Morning News

# Source: Wall Street Insights

## Market Overview

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court did not issue its ruling on Trump's tariffs for the time being. With mixed non-farm payroll data, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to hit a new record high, and the Nasdaq 100 climbed 1%. Stocks highly correlated with tariffs dipped intraday on Friday. Intel surged over 10% after its CEO met with Trump earlier. Oracle gained nearly 5%.

The non-farm payroll report reinforced market expectations that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates unchanged in January. The interest rate-sensitive 2-year U.S. Treasury yield edged up 4.39 basis points.

The U.S. dollar extended its rally for four consecutive sessions to hit a one-month high. The USD/JPY exchange rate once broke through the 158 level. Reports indicated that the Japanese Prime Minister planned to dissolve parliament to pave the way for a snap general election.

Cryptocurrencies traded lower on Friday, with Bitcoin briefly falling below the $90,000 mark. After a strong rally earlier in the week, Bitcoin gave back its gains and closed roughly flat for the whole week.

Spot gold prices rose 0.7% to rebound above $4,500, with a weekly gain of over 4%, moving closer to the all-time high again. Spot silver jumped 3.8%, surging 10% for the week. As Iran intensified its crackdown on domestic protests and Trump threatened to take action against the demonstrators, WTI crude oil once rose 2.3% before paring gains to 0.6%.

In early Asian trading on Monday, spot gold and spot silver opened slightly higher, up 0.2% and 0.7% respectively; WTI crude oil edged up 0.03%; Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 0.2%.

## Top News

China has tightened controls on dual-use items to resolutely curb the militaristic ambitions of Japan.

Trump threatened Iran again and was reported to have been briefed on military strike plans; the Iranian military stated: Unite to foil the enemy's plots.

Trump: Will strike inside Mexico soon.

UK media exposed: Trump has ordered the U.S. military command to formulate a plan to "invade" Greenland, which was resisted by the military.

Canada is worried that "it will be the next Greenland".

Trump: No more oil or funds will flow into Cuba.

Bescent stated: The goal of "Trump QE" is to match the Federal Reserve's "balance sheet reduction". Following the mortgage QE, Trump plans to cap credit card interest rates at "10%".

China has filed applications for 200,000 new satellites. Experts said: The application for satellite frequency and orbit resources has risen to the national strategic level.

SpaceX accelerated its deployment and was approved to deploy an additional 7,500 Starlink satellites, bringing the total number to 15,000.

Musk announced that "X will make all algorithms public within 7 days", including recommendation algorithms, and will do so every four weeks thereafter.

China's "Big Four AI Giants" made a rare joint appearance. Alibaba, Tencent, Kimi and Zhipu engaged in a "discourse": The next step of large models and the possibility of China's overtaking.

SanDisk raised prices and required full payment upfront.

## Market Closing Quotes

### European and U.S. Stock Markets

- The S&P 500 rose 0.65% to close at 6,966.28 points, with a weekly gain of 1.57%.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.48% to end at 49,504.07 points, posting a weekly increase of 2.32%.

- The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.82% to settle at 23,671.346 points, with a weekly rise of 1.88%.

- The European STOXX 600 Index closed up 0.97% at 609.67 points.

### A-Shares

- The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 4,120.43 points, up 0.92%.

- The Shenzhen Component Index ended at 14,120.15 points, rising 1.15%.

- The ChiNext Index closed at 3,327.81 points, gaining 0.77%.

### Bond Market

- The yield on the 10-year benchmark U.S. Treasury note fell 0.19 basis points to 4.1653%, with a weekly drop of 2.53 basis points.

- The yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury note rose 4.39 basis points to 3.5321%, posting a weekly increase of 5.88 basis points.

### Commodities

- COMEX gold futures rose 1.28% to close at $4,517.90 per ounce, with a weekly gain of 4.34%.

- COMEX silver futures jumped 5.92% to settle at $79.595 per ounce, surging 12.07% for the week.

- February WTI crude oil futures closed up 2.35% at $59.12 per barrel.

- March Brent crude oil futures rose $1.35, or 2.18%, to close at $63.34 per barrel.

# Detailed Top News

## Global Headlines

China has tightened controls on dual-use items to resolutely curb Japan's militaristic ambitions. According to Yuyuantan Tian, Zhou Mi from the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce stated that China has indeed felt the security risks and practical problems caused by some practices of the Japanese side, hence the corresponding measures were taken. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce emphasized that the controls will not affect normal civil trade, and are targeted at Japan's practice of "integrating military into civil industry". Japan hides its military production in the civil industrial system and implements an ambiguous strategy of dual-use for military and civil purposes.

Trump threatened Iran again and was reported to have been briefed on military strike plans; the Iranian military: Unite to foil the enemy's plots. According to Xinhua News Agency, The New York Times quoted anonymous U.S. officials on the 10th as reporting that U.S. President Trump has recently been briefed on plans for military strikes against Iran. Trump has not made a final decision yet, but he is seriously considering authorizing the U.S. military to launch military strikes. The U.S. military has a range of options, including strikes on non-military locations in Tehran.

Trump is reported to be considering multiple plans to intervene in Iran, including announcing the dispatch of aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle East, launching cyberattacks and information warfare.

Trump hinted that surprise military operations may become the main mode of U.S. overseas military operations in the future. U.S. media stated that the military operation against Venezuela may reveal important clues about the future U.S. overseas military operations. Meanwhile, the U.S. military actions everywhere have put its Asia-Pacific ally Japan in a dilemma.

Trump: Will strike inside Mexico soon. According to Global Times, Trump made another shocking statement, bluntly saying that Mexico is actually ruled by drug cartels, and vowed that the U.S. military will soon launch ground strike operations. This move comes amid escalating U.S.-Venezuela tensions, triggering a strong backlash from the Mexican president, sharply escalating tensions in Latin America, and U.S.-Mexico relations may hit a freezing point.

UK media exposed: Trump has ordered the U.S. military command to formulate a plan to "invade" Greenland, which was resisted by the military. According to Huanqiu.com, British media quoted sources as saying that Trump has ordered special forces commanders to formulate a plan to "invade" Greenland, but this move was resisted by the military. According to the sources, Trump has asked the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to prepare an "invasion" plan, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed it on the grounds that the plan is illegal and will not get congressional support.

Canada is worried that "it will be the next Greenland". Panic has spread rapidly within Canada, forcing policymakers to start seriously examining Trump's past remarks about "annexing Canada". As the regular review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is about to start, investors are worried that the U.S. may "disable" Canada through economic means.

Trump: No more oil or funds will flow into Cuba. U.S. President Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social on the 11th that Cuba has relied on a large amount of oil and money from Venezuela for many years, but "no more oil or funds will flow to Cuba - zero. I strongly suggest that they reach an agreement (with the U.S.) before it is too late".

Will Trump take over the Fed's role in "managing mortgage rates"? Bescent stated: The goal of "Trump QE" is to match the Federal Reserve's "balance sheet reduction". Following the mortgage QE, Trump plans to cap credit card interest rates at "10%".

The Trump administration ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Treasury Secretary Bescent made it clear that this move is aimed at offsetting the Federal Reserve's monthly balance sheet reduction of about $15 billion. Affected by this, MBS spreads narrowed, and the market expects mortgage rates to drop by 0.25%. However, this "shadow QE" has triggered investor concerns about administrative power interfering with market pricing and undermining the Federal Reserve's independence.

Trump called for capping credit card interest rates at 10% starting from January 20, 2026, for a one-year period, aiming to protect consumers from "extortion". However, the plan lacks implementation details and faces legal obstacles. Well-known investor Bill Ackman warned that this move is a "mistake" that may lead banks to cancel credit card services, forcing consumers to turn to usury.

Goldman Sachs interprets "Trump-style QE": The signal is more important than the scale. Trump's $200 billion "quasi-QE" shocked Wall Street. Goldman Sachs bluntly stated that "the signal is far more fatal than the scale": this is a paradigm shift where administrative power bypasses the Federal Reserve to directly intervene in interest rates. With refinancing risks being "actively triggered", the MBS valuation logic is facing restructuring. Goldman Sachs recommended selling high-coupon assets, warning that the market must reprice for the intervention of the "administrative hand".

From "mortgage QE" to "credit card price caps", as Trump begins to personally set interest rates. The White House is bypassing the Federal Reserve and directly using administrative power to intervene in "the interest rates that voters feel most acutely". This series of operations not only undermines the financial pricing system, but also marks the transfer of interest rate pricing power from the market to political judgments. The systemic risks brought by this "transfer of pricing power" are far more worthy of vigilance than simple interest rate cuts.

China has filed applications for 200,000 new satellites. Experts: The application for satellite frequency and orbit resources has risen to the national strategic level. According to Shanghai Securities News, China applied to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for frequency and orbit resources for more than 200,000 satellites in December 2025, of which 190,000 came from the newly established "national team" - the Radio Innovation Institute. This is the first new-type R&D institution in China's radio management technology field targeting technological innovation and achievement transformation, indicating that the application for satellite frequency and orbit resources has risen to the national strategic level.

SpaceX accelerates its deployment and is approved to deploy an additional 7,500 Starlink satellites, bringing the total number to 15,000. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX to deploy an additional 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites, making the total number of approved second-generation satellites to operate reach 15,000. This authorization allows for technological upgrades and multi-band operations, aiming to support satellite direct-to-cell phone services and achieve a maximum speed of 1Gbps. The agency requires SpaceX to complete 50% of the launch missions by December 2028 and all deployments by 2031.

Space-based photovoltaics and "orbital data centers": Why will the battlefield of the next generation of energy and computing power be 800 kilometers above the ground? Space-based photovoltaics is no longer just "solar panels on satellites", but a necessary path to the next generation of computing power form (space computing power/orbital data centers). As the global number of low-orbit satellite applications exceeds 100,000, the power demand of Starlink V3 surges, and the cost of space data centers is two orders of magnitude lower than that on the ground, the physical boundaries of energy and heat dissipation have been completely rewritten. Space-based photovoltaics is no longer "the solar panels of satellites", but the key foundation supporting space computing power and orbital data centers. The "quantity stacking" of satellites and "power stacking" of computing power have jointly pushed solar arrays from high-end customization to the inevitable path of scale, lightweight and technological route reshaping.

Musk announced that "X will make all algorithms public within 7 days", including recommendation algorithms, and will do so every four weeks thereafter. Musk promised to open-source X platform's new algorithms within the next seven days and launch a normalized mechanism of "updating every four weeks". This move aims to respond to regulatory pressure and user doubts through full transparency, while accelerating the transformation to a "pure AI-driven" recommendation engine. Despite facing a global regulatory storm and Grok controversy, X is trying to completely reconstruct the trust and traffic logic of social media through technology.

China's "Big Four AI Giants" made a rare joint appearance. Alibaba, Tencent, Kimi and Zhipu engaged in a "discourse": The next step of large models and the possibility of China's overtaking. The competition of large models has shifted from the "Chat" stage to the "Agent" stage, with the focus moving from leaderboard scores to the execution of complex tasks in real environments. The industry predicts that 2026 will be the first year of commercial value realization, and the technical path is evolving towards Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR). Faced with the issue of "China's overtaking", the leaders hold a calm attitude, assessing the leading probability to be within 20%, and believe that there are essential gaps between China and the U.S. in terms of computing power investment structure, new paradigm leadership and toB ecosystem.

SanDisk raises prices and requires full payment upfront! Driven by the explosive demand for AI servers and the capacity tilt of original manufacturers, the storage market has entered an extremely tight seller's cycle. According to reports, SanDisk not only plans to increase the price of enterprise-grade NAND by more than 100% month-on-month in March, but also breaks industry conventions by requiring customers to pay 100% cash upfront to lock in long-term contracts. Tech giants such as Google and Meta are being forced to restructure their procurement teams to seize supply sources.

## Selected Research Reports

Lessons for global investors in the first week of 2026: Turmoil persists, military industry remains invincible. At the start of 2026, frequent geopolitical shocks have made the military industry sector a global core theme. Goldman Sachs' European military industry stock basket rose another 21% after soaring last year, and South Korean defense contractors also surged sharply. The market expects various countries to accelerate military restructuring and shift towards national defense self-reliance. Although U.S. stocks rose steadily due to buyback restrictions, the surge in global defense spending is continuously reshaping industry valuations and profit expectations.

The biggest trading theme of 2026: Trump who cannot afford to lose, the end of the international order. Senior analyst David Woo believes that facing enormous mid-term election pressure, the Trump administration is showing determination to turn the tide at all costs, which will be negative for crude oil. The Venezuela incident marks the substantive end of the rules-based international order established after the war. This provides strong support for gold and benefits the defense industry. On the contrary, emerging market stocks will face the risk of valuation re-rating, because in an era of the return of power politics, the safety premium of small economies will no longer exist.

Bank of America's Hartnett talks about "Q1 strategy": Trump "suppresses inflation and cuts interest rates" for mid-term elections, investors "go long on economic prosperity and short on AI bubble". Bank of America believes that the Trump administration is going all out to suppress inflation and reduce capital costs to win the mid-term elections, which forces investors to adopt a strategy of "going long on economic prosperity and short on asset bubbles". The correct strategy for Q1 is "rotation rather than retreat". Investors should reduce exposure to the overheated AI concepts of 2025 (especially AI derivatives and bonds related to high capital expenditure), and instead increase holdings of value cyclical stocks.

AI is really coming, can the economy stand it? A fierce debate between "the Big Short", "AI giants" and "top tech bloggers". Three heavyweight guests engaged in a fierce debate around the AI boom: although technological capabilities are advancing rapidly, the commercial closed loop is far from being formed; application revenue lags behind trillions of dollars in infrastructure investment, and risks of capital cycle, depreciation and stranded assets are accumulating; productivity improvement lacks reliable measurement, and employment impact has not yet appeared due to the lack of a real closed loop; energy supply has become a long-term bottleneck. To judge whether AI is going astray, we need to focus on five aspects: capability, efficiency, capital return, industrial closed loop and power infrastructure.

The era of hoarding commodities is coming. Driven by geopolitical tensions and supply chain security concerns, various countries are accelerating the hoarding of strategic materials. Prices of key military metals such as tungsten and cobalt have soared due to strong security demand. At the same time, central banks' "de-dollarization" is promoting the restructuring of gold pricing logic. As commodities and defense assets outperform tech stocks, the era of "hard assets" may be approaching.

Commodities: Long-term, medium-term and short-term stories. Commodities are ushering in a bull market cycle since September 2024, driven by both U.S. interest rate cuts and China's policy shift. Precious metals lead the gains, while industrial products and agricultural products are brewing a spreading upward trend. Resource nationalism has strengthened supply constraints, and expectations of economic recovery in China and the U.S. are growing. Currently, it is an optimal allocation window for "buying on dips rather than shorting on rallies". Short-term sentiment is overheated, so it is recommended to participate cautiously in the final sprint before the holiday, and the medium-to-long-term layout value is prominent.

Price increases have become the new normal for passive components. Entering 2026, the passive component industry, the "silent cornerstone" of the global electronic information industry, is declaring the arrival of a new round of boom cycle with unprecedented momentum. Different from the price fluctuations driven mainly by short-term supply-demand mismatches in history, the current price increase wave, which began to brew at the end of 2025 and fully launched around the 2026 New Year's Day, is rare in both breadth and depth.

## Domestic Macroeconomy

Report: The U.S. Department of Commerce has withdrawn the plan to include Chinese-made drones in the so-called "controlled list". According to Huanqiu.com, the U.S. withdrew its proposal to restrict Chinese drones! The U.S. Department of Commerce has revoked the plan to restrict imports of Chinese drones. The proposal previously triggered strong backlash within the U.S., and Chinese companies such as DJI argued their case strongly. U.S. drone operators stated bluntly that Chinese drones have "no substitutes in the West" and that the ban would ruin their livelihoods. After weighing the pros and cons, the White House finally chose to "hit the brakes".

China's December CPI year-on-year growth hit a 34-month high, turning to a month-on-month increase of 0.2%, and PPI rose month-on-month for three consecutive months. The CPI rose 0.8% year-on-year, rebounding to the highest level since March 2023, mainly driven by the expanded increase in food prices, with fresh vegetables rising by 18.2%. The month-on-month turnaround of CPI from decline to increase was mainly affected by the rise in prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy, with prices of communication tools, maternal and infant products all rising, and gold jewelry prices increasing by 5.6%. The PPI fell year-on-year for the 39th consecutive month, with the month-on-month increase expanding, as the upward trend of international non-ferrous metal prices drove up prices of related domestic industries.

Guolian MinSheng Securities believes that the rare month-on-month rise of both CPI and PPI in December released a "good start" signal of inflation recovery and economic stabilization. The current round of price recovery is driven by the "anti-involution" policies to improve supply-demand order, rising commodity prices, and strong support from consumption policies and pre-holiday demand.

The Anti-Monopoly Commission of the State Council: Problems such as competing for subsidies, competing for prices, and controlling traffic in the food delivery platform service industry are prominent, and investigations and evaluations will be carried out.

China's Ministry of Finance: Starting from April, VAT export tax rebates for 249 products such as photovoltaic products will be cancelled, and VAT export tax rebates for battery products will be cancelled starting next year.

There has never been a continuous 3-year "valuation expansion" in A-share history. Can 2026 break this record? GF Securities believes that the expectation that A-shares "cannot expand valuation for three consecutive years" may be broken. Although valuations have expanded continuously in 2024-2025, the expansion range is not large compared with history. Against the background of stable profit expectations and incremental capital entering the market, A-share valuations are expected to continue to rise in the future, breaking the historical rule of "no more than 2 years of valuation expansion".

# Domestic Companies

Minimax Skyrockets 109% on Debut Day of Hong Kong IPO, Making Alibaba and miHoYo a Killing!

First to List but Lagging in Valuation – Where Does Zhipu AI Fall Behind Minimax? Although Zhipu AI and Minimax listed in Hong Kong around the same period, their market performances diverged sharply. This reflects investors' greater recognition of Minimax's clear consumer-oriented subscription business model and diversified international capital backing, whereas they hold relatively conservative expectations regarding Zhipu AI's long-term profitability path focused on government and enterprise services.

Report: DeepSeek to Launch Next-Generation AI Model V4 in February with "Powerful" Programming Capabilities. In addition, NVIDIA released a technical blog demonstrating that through deep collaborative optimization of its Blackwell architecture and TensorRT-LLM, it has reduced the per-token inference cost of DeepSeek-R1 to approximately 1/32 of the original level.

# Overseas Macroeconomy

U.S. December Nonfarm Payrolls Rise by 50,000, Missing Expectations; Unemployment Rate Drops to 4.4%, Annual Increase Hits Lowest Level Since 2020. Following the release of the data, the market expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by about 50 basis points in 2026, with the probability of a rate cut in January dropping to zero. The "New Fed Wire" commented that the December nonfarm payroll data paves the way for the Fed to stand pat. Trump "Leaks" News, Posting U.S. Nonfarm Payroll Data 12 Hours in Advance.

U.S. Supreme Court Holds Off on Ruling Trump's Tariff Case, Market Eyes Next Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court stated that next Wednesday, January 14, will be its next date to announce rulings. The Supreme Court never pre-announces which rulings are ready for release; it only says that when justices take their seats at 10 a.m. Washington time, rulings on any cases that have completed oral arguments may be announced on the spot.

Oil Giants Gather at White House to Discuss Venezuelan Crude Oil. Trump: "You Invest 100 Billion USD, Government Won’t Pay a Dime"; ExxonMobil: "No Investment Without Reform". Trump demanded that oil majors invest at least 100 billion USD in Venezuela, but explicitly stated that the government would not contribute funds or compensate for past losses. ExxonMobil's CEO bluntly called the country "uninvestable", emphasizing that major legal reforms must be implemented first. Chevron and other companies already operating in Venezuela have expressed willingness to expand, but the market response has been lukewarm. Analysts noted that Venezuela's infrastructure is dilapidated, and Trump's target oil price of 50 USD per barrel is more likely to render investments unprofitable.

Europe is Dumbfounded in Face of Trump's Bid to "Seize" Greenland. Europe admitted that it currently has no established strategy to respond to Trump's threats, even confessing that it simply cannot understand Trump's true intentions or how to repair the increasingly hostile relationship. Trump's previous actions in Venezuela demonstrated his determination to disregard international norms, and now his shift of such military threats to allies indicates that transatlantic relations are on the brink of rupture.

"Two Consecutive Years of Dollar Decline" is a "Historical Pattern" – 1995 Serves as the Best Parallel for This Year. Historical data shows that sharp declines in the U.S. dollar often occur in consecutive years. The dollar has already fallen by over 9% in 2025, and quantitative models suggest it may drop by another 8% in 2026. Among numerous historical references, 1995 is regarded as the best parallel for 2026 due to its macroeconomic backdrop of "technology-driven soft landing + Fed rate cuts", implying that the dollar index will fall to the 95 level. Unless the Federal Reserve unexpectedly raises interest rates and overseas economies suffer shocks, the dollar will struggle to reverse its downward trend.

Sanae Takaichi Considers Snap General Election. According to Global Times, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may dissolve the House of Representatives, with a general election looming in February! To break the deadlock of "divided control between ruling and opposition parties" and push forward her agenda of "proactive fiscal policy" and constitutional revision, can she consolidate her power through the election and reverse the predicament in China-Japan relations? A political gamble that will determine Japan's future is about to begin.

# Overseas Companies

Big Short Burry Shorts Oracle: Dislikes Its Positioning and Financing. "I don't like its positioning, nor do I like the investments it's making. It doesn't need to be doing what it's doing, and I don't know why it is. Maybe it's ego." Shorting Oracle is a microcosm of Burry's skepticism about the entire AI industry bubble. He even stated that if OpenAI's valuation reaches 500 billion USD, he would also choose to short it.

Walmart to Be Added to Nasdaq 100 Index. Walmart will be included in the Nasdaq 100 Index, Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted Index, and Nasdaq 100 Non-Technology Sector Index before the U.S. stock market opens on January 20. Walmart will replace AstraZeneca, which will be removed from the indices on the same day.

# Industries/Concepts

1.  **UAVs** | According to Xinhua News Agency, the "Tianma-1000" unmanned transport aircraft, independently developed by Xi'an Aisheng Technology Group Co., Ltd. of China North Industries Group Corporation, successfully completed its maiden flight test on January 11, with all flight data performing well and the maiden flight achieving complete success. The "Tianma-1000" integrates multiple functions such as logistics transportation, emergency rescue, and material delivery, just like an aerial "Huolala (a Chinese on-demand freight platform)". It is China's first medium-altitude, low-cost transport platform that achieves "adaptation to complex plateau terrain, ultra-short takeoff and landing distance, and rapid switching between cargo transportation/airdrop dual modes". It has a ceiling of 8,000 meters, a takeoff and landing run distance of less than 200 meters, a maximum range of 1,800 kilometers, and a maximum payload of 1 ton. This aircraft can also be quickly converted into a material delivery platform through a modular cargo compartment to adapt to diversified mission requirements.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that both the global and Chinese civil UAV markets are showing high-growth momentum, with the Chinese market leading in growth rate and demonstrating strong development potential. According to data from GGII (Gaogong Industry Research Institute), the scale of China's civil UAV market reached approximately 146.8 billion yuan in 2024, and is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% from 2024 to 2030. China's UAV industry has built a complete industrial chain, from upstream core component research, to midstream complete machine manufacturing dominance, and to downstream large-scale application in multiple scenarios.

2.  **Rare Earths** | Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "BREPE") recently announced that the Rare Earth Price Index was officially launched simultaneously on platforms including BREPE's official website, WeChat official account, China Financial Information Network, Xinhua Finance Professional Terminal, and Xinhua Finance App. BREPE stated that the index is compiled using its own platform transaction data and extensively collected real, compliant trade data, combined with rigorous index models from scientific research institutions, covering mainstream rare earth products such as lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, and neodymium. In the next step, BREPE will continuously optimize index content, enrich the index system, expand index platform releases, strengthen the promotion of index applications, and strive to build a price "barometer" and "vane" for China's rare earth product circulation field.

   **Commentary**: Orient Securities stated that against the backdrop of a "busy off-season", it is optimistic that both supply and demand sides will continue to drive up the central rare earth price level in 2026, reaffirming the judgment that rare earths are still at the starting point of a major cycle. Benefiting from the continuous optimization of the supply pattern in the rare earth industry, upstream smelting and processing enterprises are expected to take a dominant position in the industrial chain profit distribution due to the scarcity of quotas, forming a high-quality development pattern with controllable product quantity, moderate price increases, and steady profit growth.

3.  **Multiple Births** | According to The Paper, the National Health Work Conference was recently held in Beijing. When deploying key work for 2026, the conference proposed to conscientiously implement birth support policies. It will optimize birth support policies and incentive measures, promote a positive view of marriage and childbearing, coordinate the development of inclusive childcare and the integration of nursery and kindergarten services, issue childcare subsidies, optimize maternal and child services, and strive to stabilize the scale of new births. Birth support policies are also being intensively introduced across various regions.

   **Commentary**: Research institutions believe that with the implementation of birth subsidy policies, market expectations are expected to improve, and the maternal and infant consumption industry chain may benefit more.

4.  **Satellite Internet** | According to Sina Finance, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last Friday that it has approved SpaceX's application to deploy an additional 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites, helping the company further expand its global internet service business. The FCC stated that SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has now been approved to operate an additional 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites, which will bring its total number of in-orbit satellites worldwide to 15,000. According to data on the official website of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in the last week of 2025, China filed applications for multiple satellite constellation plans with the ITU, with a total declared scale of over 200,000 satellites.

   **Commentary**: Experts said that China's large-scale application for satellite frequency and orbit resources this time indicates that the application for such resources has risen to the national strategic level, demonstrating China's determination and capability to carry out large-scale, systematic layout in low-Earth orbit space and conduct head-on competition with Western countries. Building a space power has been included in the key construction of the modern industrial system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and domestic low-Earth orbit communication satellite constellations will enter a period of intensive launches.

5.  **Solid-State Drives (SSDs)** | According to KKj.cn, SanDisk has proposed a contract form described by the industry as "unprecedented" to some downstream customers: requiring customers to pay 100% cash upfront to lock in supply quotas for the next 1 to 3 years. Despite the harsh terms, in the face of the rigid demand for storage devices driven by AI infrastructure construction, some cloud service providers (CSPs) are considering accepting this condition to avoid the risk of supply disruption in the future. In addition, according to a client report released by Nomura Securities, SanDisk plans to increase the price of its high-capacity 3D NAND flash memory chips used in enterprise-grade SSDs by more than 100% month-on-month in March.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that since 2025, NAND giant SanDisk has frequently launched price increase campaigns, and its recent "order locking" requirement has broken industry conventions. While demanding full payment upfront, product quotations are also soaring. Channel surveys by Nomura Securities show that multiple storage suppliers continue to push up prices, with the most aggressive increase faced by enterprise-grade NAND. Nomura Securities analysts believe that NVIDIA's Inference Context Memory Storage (ICMS) platform is one of the key factors driving the demand for enterprise-grade storage this year.

6.  **Controlled Nuclear Fusion** | According to National Business Daily, the second-generation high-temperature superconducting model TF coil independently designed and developed by ENN Energy recently successfully passed the factory test, with all indicators meeting the requirements of ENN's hydrogen-boron spherical torus and reaching the expected design targets. As the key component with the highest construction cost in commercial fusion reactors, technological breakthroughs in magnets are crucial for the commercialization of nuclear fusion.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that at present, the spherical torus hydrogen-boron fusion technology route has been incorporated into the national fusion energy strategy. Among the three key fusion R&D routes proposed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, magnetic confinement spherical torus hydrogen-boron fusion is included. With its cleanliness and commercialization potential, hydrogen-boron fusion has become a new track in the field of nuclear fusion.

7.  **Lithium Extraction from Salt Lakes** | According to Guangming Net, the research team of the Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently achieved a major technological breakthrough in the field of lithium resource separation from salt lakes, successfully overcoming the technical bottleneck of efficient separation of lithium, sodium, and potassium ions in lithium precipitation mother liquor. It is understood that in the same period, Qinghai Province built the world's first 10,000-ton battery-grade lithium carbonate industrial demonstration line for lithium extraction from salt lake lithium precipitation mother liquor by solvent extraction, adding an output value of over 600 million yuan. The research team pioneered a green and efficient solvent extraction separation technology for lithium extraction. Through independent design and synthesis of a new type of lithium-specific extractant, it systematically solved the technical problems of traditional extraction systems in environmental protection, safety, and cost control. Application results show that the above technology can increase the overall lithium ion recovery rate in lithium carbonate production by 15% to 20%, reduce costs by 30%, and cut water and energy consumption by more than 30% below industry standards, which is of strategic significance for supporting the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base.

   **Commentary**: Analysts believe that China's lithium extraction from salt lakes industry is ushering in triple positive factors: technological breakthroughs, policy support, and growing demand. It is moving from the technical exploration stage to a new phase of large-scale application, and will become a core force reshaping the global lithium supply pattern. Known as "white petroleum", lithium is a key strategic metal supporting the modern energy transition. The national 14th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes accelerating the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base, and promoting the independent controllability of lithium resources and high-quality industrial development. On the demand side, domestic new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 19.42 million units in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 18%; global sales are expected to reach 24.18 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15%; global energy storage cell increments are expected to reach 220 GWh in 2026, with output reaching 764 GWh, and energy storage demand growing at a rate of over 40%, becoming the core engine driving the growth of lithium carbonate demand.

# Today's News Preview

- Speeches by New York Fed President John Williams, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin.

- Rising risk of another U.S. government shutdown at the end of the month, with relevant appropriations bills submitted to the Senate for consideration.

- G7 Finance Ministers' Meeting, which will discuss the rare earth issue.

- OmniVision's Hong Kong IPO.

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