of America's latest report clearly stated that it is bullish on China's consumer sector based on three core logics. The low - base effect provides a window for performance recovery in 2026. Valuations have fallen to historical lows, premiums have almost disappeared, institutional allocation is extremely low, and there is room for contrarian layout. Assets show "convertible bond - like" attributes. Leading companies have stable cash flow, and high dividends and share repurchases form price protection, while having downside defense and future valuation recovery flexibility.

## Domestic Companies

Brain - computer interface "unicorn" BrainCo completed a 2 billion yuan financing, second only to Musk's Neuralink in scale. BrainCo's nearly 2 billion yuan financing was co - invested by top financial capital and industrial giants such as Lens Technology, marking that brain - computer interface technology has crossed the laboratory stage and is accelerating towards large - scale mass production and commercialization. Affected by this, the capital market has responded strongly, and related concept stocks have continued to rise. The industry is accelerating the transition from laboratory research and development to mass production and commercialization.

Keling AI has become popular overseas in the new year. JPMorgan Chase: We reaffirm that Kuaishou is one of the cheapest AI stocks in the world. Due to the "pet dancing" videos that went viral overseas during the new year, Keling AI's mobile terminal revenue has soared. Data shows that in January 2026, Keling AI's average daily mobile platform revenue surged 102% compared with December 2025, among which revenue from the South Korean market soared 13 times. JPMorgan Chase analysts reaffirmed their optimistic attitude towards Kuaishou, believing that the current valuation only corresponds to 12 times the expected price - to - earnings ratio in 2026, while the compound annual profit growth rate from 2026 to 2027 is expected to reach 21%, making it one of the most undervalued AI stocks in the world.

# Overseas Macroeconomy

One month before Maduro was forcibly detained, Trump had "spoiled the news" to oil giants: "Be prepared". A month prior to Trump’s "blitz" operation against Venezuela, he had tipped off U.S. oil executives to "get ready", but provided no details about the impending move.

After lobbying by the oil industry for months, Trump finally threw his support behind Maduro’s deputy to take over Venezuela: "She knows oil best". According to CCTV News, on January 5 local time, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president of Venezuela. Oil giants and creditors have all placed their bets on her, hoping that with her profound background in the oil sector and strong administrative capabilities, she can revitalize energy exports and advance the restructuring of approximately $60 billion in debt. Oil companies such as Chevron are likely to emerge as the biggest beneficiaries.

All eyes on Friday’s nonfarm payroll data—the key factor for the Fed’s January rate cut: unemployment rate expected to rise to 4.7%. Citigroup forecasts that the U.S. unemployment rate may climb to 4.7% in December, which would prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 25 basis points this month. Amid the balancing act between weakening labor market conditions and cooling inflation, the baseline projection for actual rate cuts this year stands at 75 basis points, with the possibility of exceeding 100 basis points not ruled out.

Has AI built the strongest moat in history? J.P. Morgan Asset Management warns: Two medium-term risks are lurking, which could trigger a liquidity crunch. J.P. Morgan Asset Management has issued a warning that the boom in U.S. stocks has been entirely driven by generative AI, with gains and growth highly concentrated among a handful of tech giants, resulting in an unprecedented level of market concentration and dependency. However, the trillions of dollars in capital expenditure underpinning this boom is facing two major "hard constraints": uncertainty over profit returns and bottlenecks in U.S. power infrastructure. If market expectations are dashed, the market will be exposed to severe liquidity risks.

UBS: Volatility set to surge sharply; caution against a short-term correction in gold prices, which have recently been "hitchhiking" on platinum, silver, and palladium. UBS has warned of the risk of a short-term pullback in gold prices, noting that gold volatility has soared to levels seen during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and its correlation with real interest rates has broken down, eroding its safe-haven appeal. The gold-silver ratio has fallen to around 65, and historical data indicates lackluster performance in the subsequent period. Nevertheless, UBS maintains its long-term bullish stance on gold, supported by factors such as sustained central bank gold purchases, steady inflows into gold ETFs, diversified demand, and undervalued gold mining stocks.

# Overseas Companies

The world's first 1.8nm chip is here! Intel has launched the world's first 1.8-nanometer AI PC chip, pushing edge-side AI computing power to 180 TOPS and achieving breakthroughs in both performance and energy efficiency. This chip not only redefines the AI PC user experience but also, through its expansion into edge scenarios such as robotics, ushers in a new phase of large-scale commercial application of intelligent agents.

Hyundai Motor unveils new humanoid robot, plans annual production of 30,000 units and factory deployment by 2028. Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor, has released its latest version of the Atlas humanoid robot. The company plans to start mass-producing 30,000 units annually at its U.S. factories by 2028 and gradually deploy them in manufacturing facilities. The news sent Hyundai’s stock price surging as much as 8.4% to a record high. The robot is capable of lifting 50 kilograms and operating in temperatures ranging from minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The company stated that the robot will initially handle repetitive tasks and will be involved in complex assembly processes by 2030.

AI enters the "monetization era"! Google’s latest report: Enterprise AI moves beyond the experimental phase, with 88% of early adopters of intelligent agents achieving positive returns. Global AI applications have entered an era of large-scale monetization centered on "intelligent agents", where commercial value has become the core focus of the market. According to a Google Cloud report, enterprises that have dared to invest heavily in AI intelligent agents have reaped substantial returns through improved efficiency and revenue growth, and are now leading a new round of capital reallocation and reshaping the market competition landscape.

# Industries/Concepts

1.  **Cross-border Payments** | According to the Chinese government website, the 2026 National Foreign Exchange Administration Work Conference was held in Beijing from January 5 to 6. The meeting emphasized deepening reforms to facilitate foreign exchange transactions, focusing on boosting dynamism for high-quality development. It will optimize the management of trade-related foreign exchange businesses, steadily expand pilot programs for high-level opening-up in cross-border trade, increase support for the development of new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce, and improve the management of enterprises' trade credit reporting. Efforts will be made to build an open, diversified, functionally sound and well-regulated foreign exchange market, support financial institutions in developing simple and user-friendly exchange rate hedging products, reduce the cost of exchange rate risk management for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and enhance the service level of foreign exchange market infrastructure.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that the pilot programs for high-level opening-up in cross-border trade, through institutional opening-up, not only optimize the experience of enterprises in cross-border capital flows but also create a more efficient, diversified and compliant development environment for the cross-border payment industry. Driven by the convergence of technology, policies and demand, cross-border payments are evolving from a "capital channel" to a "digital trade hub", and are expected to enter a new phase of high growth, high integration and high value in the future, with enormous development potential. Institutional forecasts indicate that China's cross-border payment scale reached 9.4 trillion yuan in 2025 (accounting for 5.3% of the global total) and is projected to exceed 20 trillion yuan by 2030, emerging as a core growth engine in emerging markets.

2.  **Autonomous Driving** | According to Sina Finance, during the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026), NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that one billion cars on the roads in the future could be autonomous vehicles. NVIDIA is collaborating with autonomous taxi operators and plans to provide support for their self-driving fleets as early as 2027, facilitating the deployment of Level 4 (L4) autonomous taxis. Huang also noted that autonomous vehicles are now "fully ready" and represent the world's first truly mainstream robotics industry.

   **Commentary**: Analysts point out that NVIDIA’s DRIVE AGX Hyperion 10 is a reference platform equipped with a computing and sensor architecture that enables vehicles to achieve L4 autonomous driving capabilities. The platform is powered by the DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-chip, which can integrate diverse input data from 360-degree surround sensors, including 14 high-definition cameras and 9 radars, providing robust computing and perception capabilities for autonomous taxis. Citigroup analysts released a report stating that NVIDIA’s next-generation AI platforms, open models and its ecosystem are expected to stimulate demand for autonomous taxis and underpin global economic growth. Citigroup forecasts that the global autonomous taxi market size will expand from $4.43 billion in 2025 to $188.91 billion by 2034. China's autonomous taxi market is projected to grow from $39 million in 2025 to $67.59 billion by 2035.

3.  **Express Logistics** | At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on January 6, Li Jialu, Director-General of the Department of Circulation Industry Development of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that next steps will involve actively supporting the construction of green, intelligent and specialized sorting centers. Local governments will be encouraged to provide policy guarantees for the construction and renovation of sorting centers, guiding more renewable resources to flow into the upgraded sorting facilities, and driving the high-quality development of the renewable resource recycling industry. Meanwhile, efforts will be made to push local authorities to clarify recycling models, fulfill their responsibilities, make good use of fiscal funds, further improve the renewable resource recycling network, and contribute to promoting resource recycling and fostering green circular consumption.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that driven by demand from multiple sectors such as e-commerce express delivery, renewable resources and manufacturing, the sorting center construction market is experiencing a golden period of transformation towards intelligence and automation. In 2025, China's daily express delivery volume exceeded 540 million pieces. Traditional manual sorting has an efficiency of less than 800 pieces per hour, while cross-belt sorters can achieve an efficiency of 24,000 pieces per hour, prompting leading logistics enterprises to increase the proportion of investment in intelligent sorting equipment to 43% of their fixed assets. The global market size for sorting center construction is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2030, with China, as the core market, contributing more than 35% of the share. Policy dividends, technological iteration and cost reduction are jointly driving the industry into a high-growth track.

4.  **Solid-State Batteries** | According to Jiemian News, Finnish startup Donut Lab recently officially announced the launch of the world's first all-solid-state battery that is ready for commercial mass production, and plans to unveil it at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, USA on January 6. The core advantage of this all-solid-state battery lies in its "all-dimensional superiority"—it has broken the technical bottlenecks of traditional lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density, charging speed, cycle life and adaptability to extreme environments. It can be applied in passenger vehicles, as well as electric motorcycles, heavy-duty trucks and even engineering machinery, and is expected to revolutionize the electric vehicle industry.

   **Commentary**: Analysts note that as the core direction of next-generation power batteries, solid-state batteries, with their high energy density, intrinsic safety and ultra-long cycle life (8,000-10,000 cycles), are accelerating the replacement of traditional lithium-ion batteries. With policy support, technological reserves and industrial chain advantages, China is expected to capture 40% of the global market share. Authoritative forecasts indicate that the global solid-state battery shipment volume will reach 614.1 GWh by 2030, with a penetration rate exceeding 10% and a market size of over 250 billion yuan. As the world's largest single market, China's annual market size is projected to reach 116.3 billion yuan by then, with a compound annual growth rate of 42%.

5.  **Environmental Protection** | According to Sina Finance, it was learned from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, that the research team of the institute has recently achieved a new breakthrough in clean hydrogen sulfide treatment technology, and completed technical verification on January 6, providing a new solution for the green transformation of the chemical industry. Currently, the technology has been applied in an industrial demonstration project in the coal chemical industry for the elimination and resource utilization of 100,000 cubic meters of hydrogen sulfide per year.

   **Commentary**: Operational data shows that the hydrogen sulfide conversion rate is nearly 100%, producing high-quality sulfur and high-purity hydrogen. This technology provides a brand-new path for the complete elimination and resource utilization of hydrogen sulfide, maximizing the clean treatment of pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide, and achieving dual resource benefits of "hydrogen production + sulfur production". It broadens the production path of clean and low-carbon hydrogen in the industrial sector, and plays a positive role in promoting the development of China's hydrogen energy industry and the construction of a low-carbon energy system.

6.  **Rare Earths** | On January 6, the Ministry of Commerce announced the strengthening of export controls on dual-use items to Japan. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that in accordance with relevant provisions of the *Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China* and the *Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Export Control of Dual-Use Items*, China has decided to prohibit the export of all dual-use items to Japanese military users, for military purposes, and for any other end-user applications that help enhance Japan's military capabilities.

   **Commentary**: Research institutions believe that at the current stage, rare earth prices are in a range acceptable to both upstream and downstream sectors as well as policymakers, while supply controls remain stringent. It is expected that the rapid recovery in demand will drive price increases, with demand becoming the main driver of rare earth prices. Meanwhile, energy metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel will continue to benefit from the spillover effects of the booming energy storage sector.

# Today's Key News Preview

- China's December foreign exchange reserves

- Eurozone December CPI

- U.S. December ADP employment change

- U.S. November JOLTS job openings

- U.S. December ISM non-manufacturing index

- U.S. October factory orders and durable goods orders

- U.S. weekly EIA crude oil inventory change

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