Morning News

# Market Overview

U.S. economic data was mixed, with the Services PMI showing strength while ADP employment figures were weak. The sell-off in software stocks spread to semiconductors, AI, and other related sectors. Capital rotated into energy, materials, and other sectors. The Nasdaq fell by 1.51%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.53%.

Large tech stocks once again significantly underperformed. The semiconductor index plummeted by 4.4%. AMD crashed by 17% after releasing its earnings report, marking its largest single - day drop in eight years. Palantir plunged by 12%, and SanDisk dropped nearly 16%. After - hours, Google fell by more than 2%.

The quarterly refinancing plan announced by the U.S. Treasury was in line with expectations. The yield on the 30 - year U.S. Treasury note rose by 2 basis points to 4.92%, and the yield on the 2 - year U.S. Treasury note edged down by 1 basis point to 3.56%. The U.S. dollar rose by 0.3%, recouping the previous day's losses.

Bitcoin saw a sharp decline, dropping more than 5% intraday to around $72,000. Ethereum fell by over 5%, hitting a nine - month low.

Spot gold briefly climbed back above $5,000 but failed to hold that level, ultimately rising by 0.3%. Spot silver increased by 3%.

During the Asian trading session, the Shanghai Composite Index rallied in the afternoon to reclaim the 4,100 - point mark. The photovoltaic sector soared, triggering a wave of limit - up moves, while technology stocks declined across the board. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped by more than 1%, Tencent fell by nearly 4%, and Shanghai Silver surged by 11%.

## Key News

### China

- Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump.

- Xi Jinping held a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

- The People's Bank of China stated that it will focus on supporting key areas such as expanding domestic demand, scientific and technological innovation, and small, medium - sized and micro - enterprises.

Elon Musk's team inspected the photovoltaic industry chain, and listed companies responded intensively. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association noted that space photovoltaic technology is still in the early stages of exploration and verification.

A report indicated that China Finance Futures took short positions before the recent sharp drop in silver prices and reaped profits exceeding $500 million.

### Overseas

- Employment growth slowed sharply. The number of ADP employment increased by 22,000 in the U.S. in January, which was lower than the expected 45,000.

- The U.S. ISM Services PMI in January reached a new high since 2024. Employment almost did not expand, and the price index climbed.

The Beshear hearing was highly intense. He denied that tariffs caused inflation, reaffirmed the strength of the U.S. dollar, held the Federal Reserve accountable, and was criticized for being a lackey of Trump.

The U.S. Treasury maintained the current scale of debt issuance and stated that it will not increase the issuance of medium - and long - term bonds in the next few quarters.

The U.S. resumed the U.S. - Iran negotiations originally scheduled for the 6th, which had been on the verge of collapse earlier.

Google went all - in on AI: its Q4 cloud revenue soared by 48%, and its expenditure guidance for this year was nearly doubled, far exceeding expectations, leading to significant after - hours volatility in its stock price.

Meta announced that its new large - language model (LLM), Avocado, is its most powerful one to date.

Nasdaq plans to introduce a new "fast inclusion" rule to handle large - scale IPOs such as that of SpaceX.

The sales of weight - loss drugs boomed. Eli Lilly's Q4 revenue increased by 43% year - on - year, and its net profit rose by 50%. Its revenue guidance for 2026 ranges from $80 billion to $83 billion.

Novo Nordisk's stock price plummeted by 18% in European trading. Its CEO admitted that the company will face "unprecedented pricing pressure" in 2026.

## Market Closing Quotes

### U.S. and European Stock Markets

- The S&P 500 fell by 0.51% to close at 6,882.72 points.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.53% to close at 49,501.30 points.

- The Nasdaq dropped by 1.51% to close at 22,904.579 points.

- The European STOXX 600 Index closed up by 0.03% at 618.12 points.

### A - share Market

- The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 4,102.20 points, rising by 0.85%.

- The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 14,156.27 points, increasing by 0.21%.

- The ChiNext Index closed at 3,311.51 points, falling by 0.40%.

### Bond Market

- The yield on the 10 - year U.S. Treasury note rose by 1.20 basis points to 4.2775%.

- The yield on the 2 - year U.S. Treasury note fell by 0.82 basis points to 3.5614%.

### Commodities

- COMEX gold futures rose by 0.98% to close at $4,984.20 per ounce.

- COMEX silver futures increased by 5.11% to close at $87.555 per ounce.

- WTI crude oil futures for March closed up by 3.05% at $65.14 per barrel.

# Detailed News

## Global Highlights

### China

1. Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump. According to CCTV News, Xi Jinping pointed out that the U.S. has its concerns, and China has its own. China always keeps its word and delivers on its commitments. As long as both sides move forward with an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit, solutions to address each other's concerns can be found. He emphasized that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China - U.S. relations. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and China must safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and will never allow Taiwan to split off from the country. The U.S. must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with extreme prudence.

2. Xi Jinping held a video meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Xinhua News Agency, Xi Jinping stressed that China will be more proactive in expanding high - level opening - up and share new development opportunities with countries around the world, including Russia. Both sides should seize the historical opportunity, maintain close high - level exchanges, strengthen practical cooperation in various fields, and ensure that China - Russia relations keep advancing steadily along the right track through deeper strategic coordination and more active and responsible efforts as major powers.

3. People's Bank of China: Focus on supporting key areas such as expanding domestic demand, scientific and technological innovation, and small, medium - sized and micro - enterprises. The meeting required vigorous development of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, elderly care finance and digital finance, and strengthening financial support for the consumption sector. It also called for building a multi - tiered financial service system to focus on supporting key areas like expanding domestic demand, scientific and technological innovation, and small, medium - sized and micro - enterprises. Efforts will continue to be made in providing financial support for resolving the debt risks of financing platforms, supporting local governments in steadily promoting the market - oriented transformation of financing platforms, and guiding financial institutions to provide services in accordance with market - based and legal principles.

4. Musk's team inspected the photovoltaic industry chain, and listed companies responded intensively. According to the Shanghai Securities News, recently, the team under Musk has conducted intensive inspections on China's photovoltaic industry chain and held talks with many enterprises including GCL Group, JinkoSolar, TCL Zhonghuan and Gaocan Co., Ltd. Subsequently, many companies issued announcements to clarify that no formal agreements have been signed or orders formed so far, and warned that "space photovoltaic" is still in the early stage of exploration with uncertainties.

5. China Photovoltaic Industry Association: Space photovoltaic technology is still in the early stage of exploration and verification. Space photovoltaic has become a hit in the capital market due to the research conducted by Musk's team. However, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association pointed out that this technology is still in the early exploration stage, and its industrialization is not yet mature. Currently, the mainstream space - applied technology is the verified gallium arsenide batteries, while technologies such as heterojunction/perovskite, which are hyped in the market, are still in the laboratory stage. The industry should focus on research and development and avoid speculation. If there is a breakthrough in space transportation capacity in the future, China's cost and scale advantages in photovoltaic manufacturing will usher in huge opportunities.

6. Report: China Finance Futures made short positions before the recent sharp drop in silver prices and reaped profits exceeding $500 million. China Finance Futures successfully established large - scale short positions before the recent sharp drop in silver prices, with estimated profits exceeding $500 million. According to data disclosed by the Shanghai Futures Exchange, as of February 2, China Finance Futures had established short positions equivalent to about 484 tons of silver futures on the exchange, worth more than $1.5 billion at current prices.

### Overseas

1. Employment growth slowed sharply. The number of ADP employment in the U.S. increased by 22,000 in January, lower than the expected 45,000. The U.S. ADP employment data in January was significantly lower than expected, with only 22,000 new jobs added, highlighting the weakening momentum of the labor market at the beginning of the year. The growth was solely driven by the education and health services sector, while employment contracted in many key industries such as professional and business services and manufacturing, indicating obvious structural weakness. Although the wage growth rate remained stable at 4.5%, the overall weak data may strengthen the Federal Reserve's cautious view on the economy. Meanwhile, due to the government shutdown, the official non - farm payroll report has been postponed again.

2. U.S. ISM Services PMI in January hit a new high since 2024, with employment barely expanding and the price index climbing. The U.S. ISM Services PMI stood at 53.8 in January, the same as the highest level since October 2024 and better than expected. The rebound in business activities supported the overall index, but the growth of new orders slowed down, employment almost did not expand, and the price index hit a three - month high.

3. The Beshear hearing was highly intense: He denied that tariffs caused inflation, reaffirmed the strong U.S. dollar, held the Federal Reserve accountable, and was criticized for being a lackey of Trump. Beshear claimed that Democratic lawmakers failed to understand the difference between general inflation and one - time price increases, and was told to "shut up" by lawmakers after insisting that tariffs did not trigger inflation. He stated that the Federal Reserve should maintain the independence of monetary policy, but the Fed allowed high inflation during the Biden administration, and the president, like lawmakers, has the right to intervene in the Fed's decisions. U.S. Treasury bonds attracted a record - high inflow of overseas funds last year. He criticized the Biden administration for adopting reflexive regulation instead of preventing crises, and its policies have "wiped out" cryptocurrencies. The Treasury Department has no right to use tax money to buy Bitcoin, and there are currently no plans to establish a central bank digital currency. He also argued that small banks should not be regulated as strictly as large banks.

4. U.S. Treasury maintained the scale of debt issuance and will not increase the issuance of medium - and long - term bonds in the next few quarters. The U.S. Treasury released its quarterly refinancing statement on Wednesday, deciding to keep the existing issuance scale of medium - and long - term bonds unchanged and adhere to the "regular and predictable" debt management principle. A total of $125 billion in bonds will be issued this quarter, including $58 billion in 3 - year Treasury notes, $42 billion in 10 - year Treasury notes and $25 billion in 30 - year Treasury bonds. The statement eased market concerns about the government's bond selling, and the market was worried that AI would disrupt the traditional software business model.

5. The slump in technology stocks spread, and leading memory chip companies suffered a "collective sell - off"! SanDisk dropped nearly 16%. There was no single "black swan" event triggering the correction of memory chip stocks on Wednesday. SanDisk's fundamentals suddenly deteriorated, and when technology stocks were sold off, big winners like SanDisk, which benefited from the narrative of AI - driven memory demand, experienced a more severe pullback. SanDisk's stock price has risen by at least 1100% in half a year, and after releasing its financial report last week, it rose by nearly 29% in three trading days by Tuesday this week.

6. Meta: Its new large - language model (LLM), Avocado, is the most powerful one to date.

7. Nasdaq plans to introduce a new "fast entry" rule to handle large - scale IPOs such as that of SpaceX. The proposed revision, known as "fast entry", will allow newly listed companies to join the Nasdaq 100 Index after the first 15 trading days of listing, which is much shorter than the current waiting period of at least three months. The proposal comes as a number of tech giants are expected to go public this year, including SpaceX, which may have a valuation of up to $1.3 trillion.

8. The sales of weight - loss drugs boomed. Eli Lilly's Q4 revenue increased by 43% year - on - year, net profit rose by 50%, and its 2026 revenue guidance ranges from $80 billion to $83 billion. Thanks to the booming sales of GLP - 1 weight - loss drugs, Eli Lilly's Q4 revenue, profit and full - year guidance all exceeded market expectations. In the peak competition between the two leading weight - loss drug makers, Eli Lilly seems to have gained the upper hand. Novo Nordisk previously warned that its sales may drop by 13% this year due to intensified price wars, while Eli Lilly expects its sales to grow by as much as 27%.

9. Novo Nordisk's stock price plummeted by 18% in European trading. Its CEO admitted that the company will face "unprecedented pricing pressure" in 2026. Faced with fierce market competition and the expectation of declining sales in 2026, Novo Nordisk's CEO admitted that the price reduction of its star weight - loss drug Wegovy has had a "painful" impact on the company's finances, but the move aims to boost sales volume by lowering prices. To stabilize confidence, the company announced the launch of a share repurchase program of up to 3.8 billion Danish kroner, plans to pay dividends, and also looks forward to its new oral Wegovy tablets driving future growth.

## Selected Research Reports

1. Dalio warned: We are on the verge of a "capital war". Dalio warned that a "capital war" weaponizes funds through means such as trade embargoes and capital market restrictions. Escalating geopolitical tensions have increased mutual fear and the risk of capital controls. Central banks and sovereign funds around the world have been preparing to deal with capital controls. Dalio suggested holding gold as the best safe - haven asset and maintaining a diversified investment portfolio.

2. Is the gold bull market still ongoing? Analysts: The previous two bull markets experienced multiple sharp corrections, and the decline is a good opportunity to increase positions. Analysts pointed out that although the gold price suffered a historic single - day drop last week, it was just a typical technical correction in the long - term bull market. All major gold bull markets since 1971 have experienced multiple sharp corrections, and the current decline has provided investors with a rare opportunity to increase their holdings. The core logics supporting the long - term strength of gold, including geopolitical uncertainties, continuous gold purchases by central banks and the expectation of a weaker U.S. dollar, remain unchanged.

3. Bernstein: There is one reason to be bearish on crude oil, but ten reasons to be bullish. When Wall Street is extremely pessimistic, Bernstein regards the current situation as an excellent opportunity for contrarian investing. The oil price has fallen below the long - term marginal cost, and the withdrawal of industry capital indicates that the cycle has hit the bottom. With the end of the U.S. shale oil myth and China's strategic reserves providing support, the market has overpriced the pessimistic expectations. For patient capital, crude oil is in the best odds range in three years.

4. "Big short seller" Burry: Bitcoin has plummeted by 40%, and a further 10% drop will trigger "disastrous consequences". Burry warned that Bitcoin has fallen by more than 40%, and a further 10% drop may cause lasting damage to treasury companies. Meanwhile, this storm may spread to the broader market, triggering a "collateral death spiral" in tokenized metal futures. Speculators may need to reduce risks by selling profitable positions in tokenized gold and silver futures.

5. Why should Microsoft be most touched by Nvidia's re - evaluation of OpenAI? A Bloomberg column article pointed out that Nvidia's loosening of its investment commitment to OpenAI and its private criticism of OpenAI's "business discipline" are more like a severe judgment on Microsoft's execution capacity. Microsoft has top - tier models but has been outperformed by competitors in the application layer. If Microsoft cannot quickly turn its exclusive dividends into product advantages, it will face the risk of falling behind.

## Domestic Macroeconomy

Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China: The EU's investigation into China's wind power industry constitutes a trade and investment barrier. It urged the EU to correct its mistake immediately, and China will take necessary measures to safeguard the rights and interests of enterprises. China has always advocated resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, and opposed the politicization and over - securitization of economic and trade issues. We urge the EU to immediately correct its wrong practices, use the FSR unilateral investigation tool with caution, and create a fair, just and predictable market environment for China - EU cooperation. China will closely follow the subsequent developments and take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

# Domestic Companies

Zeng Yuqun, CATL: 2030 will mark the first year of the sustainable energy era. Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), stated that 2030 will be the inaugural year of the sustainable energy era. He believes that basic science unlocks possibilities, while engineering and manufacturing determine the speed of implementation. The core of the future energy system lies in distribution, intellectualization and recyclability. Currently, existing technologies only meet less than 30% of zero-carbon energy demand, and breakthroughs are still urgently needed.

# Overseas Macroeconomy

Eurozone January CPI cooled further to 1.7%, the lowest level since September 2024, with the market expecting the ECB to "stand pat" at this week's meeting. The Eurozone's inflation rate fell to 1.7% in January, continuing its downward trend and dropping further below the European Central Bank's (ECB) 2% policy target. The market maintained expectations that the ECB would keep interest rates unchanged at its upcoming meeting. Despite the continued decline in inflation, many economists pointed out that due to lingering underlying price pressures and a high threshold for policy adjustments, the ECB is more likely to adopt a wait-and-see stance in the short term, and may even raise interest rates in the future if economic conditions change.

Japan's composite PMI hit a 32-month high of 53.1. Japan's January services PMI rose to 53.7, a new 11-month high, and the composite PMI climbed to 53.1, a 32-month peak. Demand in the country's manufacturing and services sectors improved simultaneously for the first time in two and a half years, with export business posting the fastest growth in more than four years. On the price and profit front, a trend of "falling costs and rising selling prices" emerged. However, Japanese enterprises remain concerned about labor shortages and the global economic outlook, leading to a decline in overall optimism.

# Overseas Companies

Wall Street comments on AMD's earnings report: Operating expenses limit profitability, market focus shifts to rack-scale AI in the second half of the year. Most Wall Street reports hold that although AMD's Q4 2025 revenue exceeded expectations, the market's attention is focused on persistently higher-than-expected operating expenses, which are seen as restricting the release of profitability. The key focus has shifted to whether the company can achieve market breakthroughs and improve operational efficiency with its new generation of rack-scale AI products (MI455 series) in the second half of this year. Investment banks generally maintain a neutral rating, believing that while its data center business has huge growth potential, the expansion of the company's valuation will face constraints until new products are validated and drive actual profit growth.

AMD responds to doubts on earnings call: Bullish on the full year! OpenAI's 6GW order is "on track", MI450 to see "substantial volume ramp-up" in the second half. AMD's Q1 guidance unexpectedly disappointed the market, but Lisa Su emphasized throughout the call that the second half of the year will be the "real inflection point". She confirmed that OpenAI's 6GW order is progressing steadily, and the MI450 chip will start volume production in Q3 and see a substantial ramp-up in Q4 this year. The company disclosed for the first time its plan to move to 2nm process technology by 2027, and reaffirmed that its annual AI revenue will surge to "tens of billions of US dollars". However, the company's traditional business segments such as PC and gaming remain under pressure.

Intel enters the GPU market! Intel takes on NVIDIA head-on! The company announced its foray into the GPU market, targeting the AI data center business, and poached a senior Qualcomm executive to serve as Chief Architect. Meanwhile, its 14A process foundry business has entered in-depth negotiations with customers, with mass production ramping up to start later this year. The market is watching Intel's subsequent progress in GPU commercialization and foundry mass production.

Samsung Foundry considers a 10% price hike for 4nm and 8nm processes. Samsung Electronics plans to raise prices for its 4nm and 8nm wafer foundry processes by an estimated 10%. These two processes have entered a mature stage with stable yields and near-maximum capacity. Analysts believe the price adjustment aims to support the R&D of its advanced processes and improve medium and long-term profitability. Currently, TSMC is also pushing for price increases driven by surging AI orders and rising costs, with some processes potentially seeing hikes of up to 20%.

U.S. AI chatbot war: ChatGPT's share drops from 69.1% to 45.3%, Gemini rises from 14.7% to 25.1%, Grok from 1.6% to 15.2%. Data shows that over the past year, although ChatGPT's absolute user count still grew by 50%, Gemini's growth rate reached 647%. The market is showing three major trends: competition has shifted from a monopoly to a multi-player rivalry; 20% of users use multiple applications; products such as Claude have achieved differentiated competition through user stickiness, with average daily usage time rising from 10 minutes to more than 30 minutes.

Morgan Stanley comments on Lumentum's earnings report: Stunning gross profit margin, more importantly, confirmed big CPO orders! Lumentum disclosed that it has received a multi-hundred-million-dollar expanded CPO order, with shipments expected in the second half of 2027. At the same time, the backlog of orders for its OCS business exceeds $400 million, and it is expected to reach a quarterly scale of $100 million two quarters earlier than expected. Morgan Stanley raised Lumentum's target price from $350 to $420 but maintained a market-perform rating. Analysts pointed out that despite the company's strong fundamentals, the stock price has priced in the optimistic expectation of approximately $20 in earnings per share for the 2027 calendar year, and the current valuation of 25 times price-to-earnings ratio is already relatively full.

Investors deem valuation too high! Tether, the top stablecoin issuer, slashes fundraising target from $20 billion to $5 billion. Amid the sharp decline in cryptocurrencies, investors have expressed concerns about Tether's $500 billion valuation, and advisors are now considering cutting the fundraising amount to a minimum of $5 billion. Tether's profit structure is highly dependent on the performance of the crypto market and investment in reserve assets, with its 2025 profit falling 23% year-on-year to $10 billion.

Uber plummeted as much as 10% in pre-market trading and closed down more than 5%! Surge in Q4 bookings fails to offset profit worries, new CFO signals "pushing forward with Robotaxi". Uber's fourth-quarter net profit was $296 million, a sharp 96% year-on-year drop. For the current quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings per share to be between 65 and 72 cents, lower than the average analyst expectation of 77 cents compiled by Bloomberg, and the midpoint of its adjusted EBITDA forecast also missed the target. Despite concerns over the profit outlook, Uber issued an optimistic bookings guidance. The company expects quarterly bookings to be between $52 billion and $53.5 billion, exceeding market expectations.

# Industries/Concepts

1. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) | According to the official WeChat account of the Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Machine Integration on February 4, the country's first brain-controlled acupuncture integrated neurorehabilitation equipment platform "Shengong-Huatuo", led by the scientific research team of the laboratory and jointly developed by Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and other advantageous institutions, has recently been launched. The team has innovatively developed the integrated technology of "BCI + smart wearable acupuncture", and the relevant research has been supported by a number of preliminary projects such as the national manned spaceflight experiment project.

Commentary: Analysts believe that BCI technology is accelerating from the laboratory to commercial applications, and the healthcare sector will become the core growth engine. China has listed BCI as a key development direction for future industries, and the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes to promote BCI to become a new economic growth point; seven ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the *Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovative Development of the Brain-Computer Interface Industry*, proposing to form a safe and reliable industrial system by 2030. With continuous technological breakthroughs, increased policy support and expanding application scenarios, the BCI field is expected to witness explosive growth in the next 5-10 years, becoming an important bridge connecting human thinking with the external world, reshaping the human-computer interaction model and creating huge economic value.

2. Metrological Equipment | The State Administration for Market Regulation recently released 32 national metrological technical specifications covering smart connected cars, life and health, smart electricity meters, physics and chemistry and other fields. In addition, a number of general metrological technical specifications such as *Principles and Methods for Determining the Verification Cycle of Measuring Instruments*, *Guidelines for Performance Evaluation of Measuring Instruments with Additional Functions* and *Guidelines for Determining the Calibration Interval of Measuring Equipment* were also released this time, laying a foundation for the upgrading of metrological technical specifications.

Commentary: Analysts hold that China's output in emerging industrial fields such as new energy, new materials, aerospace, integrated circuits and high-end equipment has occupied an important position in the world, and the demand for high-precision metrological testing in these industries has surged. Policies emphasize the promotion of low-energy consumption, low-emission measuring instruments and carbon metrology technologies, while driving the networking and digitalization of metrological services. This is highly consistent with the trend of the manufacturing industry's transformation to green and low-carbon development, and has become a key support for industrial upgrading. According to authoritative statistics, the scale of China's manufacturing metrology market exceeded 150 billion RMB in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) maintaining above 10%.

3. Emergency Equipment | The Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the *Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Innovative Development of Emergency Management Equipment*. The Opinions put forward specific work in 12 aspects, including consolidating the scientific research foundation of equipment, strengthening research on key equipment, carrying out practical verification of new equipment, promoting the standardization of general main battle equipment, strengthening the allocation and application of equipment, and accelerating the update of safe production equipment.

Commentary: The Opinions propose that by the end of 2027, more than 20 key core technologies will be overcome, more than 20 key innovative equipment will be developed, more than 30 advanced technical equipment will be promoted, the innovative development system of emergency management equipment will be further improved, the scale and quality of the equipment industry development will be steadily enhanced, the intelligence, lightweight and standardization level of emergency management equipment will be significantly improved, and the practical support capacity will be notably strengthened.

4. Semiconductors | According to Guancha.cn, construction is in full swing at the construction site of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (YMTC)'s Phase III project recently, with machines roaring and tower cranes standing tall, and workers installing equipment for the giant clean room plant. As the third 100-billion-level project in Wuhan's integrated circuit industry, it is scheduled to be completed and put into production this year, which will drive the agglomeration of 200 upstream and downstream enterprises. It is reported that the Phase III project was originally scheduled to achieve mass production in 2027, and is expected to be officially launched in the second half of 2026, a full year ahead of the original plan.

Commentary: Analysts believe that YMTC is a leading enterprise in China's memory chip industry and ranks among the top in the global 3D NAND memory chip field. Its core products include 3D NAND flash wafers and particles, embedded memory chips, consumer and enterprise solid-state drives, which are widely used in mobile communications, consumer digital products, computers, data center servers and other scenarios. As of the third quarter of 2025, YMTC's global market share has risen to 13%, breaking the 10% mark for the first time; it is expected that after the Phase III project is put into mass production as scheduled, its global market share is expected to hit 15% and approach the world's top four by the end of 2026. Against the backdrop of U.S. export restrictions, YMTC has vigorously promoted the "de-Americanization" of its production lines, adopting a large number of domestic semiconductor equipment and materials with a localization rate of 45%, ranking first among domestic leading enterprises. Currently, driven by the recovery of AI servers, data centers and consumer electronics, NAND Flash is in short supply. With extraordinary execution efficiency, YMTC is seizing the capacity gap left by international giants in the traditional NAND market, laying a foundation for enhancing its global influence and market share.

5. AI Anime | According to Sina Finance, Tencent has successively launched its first independent manga drama App "Huolong Manju" on major app stores today. It is reported that the product was developed by a young internal team of Tencent Video and was quickly launched after the start of preparation. Introduced as an integration of comic storyboards, AI technology, dynamic effects and short video formats, all content on the "Huolong Manju" App is currently free, with a vertical screen information flow as the main interface – a design similar to mainstream short video platforms, and most single episodes are 1-3 minutes long.

Commentary: Currently, AI anime, as an emerging niche track in the short drama field, is showing huge commercial potential, attracting the layout of a number of internet platforms including Tencent. In addition to major players such as Tencent, some emerging startups have also formed differentiated advantages in vertical content. This diversified competition pattern not only drives technological progress but also brings more commercial possibilities to the entire industry. The core of the AI anime boom lies in the significant cost reduction and efficiency improvement brought by AI technology, with huge development space. According to various data, the market scale has exceeded 20 billion RMB in 2025 and is expected to reach 22 billion RMB in 2026, equivalent to 40% of the micro short drama market. In the long run, relying on the advantages of cross-cultural adaptation and the integration potential of "content + e-commerce", AI anime is expected to become an important growth pole of digital culture and entertainment.

# Upcoming Key News Today

- U.S. initial jobless claims for the previous week

- U.S. December trade balance

- European Central Bank announces interest rate decision, followed by a press conference by President Christine Lagarde

- Bank of England announces interest rate decision, followed by a press conference by Governor Andrew Bailey

- Speech by Raphael Bostic, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

- Amazon releases earnings report

(End of Full Text)

# Risk Warning and Disclaimer

The market is risky, and investment needs to be prudent. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the specific investment objectives, financial conditions or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are in line with their specific circumstances. Investment decisions made based on this article shall be at the user's own risk.