Morning News

# Source: Wall Street Insights

## Market Overview

US durable goods data boosted US stocks, with the three major US stock indexes closing at their highest levels in over a week. Meanwhile, small-cap and chip indexes bucked the trend and declined. Apple closed nearly 3% higher, while Tesla fell more than 3%. After the US government announced its equity stake, rare earth company USA Rare Earth closed nearly 8% up. Following Nvidia's additional investment, CoreWeave rose nearly 6%.

US durable goods orders exceeded expectations, and the auction of 2-year US Treasury bonds saw strong demand, driving a rebound in US Treasuries.

The US dollar posted its third consecutive decline, breaking below the 97 mark intraday for the first time in four months. After news of government intervention, the Japanese yen rose for two straight days, surging over 1% intraday to a more than two-month high. The offshore renminbi broke above the 6.95 level intraday for two consecutive days, hitting a new high in over two years. Bitcoin rebounded more than 3% intraday after testing the $86,000 level.

Gold and silver continued to hit record highs, but then gave back most of their gains. Gold topped $5,000 for the first time in history, rising over 2% intraday. Silver saw its strongest intraday surge since 2008, skyrocketing as much as 14% to nearly $118, before paring gains to less than 1%. LME copper rose for two consecutive sessions, edging closer to its record high. Crude oil turned lower after rising 1% intraday, pulling back from its highest closing level in over a week. Winter storms boosted demand and disrupted production, sending US natural gas prices soaring over 40% intraday.

During the Asian trading session, the ChiNext Index fell nearly 1%, the gold and silver sector rallied sharply, the commercial aerospace sector saw a collective correction, the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped over 1%, Zijin Mining hit a record high, and Shanghai silver surged 13%.

## Top News

- **Ministry of Commerce**: China is willing to manage differences and advance cooperation with the US, and will introduce policies and measures to expand inbound consumption.

- **Zou Lan, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China**: Supports Hong Kong in increasing the scale of the RMB business capital arrangement from RMB 100 billion to RMB 200 billion.

- **OPEC+ representative**: The group may continue to halt production increases in March, noting that crude oil supply has not been significantly affected by geopolitical factors.

- The US has deployed heavy troops to encircle Iran, with the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group arriving and a large number of fighter jets assembling in the surrounding areas. Iran warned that any attack will be regarded as an all-out war.

- **Report**: Prediction markets indicate that the probability of a new US government shutdown is close to 80%.

- **Report**: India plans to cut the import tariff on EU-made automobiles from 110% to 40%.

- **China's AI "Max Moment"**: Alibaba released its most powerful reasoning model Qwen3-Max-Thinking, which is comparable in performance to GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Pro.

- **Yuanbao AI's 1 Billion RMB Red Packet Campaign for Spring Festival**: Ma Huateng said he hopes to replicate the grand success of WeChat Red Packet back in the day.

- After listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Zhipu AI is sprinting for an A-share IPO.

- **Iluvatar CoreX announced its 4th-generation chip architecture roadmap**, expecting to surpass Nvidia's Rubin architecture next year.

- **The world's first space computing network serving silicon-based agents was unveiled**: It will consist of 2,800 computing satellites and be fully operational by 2035.

- **Zijin Gold plans to acquire Allied Gold for CAD 5.5 billion**, accelerating its entry into the core gold mining areas in West Africa.

- The Trump administration will take an equity stake in US Rare Earth Company, with an investment of $1.6 billion for a stake of up to 16%.

- **Nvidia made an additional $2 billion investment in CoreWeave** and launched its first standalone CPU chip.

- **Microsoft upgraded its self-developed AI chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia**, claiming they outperform Amazon's Trainium and Google's TPU.

- The European Union launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X platform, accusing its Grok AI of generating deepfake images.

## Market Closing Quotes

### European and US Stock Markets

- S&P 500: +0.50%, closed at 6,950.23 points

- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.64%, closed at 49,412.40 points

- Nasdaq Composite: +0.43%, closed at 23,601.356 points

- STOXX 600 Index: +0.20%, closed at 609.57 points

### A-share Market

- Shanghai Composite Index: closed at 4,132.61 points, -0.09%

- Shenzhen Component Index: closed at 14,316.64 points, -0.85%

- ChiNext Index: closed at 3,319.15 points, -0.91%

### Bond Market

- US 10-year Treasury yield: fell 1.58 basis points to 4.2094%

- US 2-year Treasury yield: fell 0.40 basis points to 3.59%

### Commodities

- COMEX Gold Futures: +0.64%, closed at $5,010.70 per ounce; intraday record high at $5,107.90

- COMEX Silver Futures: +1.45%, closed at $102.790 per ounce; intraday record high at $117.7

- WTI Crude Oil Futures (March contract): -0.72%, closed at $60.63 per barrel

- Brent Crude Oil Futures (March contract): -0.44%, closed at $65.59 per barrel

# Detailed Top News

## Global Headlines

**Ministry of Commerce**: China is willing to manage differences and advance cooperation with the US, and will introduce policies and measures to expand inbound consumption. On January 26, Yan Dong, Vice Minister of Commerce, stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that going forward, China is ready to work with the US in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, jointly uphold and implement the important common understandings reached by the heads of state of the two countries, make good use of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, manage differences, promote cooperation, and maintain the stable, healthy and sustainable development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

**Zou Lan, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC)**: Supports Hong Kong in increasing the scale of the RMB business capital arrangement from RMB 100 billion to RMB 200 billion. Zou Lan said that Hong Kong has become the world's largest and most influential offshore RMB business hub. Expanding the scale of the RMB business capital arrangement will provide more ample liquidity support for Hong Kong's offshore market. The PBOC supports the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in raising the scale of the RMB business capital arrangement from RMB 100 billion to RMB 200 billion.

Silver once surged 14% to nearly $118 before paring gains to less than 1%, triggering extreme short-term correction risks. After logging its biggest single-day gain since 2008, silver quickly gave back its gains. It rose as much as 14% intraday to a record high near $118, but erased almost all gains after the US stock market closed, ending with an increase of less than 1%. Analysts believe this indicates that the previous rally driven by momentum and chasing sentiment has become significantly fragile, and the speculative phase may come to a temporary halt. However, against the backdrop of a weakening US dollar and escalating geopolitical tensions, precious metals still have medium-to-long-term support.

**OPEC+ representative**: The group may continue to halt production increases in March, noting that crude oil supply has not been significantly impacted by geopolitical factors. OPEC+ representatives said the alliance is expected to maintain its existing production policy at this Sunday's meeting, and may continue to stop increasing output in March. Despite volatile geopolitical situations in Iran, Venezuela and other regions, oil supply has not been affected so far, so there is no need to adjust production for the time being.

**US deploys heavy troops to encircle Iran**: The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group has arrived, with a large number of fighter jets assembling in the surrounding areas! Iran warned that any attack will be regarded as an all-out war. The US Navy's USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in the Middle East and is about to launch several days of combat readiness exercises in the region. In addition to the Lincoln carrier strike group, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Mitscher and USS McFaul are also operating in the waters around Iran, and the US Air Force has deployed more than a dozen F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets near Iran. Iran warned that "any attack against Iran will be deemed an all-out war".

**Report**: Prediction markets show that the probability of a new US government shutdown is close to 80%. Prediction market data indicates that the probability of a US government shutdown again before January 31 has soared to nearly 80%. The sudden surge in this risk stems from Senate Democrats collectively opposing funding for the Department of Homeland Security after the Minneapolis shooting incident, and linking the approval to conditions that restrict the powers of immigration law enforcement agencies. Although lawmakers from both parties have proposed a separate vote on the Department of Homeland Security budget, the procedural time is extremely tight—blizzards have delayed the vote and Congress is about to adjourn. If the spending bill cannot be passed by midnight on Friday, several federal departments will face partial shutdowns.

**Report**: India plans to cut the import tariff on EU automobiles from 110% to 40%. India is close to reaching a landmark free trade agreement with the EU, and plans to slash the import tariff on EU-made cars from the current maximum of 110% to 40%. To protect the domestic new energy vehicle industry, electric vehicles will not enjoy tariff reductions in the first five years.

**Alibaba released Qwen3-Max-Thinking, the most powerful reasoning model of the Qwen series**, which is comparable in performance to GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Pro. Qwen3-Max-Thinking has a total parameter count exceeding one trillion and pre-trained data volume reaching 36T Tokens, with its native Agent capabilities greatly enhanced. In 19 recognized benchmark tests covering factual knowledge, complex reasoning, instruction following, human preference alignment, Agent capabilities and others, Qwen3-Max-Thinking's overall performance is on par with top international models. Data from Hugging Face shows that Qwen has become the world's first open-source large model with over 200,000 derivative models. The cumulative downloads of the Qwen series models have exceeded 1 billion times, with an average of 1.1 million daily downloads by developers, firmly ranking first among global open-source large models.

**China's AI "Max Moment"! The most powerful Qwen model ushers in the second growth curve**. When Qwen3-Max-Thinking has proven China's top-tier strength in algorithms, when Alibaba Cloud has demonstrated controllability in computing power, and when the Qwen APP has verified the implementation capability of AI in commercial scenarios, Alibaba's AI valuation has a solid foundation for reconstruction.

**Yuanbao AI's 1 Billion RMB Red Packet Campaign for Spring Festival! Ma Huateng: Hopes to replicate the grand success of WeChat Red Packet back in the day**. At today's Tencent annual meeting, Ma Huateng announced that Yuanbao, the company's AI application, will launch a 1 billion RMB cash giveaway activity for the Spring Festival starting from February 1. Ma Huateng clearly stated that he hopes to replicate the grand occasion when WeChat Red Packet's "shake" function attracted hundreds of millions of users through this high-value subsidy. Regarding the AI intelligentization of WeChat, Ma Huateng believes that an AI bundle may not be favored by everyone. In the future, the company will continue to adhere to decentralization, and plan the intelligent ecosystem of WeChat in a way that balances user needs and privacy security.

**After listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Zhipu AI is sprinting for an A-share IPO!** Following its Hong Kong listing, Zhipu AI is accelerating the process of A-share IPO. CICC has submitted the third phase of the tutoring report, with the goal of achieving dual listing in A-shares and H-shares ("A+H"). Its stock price soared 13% today, mainly driven by the surging demand for programming subscription services boosted by its flagship model GLM-4.7. However, the company still faces severe challenges: it has accumulated a net loss of as much as 6.2 billion RMB in the past three and a half years, the gross profit margin of its cloud business has turned negative, and the huge R&D investment continues to test its profit prospects and market confidence.

**Iluvatar CoreX announced its 4th-generation chip architecture roadmap**, expecting to surpass Nvidia's Rubin architecture next year. According to The Paper, on January 26, general-purpose GPU enterprise Iluvatar CoreX released its 4th-generation chip architecture roadmap, proposing the "high-quality computing power" design goal centered on "high efficiency, predictability and sustainability", creating a new paradigm of AI++ computing power system. It is expected to surpass Nvidia's Rubin architecture in 2027 and move towards more innovative and breakthrough architecture design.

**The world's first space computing network serving silicon-based agents was unveiled**: 2,800 computing satellites to be fully deployed by 2035. At the "Star Computing • Intelligent Connection" seminar, Guoxing Aerospace disclosed the world's first space computing network plan focusing on serving silicon-based agents (such as autonomous driving systems and robots). The network plans to deploy 2,800 computing satellites, of which more than 95% are inference computing satellites. The first space computing center was launched in May 2025. The plan aims to complete the commercial networking of 1,000 satellites by 2030 and achieve full constellation deployment by 2035, with the computing capacity to serve hundreds of millions of silicon-based agents.

**Zijin Gold plans to acquire Allied Gold for CAD 5.5 billion**, accelerating its entry into the core gold mining areas in West Africa. Zijin Gold International signed an Arrangement Agreement with Allied Gold Corporation, proposing to acquire all issued common shares of Allied Gold at a cash price of CAD 44 per share, with a total acquisition consideration of approximately CAD 5.5 billion (equivalent to about RMB 28 billion).

**The Trump administration will take an equity stake in US Rare Earth Company**, with an investment of $1.6 billion for a stake of up to 16%. The Trump administration is set to acquire an 8% to 16% equity stake in US Rare Earth Company through a $1.6 billion debt and equity investment plan. The company's stock price once rose nearly 30% intraday. The company is currently developing a mine in Sierra Blanca, Texas, scheduled to start production in 2028, and also owns a magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is expected to be launched later this year.

**Nvidia made an additional $2 billion investment in CoreWeave** and launched its first standalone CPU chip. This investment will support CoreWeave in adding more than 5 gigawatts of AI computing power infrastructure by 2030. As part of the cooperation, CoreWeave will be the first to deploy Nvidia's upcoming new products, including storage systems and a brand-new central processing unit (CPU).

**Microsoft upgraded its self-developed AI chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia**, claiming they outperform Amazon's Trainium and surpass Google's TPU. The Maia 200, built on TSMC's 3nm process, is Microsoft's most efficient inference system deployed to date and "the highest-performance self-developed chip among all hyperscale cloud service providers". Its performance per dollar is 30% higher than that of the latest hardware currently used by Microsoft. In FP4 precision, its performance is three times that of Amazon's third-generation Trainium chip, and its FP8 performance exceeds Google's seventh-generation TPU. It will support OpenAI's GPT-5.2 model. Microsoft has opened the preview version of the chip's software development kit to developers, plans to open cloud service rentals of the chip to more customers in the future, and is already designing the next-generation Maia 300.

**The European Union launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X platform**, accusing its Grok AI of generating deepfake images. On the 26th, the European Commission announced the launch of a new round of formal investigations into X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, in accordance with the Digital Services Act. The core accusation is that Grok, its AI chatbot, has failed to prevent the generation of deepfake content, especially illegal images targeting women and children. This is another major regulatory pressure faced by X after it was fined 120 million euros last December. The investigation will assess whether X has fully evaluated and mitigated the risks of Grok's deployment. If found in violation, the platform may face a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover.

## Selected Research Reports

**UBS's 2026 US Economic Outlook**: Once the AI bubble bursts, the probability of recession will reach 50%, and the market underestimates the possibility of interest rate cuts before June. In its 2026 US Economic Outlook, UBS warned that the current economic expansion is heavily dependent on AI investment and fiscal stimulus, with a fragile structure. The report emphasized that due to the contradiction between the actual weakening of the labor market and stagflationary pressures driven by tariffs, the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates before June 2026 to prevent economic stall, and the urgency of this shift has not been fully priced in by the market.

**"Go Long on Detroit"! BofA's Hartnett: Drawing lessons from history, the best strategy to take over from gold**. Bank of America pointed out that the current bull-bear indicator has risen to 9.2, triggering a short-term sell signal, but investors should seize the rotation logic of "going long on Detroit and short on Davos", shifting from large-cap tech stocks to small and mid-cap stocks and industrial sectors. This strategy draws lessons from the 1970s: just as small-cap stocks took over from gold to become winners of the new cycle back then, small and mid-cap stocks are also expected to become core assets replacing the first-half winners such as gold amid the bond bear market and policy support.

**The start of 2026 is turbulent**: Goldman Sachs' top traders sighed that these 15 trading days "felt like years". From the US military operations against Venezuela to tariff threats, from regulatory policy shifts to sharp fluctuations in Japanese government bonds, the market has digested an unusually large amount of information in a short period of time. Amid these turbulences, the S&P 500 Index has still risen 1% year-to-date. Goldman Sachs expects that with the recovery of corporate mergers and acquisitions, stock issuance activities, and the rebound of retail and institutional buying, the S&P 500 Index is still expected to hit 7,800 points in 2026.

**Morgan Stanley's Top 10 Predictions for 2026**: AI capability differentiation intensifies, tech giants accelerate the integration of energy facilities. Morgan Stanley predicts that in 2026, the global AI technology development will show a differentiated pattern, computing power demand will grow exponentially beyond supply capacity, the Trump administration will launch a strong policy agenda, pressure on AI technology transfer and national self-sufficiency will mount, rising energy costs will trigger policy backlash, AI giants will accelerate the integration of energy infrastructure, the global manufacturing landscape will be restructured, Latin America will usher in a new investment cycle driven by triple transformations, enterprises and governments will launch large-scale retraining programs, and transformative AI will reshape the economy and asset valuations.

**JPMorgan temporarily shelved its bullish view on copper prices**: Surging inventories in China and the US pose correction risks before the Spring Festival. JPMorgan downgraded its short-term rating on copper prices. Currently, China's copper inventories are at the highest pre-Spring Festival level since 2021, and the LME structure has also turned into contango. Although it is bullish on supply shortages triggered by tariff policies in the medium term, it is constrained by the double increase in inventories in China and the US and the pre-holiday "demand vacuum period" in the short term. The bank maintains a cautious stance until mid-February, expecting $12,000 per ton to be the key support level.

## Domestic Macroeconomy

**The UK looks forward to the Prime Minister's visit to China to "open a new chapter"**: Key government officials will accompany the visit, which is expected to restart the "Golden Era" dialogue. According to the Global Times, informed sources revealed that during Prime Minister Starmer's visit to China, the UK and China will restart the "Golden Era" business dialogue, and it is expected that senior executives of some large enterprises from both countries will participate. Analysts believe that Starmer's visit to China is widely regarded as a key node that can set the tone for China-UK relations in the next two to three years.

**The Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau signed a landmark agreement with the Shanghai Gold Exchange**: Targeting over 2,000 tons of gold reserves in three years and planning to include gold in the preferential tax regime. Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, pointed out that this move will promote the Airport Authority Hong Kong and financial institutions to expand gold storage capacity in Hong Kong, with the goal of exceeding 2,000 tons in three years, making Hong Kong a globally trusted gold storage destination. Hong Kong plans to submit legislative proposals in the first half of this year to include precious metals in the scope of eligible investments for the preferential tax regime applicable to funds and single-family offices.

# Domestic Companies

**NBD Investigation into the Hype Interest Chain of "Chen Xiaoqun" - Concept Stocks**: "Trading Software + Securities Firms" Create a Myth with Dragon and Tiger List Data; Hot Money Harvests Retail Investors via "Internet Tactics". A long-circulating mysterious name in the A-share market—"Chen Xiaoqun"—has been thrust into the public spotlight. This hype frenzy surrounding the "genius hot money trader" does not only revolve around this enigmatic, unconfirmed online "stock god", but also involves a massive "boosting camp" jointly built by third-party trading software, licensed securities firms and investment advisors. Some opinions suggest that large investors may exploit the Dragon and Tiger List mechanism to harvest retail investors.

# Overseas Macroeconomy

**US Durable Goods Orders Surge 5.3% MoM in November**, Reversing the Previous Month's Decline, Far Exceeding Expectations and Marking the Largest Increase in Six Months. US durable goods orders surged 5.3% month-on-month in November, the biggest gain in nearly six months, far outpacing market expectations and reversing the prior month's decline. The growth was mainly driven by a sharp jump in commercial aircraft orders. Core orders excluding transportation also rose for the eighth consecutive month, indicating a sustained recovery in corporate equipment investment. Core capital goods orders increased by 0.7%, also beating expectations, further confirming the improvement in manufacturing demand and strengthening corporate investment willingness. Although the data release was delayed due to the government shutdown, it still provided a positive signal for economic momentum at the end of the year.

**Trump Says the Government is Conducting a "Comprehensive Review" of the Incident Where Immigration Law Enforcement Officers Shot and Killed a US Citizen**. According to CCTV News, in a roughly five-minute phone interview, Trump did not directly answer whether the agent's shooting was appropriate, only stating that "we are looking into it, we are reviewing everything, and we will make a judgment". Trump claimed that Pretty was carrying "very dangerous weapons" during the protest and said the incident should not have happened.

**Fed Policy Meeting Looms: Monetary Policy Discussions Take a Back Seat, Powell's Successor Becomes the Focus**. The core focus of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on January 29 this week is no longer the interest rate decision, but the political impact on the central bank's independence. The Trump administration has launched an investigation into Powell and intends to intervene in personnel matters, casting a shadow of political turmoil over the meeting. Market attention is centered on the nomination of the successor and Powell's tenure, which will be a key signal to judge whether the Fed can maintain policy independence under future pressures.

**Winter Storm Sweeps Across the US: 820,000 Households Without Power, Natural Gas Prices Break $6 for the First Time in 24 Years!** A winter storm affecting two-thirds of the eastern US is severely impacting the energy system. Natural gas futures prices skyrocketed 20% in a single day to above $6 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), hitting a new high since 2002, with a weekly gain of as much as 70%, the largest on record since 1990. The storm left more than 820,000 households without power and disrupted about 12% of the US's natural gas production. Grid operators warned of record-breaking electricity demand for seven consecutive days and have activated emergency measures to ensure supply. The severe cold weather is expected to last until February, and air transportation has also been affected, with over 10,000 flights canceled in a single day at one point.

**Yen Extends Gains; Sanae Takaichi Strengthens Currency Intervention Signals; Ruling Coalition to Resign if It Loses Parliamentary Majority**. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned against cracking down on market speculation, pledged to take action when necessary, and hinted that the ruling coalition would resign if it loses the election. Affected by this, the yen extended its gains to the 154 level, putting short positions under pressure. The market speculates that a "Plaza Accord 2.0" may be possible, alleviating the pressure on the previously collapsing ultra-long-term US and Japanese bonds. The Japanese market ahead of the general election is experiencing a drastic policy-driven reset.

**Japan's FX Chief: In Close Contact with the US to Address Yen Exchange Rate Volatility**. Atsushi Mimura, Japan's Director-General of the Foreign Exchange Markets Department at the Ministry of Finance, stated that Japan will closely cooperate with the US when necessary in accordance with the spirit of the joint statement by the Japanese and US finance ministers in September last year, and continue to respond appropriately to exchange rate fluctuations. According to media reports, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York called major financial institutions last Friday under the instruction of the US Treasury Department to inquire about the USD/JPY exchange rate quotes.

**Rare US-Japan Joint Intervention: What Does It Mean for the Market?** The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's rare "inquiry" about the yen is regarded as a key signal that the US is preparing to "step in personally" to rescue the market. If the US-Japan joint intervention becomes a reality, it will not only mean a bloodbath for yen short sellers, but also may trigger market speculation about a "Plaza Accord 2.0", completely reshaping the pricing logic of the global foreign exchange market and risk assets.

**From "Tacit Approval" to "Direct Intervention": Why Is the US Getting Involved in the Yen Issue Now?** The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's rare inquiry into the yen exchange rate. Bank of America analysts believe that the US may intend to suppress the dollar's appreciation to enhance trade competitiveness, maintain US debt stability, and increase diplomatic leverage against Japan. Meanwhile, with Japan's general election approaching, the US-Japan joint effort to stabilize the exchange rate may be to buy time for the Takaichi government during the election window.

**Limited Differences in Account Data: Did the Bank of Japan Not Actually Intervene in the Yen Last Week?** The Bank of Japan's latest current account data did not clearly confirm the existence of yen-buying intervention last Friday, but the successive tough warnings from officials have triggered high market alertness. The yen extended its gains, mainly driven by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on "cracking down on speculation" and market speculation about US-Japan joint intervention. This policy-driven "controlled reset" of the exchange rate is changing investors' expectations for Japanese assets, and adding uncertainty to the upcoming general election and long-term government bond auctions.

# Overseas Companies

**The Battle for Billion-User Markets: Beyond Programming, Excel Is AI's True "Killer Application" Scenario**. Freda Duan, partner at Silicon Valley investment firm Altimeter Capital, pointed out that Excel's approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users and its position as the underlying encapsulation layer of the trillion-dollar application software market (accounting for about 50%) make it the next key battlefield for AI. If AI-native Excel achieves programmability, its market will expand from an office tool to application creation. Industry giants are competing for this billion-user scenario, starting with high-value fields such as finance.

**How Far Is Apple's AI Phone? Report Says the New "Gemini-Powered" Siri Will Debut in February**. Apple plans to announce the new version of Siri in the second half of February, when it will demonstrate related functions and officially release it in March or early April. A larger-scale upgrade will be announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. The all-new Siri, codenamed Campos, will be launched with iOS 27, featuring conversational interaction, functions comparable to ChatGPT and Gemini, and may run directly on Google Cloud infrastructure.

**Report: Samsung to Start Supplying HBM4 to Nvidia in February**. Samsung Electronics has passed the HBM4 qualification tests of Nvidia and AMD, and will start shipping to Nvidia next month. This marks a key breakthrough for Samsung Electronics in the advanced memory chip field, which is expected to narrow the gap with competitor SK Hynix.

**Nvidia Plans to Enter the Arm PC Chip Market; Lenovo and Dell May Be the First to Adopt**. Nvidia plans to launch SoC chips based on the Arm architecture, entering the Windows laptop processor market, which is regarded as a challenge to the dominant position of the x86 architecture. Its two chips, N1 and N1X, adopt an integrated CPU and GPU design. Among them, Lenovo's related products have entered the internal testing and deployment preparation stage, and manufacturers such as Dell are also advancing product planning, which may intensify multi-architecture competition in the PC processor market.

**SoftBank Suspends Acquisition of Switch; $50 Billion Data Center Deal Stalls**. SoftBank has suspended negotiations to fully acquire data center operator Switch for approximately $50 billion, dealing a major setback to its "Star Gate" AI infrastructure plan aimed at building computing power for OpenAI. Although the two sides are still exploring possible cooperation, this setback highlights the valuation and regulatory challenges SoftBank faces in its hardware expansion.

**Bypassing US Regulations, Binance Crypto Exchange Re-launches "US Stock Tokens" to Create a Parallel Stock Market**. Binance is exploring the re-launch of stock tokens on its exchange. Exchanges such as Kraken and Bitget, as well as decentralized platforms like Jupiter, have already made progress in the stock token field. Crypto exchanges are eager to offer stock token products mainly because the cryptocurrency market is in a downturn, while the stock prices of US tech giants continue to rise, and exchanges do not want customers' idle funds to flow to the traditional stock market.

# Industries/Concepts

1.  **Cloud Computing & Data Centers** | Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently raised the price of its EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML by about 15%. Among them, the hourly fee for the p5e.48xlarge instance increased from $34.61 to $39.80. This move is regarded as a major shift in cloud computing pricing logic against the backdrop of tight AI computing power resources. Notably, on January 21, Beijing Zhipu AI announced via its official WeChat account that with the launch of GLM-4.7, the number of users of GLM Coding Plan has witnessed rapid growth, leading to a phased shortage of computing power resources.

   > **Commentary**: Guosen Securities believes that from the demand side, training demand remains high amid accelerated model iteration, while inference demand is gradually increasing with application penetration. The global computing power boom continues. With the accelerated shipment of Nvidia's GB series high-density computing cabinets, the prosperity of global high-end computing power will be further enhanced, and the market demand for data centers and cloud services is also expected to improve.

2.  **Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)** | On January 26, the National Health Commission held a press conference to introduce the experience of promoting the Sanming medical reform and facilitating the inheritance and innovative development of TCM. At the meeting, Meng Qingbin, Director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, stated that in recent years, the state has issued a series of policies and measures to accelerate the high-quality development of county-level TCM hospitals, and at the same time encourages qualified county-level TCM hospitals to take the lead in establishing county medical consortiums to drive the improvement of county-level TCM service capabilities.

   > **Commentary**: According to Shanghai Securities News, currently, there are 3,099 tight-knit county medical consortiums in 2,199 counties and cities nationwide, including some municipal districts. More than 40% of county-level TCM hospitals take the lead in forming county medical consortiums. Earlier, the General Office of the State Council issued the *Opinions on Improving the Quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry*, proposing to actively promote the transformation of human experience into clinical evidence by means of evidence-based medicine while following the laws and characteristics of TCM, and encourage the evaluation and research of listed Chinese patent medicines to enhance the level of clinical value evidence. Research institutions believe that strengthening the collaboration of the TCM industry chain, optimizing the industrial structure layout, the pace of external mergers and acquisitions of leading enterprises is expected to accelerate. On the basis of ensuring quality and clinical efficacy, the review of new TCM drugs has been accelerated, which is expected to promote the rapid launch of more high-quality TCM innovative products.

3.  **Digital Humans** | According to Huanqiu.com, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued a notice to publicly solicit opinions on the mandatory national standard formulation and revision plan project *Metaverse - Classification and Identification - Requirements for Digital Human Identity Identification*. The standard aims to specify the system, registration and management requirements for digital human identity identification, to address the issues of lack of identity management and security risks accompanying the rapid development of the digital human industry, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry.

   > **Commentary**: China Securities Journal pointed out that in recent years, the scale of China's digital human industry has expanded rapidly, with more than 1.14 million related enterprises, and digital humans are widely used in many fields such as performance hosting, e-commerce live streaming, and customer service. The proposed standard will bring multiple positive impacts: first, realize the rapid traceability of problematic digital human information and strengthen industry supervision; second, accurately locate the subject of illegal and irregular responsibilities and reduce fraud risks; third, establish a unified digital human identity identification and authentication system to promote the industry's development towards standardization, clustering and refinement. Calculations show that the scale of China's digital human industry is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan in 2025, and will drive the scale of surrounding industries to exceed 600 billion yuan.

4.  **Biomedicine** | According to IT Home, a study led by the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford has for the first time proven that quantum mechanical processes can be designed inside proteins, opening the door to a new class of quantum-enhanced biotechnology. This protein can interact with magnetic fields and radio waves, a mechanism derived from quantum mechanical interactions inside the protein and activated under light irradiation of specific wavelengths. This study is the first time that quantum effects have been actively designed through engineering means to form an applicable new technology system, marking an important shift from "observing quantum phenomena in nature" to "designing quantum mechanisms for practical use".

   > **Commentary**: China Securities Journal pointed out that this breakthrough benefits from a highly interdisciplinary research path, integrating multiple fields such as engineering biology, quantum science and artificial intelligence. Researchers believe that this is the first time that the cross-integration of the three has been used to create a brand-new technology. With the improvement of quantum hardware performance and the deepening of interdisciplinary cooperation, this technology is expected to reshape the paradigm of biomedical research in the next 5-10 years and bring revolutionary changes to human health. Quantum-enhanced biotechnology is breaking through the limits of traditional biomedical research at an unprecedented speed. By deeply integrating quantum mechanics principles with biological systems, it has opened a new era of precision medicine, drug research and development, and biosensing.

5.  **Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)** | According to IT Home, recently, the No. 2 unit of the Guoxin Suyan Huaian Salt Cavern Compressed Air Energy Storage Demonstration Project, participated in the construction by Harbin Electric Group, was successfully connected to the grid at one time and simultaneously achieved full-load power generation, marking the full commissioning of the world's largest-scale compressed air energy storage power station. It is understood that after the project is put into operation, the annual power generation will reach 792 million kWh, which can supply electricity for 600,000 households for one year, reduce standard coal consumption by 250,000 tons and carbon dioxide emissions by 600,000 tons annually, with remarkable environmental and energy-saving benefits.

   > **Commentary**: China Securities Journal pointed out that as a key support for the new power system, compressed air energy storage technology is rapidly transitioning from the pilot demonstration stage to large-scale application. With continuous technological progress and declining costs, compressed air energy storage will play an increasingly important role in promoting new energy consumption, improving grid flexibility and achieving the "dual carbon" goals, and is expected to become a mainstream long-duration energy storage technology route on par with pumped storage in the future.

6.  **Digital Trade** | On January 26, Wang Zhihua, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that in 2026, the Ministry of Commerce will innovate and develop digital trade, launch the construction of national digital trade demonstration zones, formulate relevant standards for digital trade, promote the integration of domestic and international standards, promote the digital transformation of service outsourcing, cultivate and expand digital trade operators, and organize the Global Digital Trade Expo well.

   > **Commentary**: Securities Times pointed out that digital trade is a new type of trade form adapted to the development of the digital economy, and has become a new trend in the development of international trade and a new growth point of the economy. Data shows that in 2025, China's online retail sales increased by 8.6% year-on-year, and the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce reached 2.75 trillion yuan, with a cumulative increase of about 70% in five years. The 15th Five-Year Plan proposal clearly puts forward "innovating and developing digital trade". The Ministry of Commerce's measures to promote digital trade, such as launching the construction of national digital trade demonstration zones and formulating relevant standards for digital trade, indicate that China is systematically building a strategic system for a digital trade power oriented to the future, and taking digital trade as one of the key pillars for building a trade power.

7.  **AI Healthcare** | According to Securities Times, recently, e-commerce giant Amazon announced that its primary healthcare service platform One Medical has launched an artificial intelligence health assistant called Health AI. This AI tool can provide 24/7 personalized guidance based on each patient's unique medical history. This AI medical assistant has been deeply integrated with Amazon's existing medical system and services, further strengthening the medical ecosystem. Amazon is systematically applying its capabilities in e-commerce, cloud computing and AI to the healthcare field, creating an online-offline closed loop. On One Medical, users can complete the full-process service of AI health consultation—doctor appointment—drug delivery. Currently, One Medical operates more than 200 owned clinics in 26 major US cities and provides employee welfare services for 16,000 enterprises.

   > **Commentary**: The report pointed out that since the beginning of the year, the layout of major domestic and foreign giants in the healthcare field has obviously accelerated. Earlier, the monthly active users of Ant Fortune APP launched by Alibaba exceeded 30 million in the latest data on January 8. At the same time, OpenAI also officially launched its first AI medical product ChatGPT Health earlier this month to provide users with health care services. With tech giants flocking into the field, AI healthcare has begun to truly integrate on a large scale, and connect links such as services, technology, drugs and data into a complete system, with an extremely broad market space in the future. According to a report by Grand View Research, the global AI healthcare market size was about $26.65 billion in 2024, and is expected to soar to about $505.59 billion by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 38.8% during the period.

# Today's News Preview

- Profits of Industrial Enterprises Above Designated Size in China in December

- US S&P/Case-Shiller and FHFA House Price Indices in November

- OpenAI to Host Exchange Meeting for AI Developers

- Boeing to Release Financial Results

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