Global Market and News Summary

Market Overview

Current market concerns about the fruitlessness of US-Iran negotiations and the escalating threat of renewed conflict have led to a two-day decline in the three major US stock indices. After Trump issued a threat to bomb Iran, the three major indices turned sharply lower intraday; at the same time, the chip index achieved a 15-day winning streak, with AMD rising nearly 3.5%, ASM (whose Q2 performance guidance significantly exceeded market expectations) closing up more than 3% in US stock trading, while Nvidia pulled back more than 1%. After Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook would step down, its stock price fell 2.5%, while UnitedHealth, which reported better-than-expected Q1 results, rose nearly 7%.

European and US government bonds fell simultaneously. After news of Trump's threat to bomb Iran broke, the US dollar index rebounded sharply, hitting a more than one-week high intraday; the offshore RMB exchange rate fluctuated, breaking below the 6.83 mark intraday for the first time in a week, once falling more than 200 points from the intraday high; Bitcoin also pulled back, approaching 75,000 US dollars intraday, down more than 2% from the intraday high.

The commodity market showed a differentiated trend. After Trump threatened to resume bombing Iran, crude oil prices turned higher intraday, rebounding for two consecutive days after a sharp plunge last Friday, with US oil once rising more than 5%. Gold and silver fell for two consecutive days; after Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire, gold and silver prices plummeted sharply and hit intraday lows, with spot gold falling more than 3% and silver futures falling nearly 6%.

During the Asian trading session, A-shares pulled up in the afternoon, with all three major indices turning positive. The liquid-cooled server sector adjusted, with a 100-billion-yuan leading stock hitting the daily limit down; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fluctuated and finally closed up 0.5%, and CATL's stock price hit a new all-time high.

Key News

China

In response to the recent rise in memory chip prices, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) made a clear statement, stating that it will take a number of measures to enhance market supply, crack down on acts that disrupt market order such as "hoarding and profiteering" in accordance with the law; at the same time, it will support forward-looking research in the field of space computing power and promote the orderly development of related industries.

Backed by Nvidia, Shenghong Technology made a brilliant debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with its stock price surging 50%. The IPO raised about 20 billion Hong Kong dollars, ranking first among Hong Kong IPOs this year, with global giants such as China Investment Corporation and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund leading the layout.

CATL officially launched the third-generation Shenxing ultra-fast charging battery, with significantly improved charging efficiency, able to charge to 98% in 6 minutes; it also announced that sodium-ion batteries will be mass-produced within the year, and relevant technical problems have been solved.

Envicool released its Q1 results, with net profit plummeting more than 80%, and its stock price hit the daily limit down. The previously booming liquid-cooled track encountered its first obvious adjustment, and the industry's development is facing challenges.

Overseas

Trump previously stated that he would not extend the US-Iran ceasefire and threatened to resume bombing Iran, but then reversed his position, announcing an extension of the ceasefire period while maintaining the maritime blockade against Iran and waiting for Iran to submit a negotiation plan. According to Iranian media reports, Iran has officially refused to attend the US-Iran negotiations on the 22nd. The White House stated that Vice President Pence and the US delegation have canceled their trip to Pakistan, and the follow-up arrangements for the negotiations remain uncertain.

The United States further expanded its sanctions list against Iran, and the Department of Defense plans to spend 30 billion US dollars to purchase additional key ammunition such as missile interceptors. According to Iranian media sources, the entrances and exits of the Strait of Hormuz have been blocked, and the relevant situation remains tense.

US State Department officials revealed that the US has held talks with Cuba, putting forward a number of requirements to Cuba, including introducing Starlink services, compensating US individuals and enterprises for confiscated assets, and releasing political prisoners.

Wash emphasized the independence of the Federal Reserve at his nomination hearing, clearly stating that he will never be Trump's "puppet" and has never been asked to make a commitment to cut interest rates; he also proposed that the Federal Reserve needs to abide by its functional duties and establish a new inflation framework and communication method. Key Senator Tillis stated that if Congress takes over the Department of Justice's investigation into Powell, he may support advancing Wash's nomination process.

Apple issued a statement to calm the market. CEO Tim Cook said he is in good health and will serve as the company's executive chairman for a long time after stepping down, alleviating market concerns about changes in the company's management.

Market Closing Quotes

European and US Stock Markets: The S&P 500 Index fell 0.63% to close at 7,064.01 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.59% to close at 49,149.38 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.59% to close at 24,259.964 points. Europe's STOXX 600 Index fell 0.87% to close at 616.03 points.

A-shares: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.07% to close at 4,085.08 points; the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.10% to close at 14,982.14 points; the ChiNext Index rose 0.31% to close at 3,688.94 points.

Bond Market: By the end of the bond market session, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note was about 4.29%, up about 4 basis points intraday; the yield on the 2-year US Treasury note was about 3.78%, up about 6 basis points intraday.

Commodities: WTI Crude Oil Futures for May closed up 2.81% at 92.13 US dollars per barrel; Brent Crude Oil Futures for June closed up 3.14% at 98.48 US dollars per barrel. COMEX Gold Futures for June closed down 2.26% at 4,719.6 US dollars per ounce; COMEX Silver Futures for May closed down more than 4.4% at 76.488 US dollars per ounce. LME Tin Futures closed down about 1.5% at 49,930 US dollars per ton; LME Copper Futures closed down about 0.3% at 13,230 US dollars per ton; LME Zinc Futures closed up about 1% at 3,442 US dollars per ton.

Detailed Key News

Global Highlights

China

The recent sharp rise in memory chip prices has led to fluctuations in the prices of mobile phones and other terminal products. In response, the MIIT clearly stated that it will take multiple measures to ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, including enhancing supply capacity, encouraging relevant enterprises to increase investment, promoting precise connection between supply and demand, expanding supply channels, and maintaining normal market order by cracking down on market-disrupting behaviors such as "hoarding and profiteering" in accordance with the law.

At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday, the MIIT also revealed the latest deployment of the computing power industry, stating that it will support forward-looking research on space computing power technology and orderly promote the high-quality development of the space computing power industry to help the transformation and upgrading of the digital economy.

Shenghong Technology made an impressive debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with its stock price surging 50%. The net proceeds from this IPO were about 19.89 billion Hong Kong dollars, making it the largest Hong Kong IPO so far this year and the largest new share listing in Hong Kong in nearly seven months. It is reported that global giants such as China Investment Corporation, NBIM (Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund), BlackRock and Fidelity Investments all participated in the subscription as ordinary order book buyers, not as cornerstone investors.

At the "2026 Super Technology Day" press conference, CATL officially launched the third-generation Shenxing ultra-fast charging battery, whose charging speed set a new industry record - it only takes 6 minutes and 27 seconds to charge from 10% to 98%, surpassing the same indicator of BYD's second-generation Blade Battery released in March this year. At the same time, Wu Kai, chief scientist of the company and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, announced thatthe core problems in the manufacturing link of sodium-ion batteries have been solved, and they will be mass-produced within the year, which can be widely used in various scenarios.

A major shareholder of CATL recently transferred 58 million A-shares through inquiry at a 5.1% discount, attracting 50 institutions to compete for subscriptions, with a subscription multiple of 2.1 times. Compared with the average 16% discount of similar transactions, the discount rate this time is extremely low. Institutions are willing to lock up their positions at near-market prices for half a year, which fully reflects their high recognition of CATL's fundamentals and long-term value. It not only dispels market concerns about selling pressure from share reductions, but also further boosts market confidence; coupled with the catalysis of the release of heavyweight new technologies at the company's Super Technology Day, the market generally expects its new growth space.

Envicool's Q1 performance was poor, with net profit plummeting more than 80%, and its stock price hit the daily limit down. The previously booming liquid-cooled track encountered its first obvious test. Analysis shows that Envicool's performance decline was mainly affected by three factors: rising copper prices, increased costs from capacity expansion, and foreign exchange losses. At present, the overall prosperity of the liquid-cooled track is still there, but industry competition is constantly intensifying, and it will take time for the proportion of high-margin overseas businesses to increase. Institutions judge that the current performance decline is a phased pain during the company's expansion, and the order delivery situation in Q2 may become the key to the company's profit inflection point.

Overseas

The US-Iran situation had a dramatic reversal. After the US stock market closed on Tuesday, Trump said that in view of the "serious division" within the Iranian government, the US decided to extend the ceasefire period until Iran puts forward a unified negotiation plan and completes the negotiations; during this period, the US military will continue to implement a maritime blockade against Iran and maintain a high state of military readiness.

According to Iranian media reports, Iran has officially refused to attend the US-Iran negotiations to be held in Pakistan on the 22nd. Iran believes that the US is deliberately obstructing the reaching of any substantive agreement, and participating in the negotiations is a waste of time. The White House stated that after Trump announced the extension of the ceasefire and waited for Iran to submit a negotiation plan, US Vice President Pence and the US negotiation delegation will not go to Pakistan on Tuesday, and the follow-up arrangements for the negotiations remain uncertain.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump stated that he would not extend the ceasefire and threatened to resume bombing Iran. After the news broke, Iran clearly stated that it would not participate in the negotiations on the 22nd, and Pence also postponed his trip to Pakistan, with the three major US stock indices turning down simultaneously intraday. It is reported that Iran accused the US of breaking its previous commitments and adhering to excessive demands; US media revealed that Pence is still in Washington and will attend a relevant meeting at the White House. The main reason for his postponement of the trip to Islamabad is the disagreement within Iran on whether to participate in the peace talks.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump also predicted that the US and Iran will eventually reach a "major agreement", and stated that he will be disappointed if Wash does not quickly promote interest rate cuts. Iran's state TV previously reported that the US-Iran ceasefire agreement will "expire at midnight"; Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that due to the US's fickle attitude, no final decision has been made on whether Iran will participate in the talks in Pakistan. A member of the Presidium of the Iranian Parliament clearly stated that no second round of negotiations will be held until the issue of the maritime blockade is resolved; another key member of the Iranian Parliament said that if diplomatic means are ineffective, they will choose to continue military operations.

The United States further expanded the scope of sanctions against Iran, adding a number of Iranian individuals, enterprises and aviation assets to the sanctions list, involving counter-terrorism and non-proliferation fields. It is reported that during the military operations against Iran, the US inventory of missile interceptors has been exhausted, so the Department of Defense plans to spend 30 billion US dollars to purchase additional key ammunition such as missile interceptors. In addition, the US military stated that it has boarded and inspected an "Iran-related" oil tanker, which US media said has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for "smuggling Iranian crude oil".

According to Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported on the 21st, no ship is entitled to pass through the Strait of Hormuz until Iran obtains the necessary guarantees for the complete lifting of the maritime blockade. At present, the strait has been closely controlled by the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, and the entrances and exits have been fully blocked, further intensifying the tension in global energy transportation.

May 1 has become a key time limit for the Trump administration. The 60-day authorization period of the War Powers Act will end on that day, and the Trump administration will face three choices: obtain congressional authorization, withdraw troops, or openly violate the law. At present, oil prices have exceeded 110 US dollars, the cost of the war has reached 30 billion US dollars, the demand for supplementary appropriations is as high as 100 billion US dollars, and rifts within the Republican Party have quietly emerged. This date, which was originally only in legal texts, has become a political coordinate that the global market must focus on.

US State Department officials revealed that the US has held talks with Cuba, putting forward a number of requirements to Cuba, including introducing Starlink services, compensating US individuals and enterprises for confiscated assets, and releasing political prisoners. At the same time, Trump has repeatedly threatened that "Cuba will be next". Countries such as Germany, Brazil, Spain and Mexico have expressed their opposition to US intervention, called for the lifting of sanctions, and firmly supported Cuba in safeguarding national sovereignty; China also clearly stated that it firmly opposes any country's use of force to violate the sovereignty of other countries.

Wash focused on emphasizing the independence of the Federal Reserve at his Federal Reserve nomination hearing, clearly stating that he will never be Trump's "puppet" and has never been asked to make a commitment to cut interest rates. Wash pointed out that the president and members of Congress expressing their views on interest rates will not threaten the independence of the Federal Reserve. The core of the Federal Reserve is to abide by its functional duties, and if it involves fiscal and social policies that it has no legal authority to engage in, its independence will face the greatest risk.

Wash also proposed that he hopes to carry out "institutional reforms" of the Federal Reserve, establish a new inflation framework and a new communication method. He believes that currently, Federal Reserve officials speak too much, and the four interest rate meetings a year are too few; he also said that AI technology may improve economic productivity without causing inflation, creating space for interest rate cuts; in addition, he believes that the Federal Reserve is "to blame" for the expansion of the US "K-shaped economy", and its huge balance sheet has further expanded its impact on the economy.

Media known as the "New Fed Wire Service" pointed out that whether Wash can be confirmed as the Federal Reserve Chairman nominee depends on who will make concessions on the investigation of Powell between Trump and members of Congress. At the hearing, key Republican Senator Tillis clearly stated that he will not support Wash's nomination unless the Department of Justice ends its investigation into Powell; after the hearing, Tillis softened his attitude, stating that if Congress takes over the Department of Justice's investigation into Powell, he may support advancing the nomination process of Wash.

US retail sales data for March performed brightly, increasing by 1.7% month-on-month, the largest increase in more than a year, with the surge in oil prices being the core factor driving growth. Affected by the rise in oil prices driven by the Iran war, gas station consumption soared by 15.5%. At the same time, the tax rebate under the "Big Beautiful" Act and the stabilization of US stocks also supported consumption and enhanced consumption resilience. However, economists warned that as the tax rebate dividend gradually fades, high oil prices persist and the recruitment market slows down, the differentiation of US "K-shaped consumption" will further intensify, and whether this strong retail growth momentum can continue remains to be tested by the GDP data at the end of April.

The annual report of the IEA (International Energy Agency) shows that data centers contributed "half of the country" to the growth of US electricity demand last year, and battery energy storage has become the fastest-growing power technology in the world. The report points out that data centers are becoming the core variable driving the growth of US electricity demand. It is expected that they will contribute nearly half of the national electricity demand growth in 2025, driving electricity demand to continue to outperform overall energy demand, and the trend of "economic electrification" is accelerating. On the supply side, photovoltaic energy has become the largest source of global energy growth for the first time, the new installed capacity of battery energy storage has hit a record high and surpassed natural gas, and the growth rate of fossil energy demand has slowed down across the board.

Apple issued a statement to calm market sentiment. CEO Tim Cook said he is in good health and will serve as the company's executive chairman for a long time after stepping down as CEO, continuing to support the company's development. Apple's next CEO, Ternus, said that AI technology will create almost unlimited potential, create new opportunities for Apple's products and services, and Apple will change the world again with AI technology.

Selected Research Reports

Value investment guru Grantham recently stated that hard work can actually hinder thinking, and without the "lifeline" of AI technology, US stocks would have plummeted 40% in 2023 and entered a deep recession. He said, "AI is like someone suddenly discovering railways in the 1930s, which has greatly promoted industrial development"; he also reminded that "every round of soaring oil prices in history has led to economic recession, and current US stocks completely ignore this real risk."

Many institutions are optimistic about the future trend of gold, believing that the price correction caused by the US-Iran war is a "golden pit", and the "fourth wave" of gold's rise is not far away. Western Securities directly stated in its latest research report that no matter what choice the US makes in the final outcome of the Iran conflict, it will almost lead to further expansion of the cracks in US dollar credit, and gold is expected to usher in the fourth "main uptrend" in the second half of the year, and the current period is a good time to enter the market.

Morgan Stanley (MS) released a research report pointing out that after the rise of agents, the distribution of the entire AI value chain has changed, and GPUs are no longer everything. AI investment is shifting from "competing for GPU computing power" to "full-stack system efficiency". In the era of agents, the industry bottleneck has shifted from computing power to orchestration - GPUs determine whether an AI project "can be done", while system efficiency determines whether it "can make money". The research report predicts that the next round of excess profits will accelerate to flow to the slowest expanding supply chain links such as CPUs, memory and carrier boards, and the curtain of repricing of AI infrastructure has opened.

Apple announced that hardware engineer John Ternus will replace Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, making him the first hardware-born leader of Apple in 30 years. Ternus led major projects such as Apple's self-developed chip transformation and iPhone Air, and has a good reputation within the company. But the market also has questions: currently, Apple is obviously lagging behind its peers in the AI track. Can this engineer who is good at "maintaining products" lead Apple to break through in the AI field?

With the end of the Cook era, hardware veteran Ternus will officially take over Apple in September. Morgan Stanley analyzed that Apple's development route will not undergo fundamental changes in the short term, whether it is the vertical integration strategy of hardware, services, software and chips, or the stock repurchase of 80 billion to 100 billion US dollars per year and the dividend strategy of mid-single-digit growth per year, which will continue. However, the appointment of the new CEO provides space for investors to reimagine Apple's long-term development narrative. Looking back at history, after Jobs stepped down in 2011, Apple's stock price outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 57%. Whether this power handover can replicate the historical glory has attracted much market attention.

The market has raised questions about the ability of Apple's new CEO: what makes Ternus, who was born in hardware, lead Apple to win the AI war? Analysis points out that Apple's decision to hand over the baton to a hardware engineer known for being decisive, non-factional and close to the front line itself sends a clear signal - Apple will not follow the trend to deploy cloud computing power, but will focus on terminal integration. But questions also follow: does this hardware executive, known for being steady and having strong execution ability, have the adventurous spirit needed to launch an innovative product offensive in the AI era and promote Apple's breakthrough in the AI field?

Zhongtai Securities released a research report, depicting the "generational map" of A-shares from the perspective of fund managers' ages. The research report shows that the age gap of fund managers' positions in different industries of A-shares reaches 9.1 years, and the market main line has shifted from the previous "consumption clustering" to "hard technology + resources", and the non-ferrous metals and communication industries have become the consensus of cross-generational fund managers. Fund managers of different ages have obvious differences in investment preferences: post-60s stick to monopoly leading enterprises, post-85s focus on betting on the AI hard technology field, and post-90s have begun to integrate the investment logic of growth stocks and cyclical stocks. More importantly, the "age" label of assets has reversed - new consumption is no longer the first choice of young funds, and the oil industry has attracted a large number of young funds, indicating that the core of asset pricing lies in industrial trends, not traditional label cognition.

Domestic Macroeconomy

The "Golden March and Silver April" market in Shanghai's real estate market continues to heat up. Reporters' on-site investigation found that the second-hand housing replacement chain shows an upward transmission trend, and the "selling old to buy new" model has effectively activated the demand for new housing. Intermediary data shows that the average transaction price of second-hand housing in Shanghai rose month-on-month in April, with the highest daily online signing volume reaching 1,632 units, a new high in nearly 5 years. The new housing market also benefited simultaneously, with the customer decision-making cycle significantly shortened and improved projects continuing to be popular. Experts analyze that coupled with the support of replacement forces brought by the active second-hand housing transactions and the active marketing cooperation of real estate enterprises, the hot pattern of Shanghai's real estate market dominated by rigid demand and first-time improvement is expected to continue in the short term.

Domestic Companies

UBS released a research report, positioning Tsinghua-backed AI company Zhipu AI as the "Chinese version of Anthropic". The research report points out that Zhipu AI focuses on the programming field at the model layer, independently develops agents at the engineering layer, and adopts a capability-based pricing model for commercialization. It is reported that Zhipu AI's GLM-5.1 model ranks first in the world in the field of long-cycle task open source, and after a 30% price increase, its usage has increased by 3 times; ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) has surged 6.4 times in four months, with a growth rate even exceeding that of Anthropic. At the same time, Zhipu AI's products are more cost-effective, with capabilities reaching 97% of similar competitors, while the price is only 22% of that of competitors.

The Chinese chip industry has made new progress, and the two major enterprises DeepSeek and Kimi have shown a hidden synergy intersection. Kimi recently released the open-source model K2.6, focusing on enhancing code and Agent capabilities. Its latest paper proposes a "Pre-filling as a Service" architecture, which greatly compresses KV cache through hybrid models, realizing inference cost reduction across data centers and heterogeneous hardware. This practice has opened up a feasible path for Chinese models to adapt to domestic chips. Before the release of DeepSeek V4 model, Kimi has taken the lead in exploring the coordinated development of "Chinese chips + Chinese models".

Benefiting from the rise in both gold prices and volumes, Zijin Mining's Q1 performance was impressive, with revenue approaching the 100-billion-yuan mark and net profit attributable to parent company doubling. Zijin Mining's Q1 revenue increased by 24.8% year-on-year to 98.498 billion yuan; net profit attributable to parent company reached 20.08 billion yuan, an increase of 97.50% year-on-year. The performance growth was mainly due to the year-on-year increase in the prices of major metal varieties, with the price dividend fully released; in terms of output, the output of mined gold and lithium carbonate increased year-on-year, while the output of mined copper decreased year-on-year due to the decline in the equity copper output of Kamoa-Kakula.

China Unicom released its 2026 Q1 report, achieving revenue of 102.8 billion yuan and net profit attributable to parent company of 2.1 billion yuan in the first quarter. The company is promoting transformation around the four major tracks of "connection, computing power, service and security", with initial results: the basic plate of connection business remains stable, with the number of IoT connections exceeding 750 million; computing power business has become a growth engine, with revenue reaching 15.4 billion yuan, an increase of 8% year-on-year; nearly 10,000 5G factories have been put into operation, and international business has achieved double-digit growth; security business has also accelerated, injecting new momentum into the company's development.

Fuyao Glass's 2026 Q1 report shows that the company achieved revenue of 10.413 billion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 5.08% year-on-year; net profit attributable to parent company was 1.712 billion yuan. The profit fluctuation was mainly affected by exchange rate factors, with a foreign exchange loss of 439 million yuan in this period, compared with a foreign exchange gain of 236 million yuan in the same period last year; excluding the impact of foreign exchange gains and losses, the company's total profit actually increased by 9.63%. The company's cost control is stable, and the revenue growth rate is much higher than the cost growth rate; the construction in progress remains at a high level of 8.3 billion yuan, and the R&D expenditure increased by 19.6%, indicating that the company is taking the initiative to increase capacity layout and R&D of high-value-added products to lay the foundation for long-term development.

Overseas Macroeconomy

The energy shock caused by the Middle East conflict continues to spread, dealing a heavy blow to Germany's industrial hinterland. Germany's April economic sentiment index plummeted to -17.2, the lowest level since December 2022. The Middle East conflict has pushed up global energy prices, leading to a continuous decline in German industrial output. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has lowered Germany's 2026 economic growth forecast to 0.8%. Analysis believes that the energy shock is spreading from the market confidence level to the real economy, and the service industry is also under pressure. Germany's economy is facing great downward pressure.

Despite the continued tension in the Middle East, South Korea's export momentum remained strong in early April, with the surge in chip exports becoming the core driving force. The latest data shows that in the first 20 days of April, South Korea's total exports reached 50.4 billion US dollars, an increase of 49.4% year-on-year, a new high in the same period in history; among them, semiconductor exports performed particularly prominently, surging 182.5% year-on-year, becoming the most important engine of this round of strong exports. Driven by the strong upsurge in investment in artificial intelligence and data centers, the proportion of semiconductor exports in South Korea's total exports increased by 17.1 percentage points year-on-year to 36.3%, also setting a new record in the same period in history.

Industry/Concept

1. Logistics | The State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Expansion and Quality Improvement of the Service Industry", clearly proposing to comprehensively strengthen the weak links of producer services, strengthen the supporting role of scientific and technological services, enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of modern logistics, accelerate the innovative development of software and information services, enhance the professional service capacity of supply chain finance, actively develop energy conservation and environmental protection services, and strengthen and optimize business services. At the same time, accelerate the standardization of the service industry, improve the level of integrated development of modern services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture, and steadily promote the opening up and cooperation of the service industry.

2. Sodium-ion Batteries | On April 21, at CATL's 2026 "Super Technology Day" press conference, Wu Kai, chief scientist of the company and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that sodium-ion batteries have broad application prospects in travel scenarios such as high temperature and extreme cold, as well as in the energy storage field. At present, CATL has solved the core problems in the manufacturing link of sodium-ion batteries and will mass-produce them within the year.

3. Cross-border Payment | According to the WeChat official account "WeChat Pie", South Korea's ZeroPay, Sri Lanka's LANKAQR, Thailand's PromptPay, Malaysia's DuitNow QR, and Singapore's SGQR+ (with NETS and WeChat Pay logos) have officially been connected to WeChat Pay. Users can directly use WeChat to scan codes to complete payments, further facilitating cross-border travel consumption.

4. 6G | According to China News Service, on April 21, China's first Pre6G test network was officially put into operation in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The test network integrates 6G innovative technologies on the basis of 5G networks, with the characteristics of high bandwidth, long-distance coverage, low-latency determinism and endogenous AI integration, and its relevant capabilities can reach 10 times that of 5G. At present, the test network has carried out systematic verification in fields such as low-altitude inspection, industrial manufacturing, embodied intelligence and holographic communication, laying the foundation for the commercialization of 6G technology.

5. Photoresist | According to China Securities Journal, a 7.7-magnitude strong earthquake occurred off the coast of northeastern Japan on April 20, affecting four semiconductor industry clusters in Iwate, Aomori, Miyagi and Fukushima, triggering widespread market concern about the disruption of the semiconductor supply chain. Among all the affected links, the risk of the photoresist supply chain is the most concentrated. Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) has fully suspended operations at its factory in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, which is expected to last for four to six weeks. The factory accounts for about 25% of the global advanced photoresist production capacity; Shin-Etsu Chemical's Fukushima Shirakawa factory also announced a shutdown, and equipment recalibration is expected to take four to eight weeks.

6. Condensed Matter Batteries | On April 21, CATL released the Kirin Condensed Matter Battery at the 2026 Super Technology Day. The battery pack weighs less than 650kg, and when installed in executive-class sedans and full-size SUVs, the cruising range can reach 1,500 kilometers and 1,000 kilometers respectively. Gao Huan, CTO of CATL, said that the Kirin Condensed Matter Battery upgrades liquid electrolyte to condensed matter electrolyte, completely solving the battery safety problem. Industry insiders said that this battery may replace solid-state batteries and realize the core demand of safety and long cruising range earlier. Its mass production marks a key step in the transition of global power battery technology from the "liquid era" to the "solid-state era".

Today's News Preview

1. The Ministry of Finance will issue 15.5 billion yuan of RMB national bonds in Hong Kong, further enriching the varieties of Hong Kong's bond market and supporting the stable development of Hong Kong's financial market.

2. Tesla will release its quarterly financial report and hold an earnings call. The market will focus on the company's revenue, profit performance and future development plans.

3. Google's Google Cloud Next conference officially opens, which is expected to release new cloud services, AI-related products and technical upgrades, attracting industry attention.

4. European Central Bank President Lagarde will deliver a speech. The market will focus on interpreting her statements on current inflation and interest rate policies to judge the future monetary policy direction of the European Central Bank.

5. The United States will release the weekly EIA crude oil inventory change data, which will affect the trend of global crude oil prices and thus the energy market and related industrial chains.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

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