Summary of global markets and news
Market Overview
The US-Iran impasse remains unresolved, with the three major US stock indices falling briefly intraday. Supported by the strong performance of some technology stocks such asNVIDIA, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite turned from losses to gains intraday, continuing to close at all-time highs; the semiconductor index fell 1%, ending its record 18-day winning streak. Among them, AMD fell nearly 4%, while NVIDIA rose 4% to hit a new all-time high again. The memory chip sector performed strongly, with SanDisk rising more than 8% and Micron rising 5.6%; reports indicate that OpenAI is collaborating with Qualcomm to develop smartphone chips. Affected by this, Apple fell more than 1%, ranking the worst among the "Magnificent Seven" technology stocks.
US Treasury bond prices declined. After the release of news showing weak demand for the US 5-year Treasury note auction, Treasury yields hit a new intraday high. The US dollar index turned lower intraday, moving away from its nearly three-week high; offshore RMB broke through the 6.82 mark intraday, rebounding nearly 200 points from the intraday low and moving out of its more than one-week low; Bitcoin broke through 79,000 US dollars intraday, hitting a nearly three-month high, then turned lower, with a drop of nearly 4% at one point.
In the commodity market, crude oil prices rose. Brent crude oil achieved a six-day winning streak, the longest consecutive gain in a year, rising more than 4% intraday and closing at a nearly three-week high; US crude oil rebounded to a two-week high, rising more than 3% intraday. Gold and silver prices declined, with COMEX gold futures falling more than 1% intraday and closing at a nearly three-week low. LME zinc fell more than 2%, LME copper posted a three-day losing streak to a three-week low, and LME nickel rose for four consecutive days to a nearly two-year high.
During the Asian trading session, the Sci-Tech Innovation 50 Index soared more than 3%, the semiconductor sector rose collectively, the PCB concept surged, and Luxshare Precision Industry hit the daily limit; the Hang Seng Index turned lower in the afternoon, with SMIC rising 6%.
Key News
China
1. NDRC clarifies: Foreign capital is prohibited from acquiring the Manus project, and relevant parties are required to cancel the transaction. According to Xinhua News Agency, the Office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment (National Development and Reform Commission) has made a decision to prohibit foreign investment in the acquisition of the Manus project in accordance with laws and regulations, requiring the parties concerned to cancel the acquisition transaction.
2. Foreign Ministry responds to US sanctions on Chinese refineries: Urges the US to immediately stop the wrong practice of arbitrarily imposing sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction". At a regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry, in response to the US imposing sanctions on a Chinese private refinery for its ties with Iran and adding the Chinese enterprise to the blacklist, spokesperson Lin Jian stated that China has always opposed illegal unilateral sanctions without a basis in international law and will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
3. Profits of China's industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 15.5% year-on-year in the first three months, among which profits of high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 47.4%. The National Bureau of Statistics stated that from January to March, the profit growth of industrial enterprises above designated size accelerated, with profits of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing growing rapidly, profits of raw material manufacturing achieving double-digit growth, and the efficiency of industrial enterprises showing a continuous improvement trend.
4. Multiple A-share companies released impressive Q1 reports: Benefiting from the rise in rare earth prices, China Rare Earth achieved a significant turnaround in net profit in 2025, with Q1 net profit surging 90%; driven by the skyrocketing lithium prices, Ganfeng Lithium saw its Q1 net profit soar by 1699%; AMEC's Q1 net profit increased by 197% year-on-year, with nearly 400 million yuan in investment income from reducing its holdings of Tuojing Technology stocks; benefiting from the volume of CW light source products, Yuanjie Technology, the "new king" of A-shares, saw its Q1 net profit surge by 1153%, with single-quarter profit close to the full-year profit of last year; driven by the memory boom cycle,Longsys's Q1 revenue increased by 133% year-on-year, with a net profit of 3.86 billion yuan, turning from loss to profit year-on-year, setting the strongest single-quarter performance since its listing; Sungrow Power Supply's Q1 net profit fell by 40.12%, with exchange losses being the main drag.
Overseas
1. Iranian Foreign Minister stated that the US has requested negotiations, and Iran is considering it; in addition, the Iranian Foreign Minister had a "productive" meeting with Putin, where the two sides discussed issues related to the US-Israel-Iran conflict in detail. The US Secretary of State, however, stated that Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable, and reports indicate that Trump is skeptical of Iran's proposal.
2. Iran announced the suspension of exports of 66 types of steel products, after 70% of its steel production capacity was destroyed by Israel. It is reported that Iran is the world's tenth largest steel producer, and the suspension of exports may push up international steel prices.
3. Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed that OpenAI is planning to develop its own smartphones, and plans to cooperate with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop chips. Affected by this news, Apple's stock price fell more than 1%.
4. Microsoft adjusts its cooperative relationship with OpenAI, converting the cooperation into a non-exclusive model, and Microsoft stops paying revenue sharing to OpenAI. It is reported that OpenAI's products will still be prioritized for launch on Azure, but with an exception clause—if Microsoft is unable or chooses not to support the required capabilities, OpenAI can switch to other cloud service providers.
5. Tech giant Meta signs a 1-gigawatt space solar power usage rights agreement, planning to use space solar energy to power AI data centers. According to IT Home, Meta has signed an agreement with startup Overview Energy to obtain power from the startup's space-based solar infrastructure by the end of this decade. The agreement grants Meta priority access to a maximum of 1 gigawatt of power capacity, and the two parties expect commercial power supply to be realized in 2030.
Market Closing Quotes
US and European Stock Markets: The S&P 500 rose 0.12% to 6173.91 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13% to 49167.79 points; the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.20% to 24887.10 points. Europe's STOXX 600 index fell 0.30% to 608.84 points.
A-Shares: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.16% to 4086.34 points; the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.37% to 14995.75 points; the ChiNext Index fell 0.52% to 3648.79 points.
Bond Market: At the close of the bond market, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note was about 4.34%, rising about 4 basis points intraday; the yield on the 2-year US Treasury note was about 3.80%, rising about 2 basis points intraday.
Commodities: WTI June crude oil futures rose 2.09% to 96.37 US dollars per barrel; Brent June crude oil futures rose 2.75% to 108.23 US dollars per barrel; COMEX June gold futures fell about 1% to 4693.7 US dollars per ounce; COMEX May silver futures fell about 1.8% to 75.025 US dollars per ounce; LME zinc futures fell about 2.1% to 3398 US dollars per ton; LME copper futures fell about 0.7% to 13213 US dollars per ton; LME nickel futures rose about 0.4% to 19097 US dollars per ton.
Detailed Key News
Global Heavyweight News
China
1. NDRC prohibits foreign capital from acquiring the Manus project: The Office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment (National Development and Reform Commission) has made a decision to prohibit foreign investment in the acquisition of the Manus project in accordance with laws and regulations, clearly requiring the parties concerned to cancel the acquisition transaction and effectively safeguard the security in the field of foreign investment.
2. Foreign Ministry responds to US sanctions on Chinese refineries: At a regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry, a reporter asked about the US imposing sanctions on a Chinese private refinery for its ties with Iran and adding the Chinese enterprise to the blacklist. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded that China has always opposed illegal unilateral sanctions without a basis in international law, that China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, and urged the US to stop the wrong practice of arbitrarily imposing sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction".
3. Steady growth in profits of China's industrial enterprises above designated size in Jan-Mar: Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to March, the profits of China's industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 15.5% year-on-year, among which the profits of high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 47.4%. The data indicates that the profits of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing grew rapidly, the profits of raw material manufacturing achieved double-digit growth, and the efficiency of industrial enterprises showed a continuous improvement trend.
4. Western auto giants start the "learning from China" model: Thirty years later, the role has reversed, and global automakers are successively learning from China's automobile manufacturing experience. Among them, Volkswagen has joined hands with Xpeng and Horizon Robotics, planning to halve development costs and export products globally; Nissan has deepened local cooperation to build an export hub; Honda has反向 exported China-produced electric vehicles to Japan; Hyundai has comprehensively expanded its model layout and cooperation in China. China is transforming from a global automobile sales market to a research and development engine for foreign automakers, reshaping the global automotive industry competition pattern by reversely exporting its local technological advantages.
5. China Rare Earth's 2025 net profit turns around, Q1 performance surges: Benefiting from the rise in rare earth prices, China Rare Earth achieved a revenue of 3.182 billion yuan in 2025, an increase of 5.11% year-on-year, with a net profit attributable to parent of 173 million yuan, compared with a loss of 287 million yuan in the same period last year; its Q1 2026 net profit surged 90%. It is reported that China's rare earth ore reserves account for 48% of the world, and its supply of smelting and separation products accounts for 90% of the world. With the strong demand for rare earths from industries such as new energy vehicles and robots, China's advantage in the global rare earth industry system competition is becoming increasingly prominent.
6. Ganfeng Lithium's Q1 performance surges: Driven by the skyrocketing lithium prices, Ganfeng Lithium's Q1 2026 revenue was about 5.128 billion yuan, an increase of 98.44% year-on-year; its net profit attributable to parent was about 1.876 billion yuan, a surge of 1699.12% year-on-year. Against the background of a low base in the same period last year, the average sales price of the company's main lithium products increased significantly, directly pushing up revenue and gross profit, which is the core reason for the performance jump.
7. AMEC's Q1 net profit increases by 197% year-on-year: AMEC achieved a revenue of 2.915 billion yuan in Q1 2026, an increase of 34.13% year-on-year, continuing the high growth trend of an average annual growth rate of more than 35% in the past 14 years; the net profit attributable to listed shareholders reached 930 million yuan, a sharp increase of 197.20% year-on-year. It is worth noting that excluding the after-tax net income of about 397 million yuan from the sale of Tuojing Technology shares, the net profit attributable to parent after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 478 million yuan, an increase of 60.09% year-on-year.
8. Montage Technology's Q1 net profit hits a record high: Driven by the volume of new DDR5 products, Montage Technology achieved a revenue of 1.461 billion yuan in Q1 2026, an increase of 19.51% year-on-year; its net profit attributable to parent was 847 million yuan, a significant increase of 61.30% year-on-year, hitting a record high in a single quarter. The company's gross profit margin rose to 69.8%, and the increased proportion of revenue from high-gross-profit new DDR5 generations and interconnect products is the core driver. At the same time, the company completed H-share issuance and raised more than 7.1 billion yuan, with an asset-liability ratio of only about 4.2%, and a sound financial structure.
9. Yuanjie Technology's Q1 net profit surges by 1153%: Benefiting from the volume of CW light source products, Yuanjie Technology, the "new king" of A-shares, achieved a net profit attributable to parent of 179 million yuan in Q1 2026, an increase of 1153% year-on-year, with single-quarter profit close to 94% of the full-year profit of last year; its revenue was 355 million yuan, an increase of 321% year-on-year. The volume of CW light source products in data centers drove the performance explosion, and the company's gross profit margin improved significantly. Currently, the company is in a period of heavy asset expansion, with a net investment cash outflow of 329 million yuan; affected by exchange rate fluctuations, other comprehensive income was -157 million yuan, and the company is promoting H-share listing, planning to build an "A+H" dual-platform.
10. Longsys's Q1 achieves the strongest single-quarter performance since listing: Driven by the memory chip boom cycle, Longsys's Q1 2026 revenue was 9.909 billion yuan, an increase of 132.79% year-on-year; its net profit attributable to parent was 3.862 billion yuan, an increase of 2644.05% year-on-year, setting the strongest single-quarter performance since its listing. The company's non-net profit was higher than the net profit attributable to parent, with solid main business profitability; affected by strategic stockpiling, inventory rose to 18 billion yuan, operating cash net outflow was 2.875 billion yuan, and financing cash inflow was 6.1 billion yuan to supplement liquidity. The company relies on independent R&D technology to drive transformation, with UFS4.1 having achieved large-scale shipment, and mSSD products entering the PC market.
11. Sungrow Power Supply's Q1 performance declines: Sungrow Power Supply, a leading photovoltaic inverter company, saw its Q1 2026 revenue drop by 18.3% year-on-year, and its net profit plummeted by 40.1% due to shrinking sales and a sharp increase in exchange losses. Although exchange rate fluctuations and impairment pressure dragged down profits, the company's R&D investment increased by 22% against the trend, and contract liabilities rose to 12.2 billion yuan, indicating that order reserves are still sufficient.
Overseas
1. Developments in US-Iran negotiations: Iranian Foreign Minister stated that the US has requested negotiations, and Iran is considering it; in addition, the Iranian Foreign Minister had a "productive" meeting with Putin that lasted for an hour and a half, where the two sides discussed issues such as the US-Israel-Iran conflict in detail. The US Secretary of State stated that Iran's so-called proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz is essentially to control the strait and is unacceptable. Trump's national security team held a meeting on Monday to discuss Iran's proposal, and the White House reaffirmed Trump's statement: the US holds the initiative and will never allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons. The Kremlin spokesperson stated that resuming hostilities is not in the interests of Iran, the countries along the Strait of Hormuz, and the global economy.
According to reports last weekend, Iran proposed a three-phase negotiation plan to resolve relevant issues: the first phase focuses on completely ending the war and obtaining guarantees to prevent the re-launch of wars against Iran and Lebanon; the second phase specifically studies the management of the Strait of Hormuz; Iran will never participate in nuclear negotiations until the first two phases reach an agreement. After the US stock market closed on Monday, media reported that Trump is skeptical of Iran's proposal on the Strait of Hormuz, and the White House may put forward a counter-proposal in the next few days.
2. Iran suspends exports of 66 types of steel products: On April 27, Iran announced the suspension of exports of 66 types of steel products until May 30. Earlier, Israeli strikes had destroyed 70% of Iran's steel production capacity. As the world's tenth largest steel producer, the suspension of Iran's exports may push up international steel prices. Citigroup analysis pointed out that Iran's gas-based DRI process is essentially different from the mainstream blast furnace path, making it difficult to replace; even if only part of Iran's exported steel products are replaced, it will generate an additional coking coal demand of 6 million to 7 million tons, which is sufficient to drive the price of the global seaborne coking coal market. The supply chain impact of the Middle East conflict is continuing to spread.
3. Details of the White House dinner shooting exposed: On April 25 (last Saturday), a shooting occurred at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and the gunman's movement path was exposed for the first time. The suspect checked into the hotel where the dinner was held one day in advance, and easily bypassed security as a guest with only one room card; due to loose on-site inspection and internal blind spots, the suspect assembled weapons in an unattended compartment before approaching the banquet hall to open fire.
A on-site witness recalled that the Washington Hilton Hotel is no stranger to shooting incidents—forty-five years ago, on March 30, 1981, President Reagan was assassinated while leaving the hotel, shot in the chest and narrowly escaped death. The incident prompted the Secret Service to comprehensively upgrade the presidential security process, but forty-five years later, gunfire rang out again in this hotel.
4. Preview of the Bank of Japan's interest rate decision: The Bank of Japan held a monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. The interest rate derivatives market pricing shows that the probability of an interest rate hike is only 7%, and it is almost a foregone conclusion that the central bank will stand pat. But the real underestimated risk is not the meeting itself—BCA Research estimates that after the unwinding of carry trades in August 2024, the relevant positions have quietly been rebuilt to three times the level at that time; the interest rate gap of about 300 basis points between the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan cannot be narrowed in the short term, and carry trades are still accumulating. The last time only 10% of the positions were closed, it triggered a 12% single-day drop in the Nikkei 225 index and a 13% drop in the Nasdaq 100 index in three weeks. Analysts believe that the statement of Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda cannot determine the size of the risk, but only affects the length of its fuse.
5. OpenAI plans to develop its own smartphones: Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed that OpenAI is planning to develop its own smartphones, and plans to cooperate with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop chips, with Luxshare Precision Industry as the exclusive assembler, expecting mass production in 2028. Affected by this news, Luxshare Precision Industry hit the daily limit in the afternoon. It is reported that OpenAI intends to control software and hardware to create an entrance for the new generation of AI operating systems, which may pose competitive pressure on Apple.
6. AI industry leaders face security risks: The social anxiety caused by AI is gradually evolving into physical violence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's residence was attacked with incendiary devices, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (Laohuang) is accompanied by 5 bodyguards when traveling, and security in Silicon Valley tech companies has been fully upgraded. Analysis points out that the "deification" logic of the AI industry embodies complex technologies in the CEO personally, making these industry leaders, while enjoying applause, also become the "targets" for the public to vent their fears and anger, and are forced to face the personal safety risks brought by the rapid development of technology.
7. Microsoft unbundles from OpenAI: Converts to non-exclusive cooperation and stops revenue sharing. Microsoft and OpenAI have adjusted their cooperation model from exclusive to non-exclusive, and Microsoft has stopped paying revenue sharing to OpenAI. According to the adjusted agreement between the two parties, OpenAI's products will still be prioritized for launch on Azure, but with an exception clause—if Microsoft is unable or chooses not to support the required capabilities, OpenAI can switch to other cloud service providers; Microsoft's license for OpenAI's models and product IP will continue until 2032, but it has been converted from exclusive to non-exclusive; in addition, OpenAI's reverse revenue sharing payment to Microsoft will continue until 2030.
8. Meta layouts space solar energy: Tech giant Meta signed a priority usage rights agreement for up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of space solar energy with Overview Energy, with a scale comparable to a nuclear power plant, and the two parties aim to achieve commercial power supply in 2030. It is reported that this is one of the largest energy procurement agreements signed by a tech company in the field of space solar energy to date. Meta intends to use space solar energy to power its AI data centers to meet its growing power demand. Overview Energy is developing a system that can collect solar energy in space and transmit it to ground facilities to achieve all-weather power generation, with the first orbital demonstration expected to be carried out in 2028.
Selected Research Reports
1. Trump stirs up oil prices, global central banks adopt a cautious wait-and-see attitude: The second energy shock in five years is coming, and the world's five major central banks are expected to stand pat collectively this week. Trump's continuous posts on social media have stirred up the oil market, and the war in the Middle East has made the global inflation trend difficult to predict. The Federal Reserve is wary of high inflation "embedding" into the economy, the European Central Bank is relatively more confident in waiting and seeing, and the interest rate hike expectations in Japan and the UK have dropped sharply. The painful lesson of global central banks misjudging inflation in 2022 is still fresh in memory, so all central banks would rather wait and see than act rashly in the fog of uncertainty.
2. Powell's "last dance": Paving the way for "no interest rate cut for a longer period"? This Thursday, the suspense of an interest rate cut at the April FOMC meeting has basically disappeared, and the game is mainly focused on the subtle differences in policy wording—whether hawkish statements can be implemented, whether Powell will have a "farewell press conference", and whether successor Kashkari can be sworn in before June. These three changes, coupled with the pressure of the core PCE approaching a three-year high and oil prices breaking 100 US dollars, have made the Federal Reserve's policy balance tilt towards "indefinite standing pat", and the interest rate cut timetable may disappear completely.
3. Semiconductor sector rises sharply, Goldman Sachs warns of risks: The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX Index) rose 39% in a single month, making its deviation from the 200-day moving average close to 50%, a level last seen at the peak of the 2000 dot-com bubble. The head of Goldman Sachs' hedge fund said that in view of the "heat" of the current semiconductor sector trend, investors must carefully consider the "peak risk" of this sector and should not chase high blindly.
4. Memory chip giants turn to traditional DRAM, enthusiasm for HBM expansion cools: The latest weekly report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows that after the Q1 earnings season, memory chip giants' enthusiasm for expanding HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) production has cooled significantly, and capital expenditure is accelerating to flow back to the traditional DRAM and NAND fields—among which the NAND contract price has hit a 25-year high, and the quarterly increase of DDR5 once reached 200%. Affected by supply constraints and manufacturers' reluctance to sell, the investment logic of the memory industry is switching from "AI premium" to a new main line of "traditional shortage".
5. Intel returns to the center stage from the "brink of survival": Two years ago, Intel was still facing a "survival problem", but now its stock price has hit an all-time high. The key to this reversal lies in a series of measures taken by CEO Pat Gelsinger: from being publicly named by Trump to resign, to impressing Trump through a meeting and promoting the US government to acquire a 10% stake in Intel (this agreement is regarded by investors as an important lifeline for Intel); only a few months after taking office, Pat Gelsinger seized the opportunity of "CPU revival" brought by agent-based AI, promoted the company's operating profit margin to increase by 500 basis points, and the 14A process was endorsed by Tesla, enabling Intel to successfully return to the center stage of the industry from the "brink of survival".
Domestic Macroeconomics
1. Moody's maintains China's A1 rating and upgrades its outlook, Ministry of Finance expresses recognition: Moody's made a decision to maintain China's sovereign credit rating at A1 and upgrade its outlook to "stable", which the Ministry of Finance expressed appreciation for. The Ministry of Finance pointed out that this rating adjustment reflects Moody's high recognition of the strong resilience of China's macroeconomy and fiscal strength in the face of external shocks, as well as the new momentum and progress of China's high-quality economic development.
2. National Space Administration promotes high-quality development of commercial space: On April 21, Shan Zhongde, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Director of the National Space Administration, presided over a roundtable meeting of enterprises on the high-quality development of commercial space. The meeting clarified that it will build a public service platform for commercial space, innovatively adopt a "one-stop" approval model, improve the policy, legal and standard system, and accelerate the integrated development of "rockets, satellites, launch sites, frequencies and networks"; at the same time, it requires strengthening key technological research, expanding commercial application scenarios, adhering to the bottom line of safety, and ensuring the high-quality and safe development of commercial space with high-level safety.
Domestic Companies
1. CATL plans to raise about 5 billion US dollars through H-share placement: CATL plans to raise about 5 billion US dollars through H-share placement in Hong Kong, which is expected to be the largest equity financing in the Hong Kong market so far in 2026. The pricing discount for this placement is 3.5% to 7%, and the 144A issuance mechanism is introduced for the first time to directly reach US institutional investors and expand the investor base. This is the company's second large-scale financing within less than a year. It raised about 5.3 billion US dollars when it was listed in Hong Kong in 2025, and the funds raised this time will be used for global capacity expansion and R&D investment.
2. TSMC accelerates expansion, capacity gap to continue until 2027: TSMC's stock price rose 3% on Monday to a record high, supported by the company's strong expansion plan: the monthly capacity target for 3nm is raised to 180,000 wafers, an increase of 20% from the original plan; the orders for the 2nm production line are fully booked, and it plans to rush to 100,000 wafers per month by the end of the year. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei stated that the chip supply gap will continue until 2027, and the AI computing power arms race is pushing TSMC to an unprecedented strategic height.
3. Dongshan Precision's Q1 performance surges: Benefiting from the doubling growth of the optical module business, Dongshan Precision's Q1 2026 revenue increased by 53% year-on-year, and its net profit soared by 143%.
4. WuXi AppTec's Q1 profit jumps sharply: WuXi AppTec's Q1 2026 revenue increased by 28.8% year-on-year to 12.44 billion yuan; its non-net profit surged by 83.6%, with the core driver coming from the chemical business, among which the small-molecule D&M business grew by more than 80%, and the TIDES business drove the company to start the construction of the new Changzhou base in advance. With the CRDMO integrated model, the company's gross profit margin jumped sharply to 50.4%, and the order backlog was nearly 60 billion yuan.
Overseas Macroeconomics
Hedge funds sell tech stocks at the fastest pace in two years, cracks appear within US stocks: Although the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices both hit record highs last week, Goldman Sachs prime brokerage data shows that hedge funds are selling tech stocks at the fastest pace since July 2024, which is also the third largest single-week deleveraging in the past five years, and US stocks have been net sold in 9 out of the past 10 weeks. Currently, the total exposure of the information technology sector is still at the 98th percentile in the past five years, and the potential selling pressure cannot be ignored. The earnings reports of the "Magnificent Seven" (MAG7) this week will be a key node for the trend of tech stocks.
Overseas Companies
1. Anthropic tests AI e-commerce, Claude completes transactions independently: AI officially enters the core of e-commerce. The internal "Project Deal" experiment carried out by Anthropic shows that its AI model Claude independently completed 186 transactions in a real environment with a total amount of more than 4,000 US dollars, demonstrating complete negotiation capabilities without human intervention. After the news was released, eBay's stock price plummeted 4.5% in a single day, and the market's panic about the disruption of traditional e-commerce by AI began to spread.
2. Emergence of a new occupation: "Distilling" human movements for AI: Thousands of workers around the world are wearing head-mounted cameras, selling body movements such as folding clothes, making beds, and cooking to Silicon Valley robot companies at a price of 15 US dollars per hour (about 100 yuan). These ordinary people from India, Nigeria, and the Philippines are contributing indescribable "tacit knowledge" to Tesla's humanoid robots, helping the robots better imitate human movements.
3. One year after Buffett's retirement: "Buffett premium" turns into "discount", Berkshire falls 13%, is the stock price undervalued? Berkshire's stock price has fallen into a "discount dilemma" due to underperforming the market by 40% since Buffett's retirement. Due to the market's wait-and-see attitude towards successor Greg Abel, the valuation has fallen to 1.4 times the book value. Analysts believe that the company's annual profitability of 50 billion US dollars and cash flow of 373 billion US dollars have built a strong safety cushion, and the resumption of share repurchases highlights investment value. Currently, it may be a good time to layout the "discounted version" of Berkshire.
4. Critical Metals plans to acquire European Lithium to control Greenland's rare earth assets: Critical Metals plans to acquire European Lithium for 835 million US dollars. After the transaction is completed, Critical Metals will fully control the Greenland Tanbreez rare earth project—previously, European Lithium held a 7.5% stake in the project. Since the Trump administration has stated its intention to establish a rare earth reserve and strengthen cooperation with Greenland, the Tanbreez project has attracted much market attention. Driven by this news, Critical Metals' stock price rose 18% intraday.
Industry/Concepts
1. Space Computing Power: According to the official website of the National Space Administration, recently, Shan Zhongde, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Director of the National Space Administration, presided over a roundtable meeting of enterprises on the high-quality development of commercial space. The meeting required vigorously improving the industrial development level, comprehensively strengthening key technological research, striving to build a high-quality cadre and talent team, proactively laying out new formats such as space computing power and space manufacturing, deeply expanding commercial application scenarios, and striving to achieve a closed business model; focusing on forming a joint force for the integrated development of "rockets, satellites, launch sites, frequencies and networks", and accelerating the industrialization of commercial space.
Comment: Analysts believe that as a strategic new track for the in-depth integration of commercial space and artificial intelligence, space computing power is expected to enter a new stage of rapid development under the overall guidance of relevant departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, becoming an important direction of computing power supply, and the industry is expected to achieve a major breakthrough from 0 to 1.
2. PCB (Printed Circuit Board): According to Securities Times, industry insiders and enterprise executives said that the Middle East conflict has disrupted the supply of key raw materials for PCBs, pushing up the prices of PCBs used in almost all electronic devices, including smartphones, computers, and even artificial intelligence servers. In early April this year, Iran attacked the Saudi Arabian Jubail petrochemical complex, forcing the suspension of high-purity polyphenylene ether (PPE) resin production, which is the core basic raw material for manufacturing PCB copper-clad laminates.
Comment: Goldman Sachs analysts pointed out in the latest research report that PCB prices soared by as much as 40% in April compared with March. Cloud service providers predict that demand will remain in short supply in the next few years, so they are willing to accept further increases in PCB prices. According to the latest report from market research firm Prismark, the global PCB industry scale is expected to grow by 12.5% in 2026, reaching 95.8 billion US dollars.
3. Space Solar Energy: According to China Securities Journal, tech giant Meta is seeking to use solar energy collected in space to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, in a novel way to meet its almost endless power demand. Meta recently stated that it has signed an agreement with startup Overview Energy to obtain up to 1 gigawatt of space solar power (1 gigawatt of power is roughly equivalent to the power generation capacity of a nuclear power plant). Overview Energy plans to collect sunlight through satellites orbiting the Earth and convert it into electricity to support the power grid operation. The two parties stated that they expect to achieve commercial power supply in 2030.
Comment: Meta is not the only enterprise trying to use space to meet the energy needs of data centers. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others have previously discussed deploying computing facilities themselves into orbit. With the exponential growth of AI's demand for computing power in recent years, the "three highs" (high energy consumption, high heat dissipation pressure, high latency) pain points of ground computing power centers have long become an industry consensus, and the space environment just provides a natural solution—the solar energy utilization efficiency without atmospheric obstruction is more than 30% higher than that on the ground, the vacuum environment achieves zero-cost heat dissipation, and low-orbit satellite networking can achieve millisecond-level global coverage.
4. Gene Technology: According to China Securities Journal, on April 27, the achievements of the composite breeding technology of whole-genome selection and somatic cell cloning of Tibetan yaks were released in Damxung County, Lhasa City. This means that after three years of unremitting efforts, the "whole-genome selection + somatic cell cloning composite technology" for yaks independently developed and established by a Chinese research team has achieved success, leading domestically and reaching the international advanced level in the field of yak breeding. The Lhasa Yak Germplasm Protection and Breeding Technology Innovation Center was simultaneously established at the Damxung Yangbajain Yak Improved Seed Multiplication Base at an altitude of 4,300 meters. 11 young yaks born through whole-genome somatic cell cloning are healthy and lively.
Comment: The "somatic cell cloning composite breeding technology" is a cutting-edge breeding technology that combines whole-genome selection with somatic cell cloning. By accurately screening excellent genes and performing asexual reproduction, it realizes the rapid and large-scale propagation of top germplasm, marking a major leap in modern breeding from "selecting the best" to "replicating the best". A joint team composed of Zhejiang University, Tibet Autonomous Region Institute of Plateau Biology and other units, after three years of research, successfully applied this technology to plateau yaks, achieving a leap from "0 to 1" to "10", and providing a solution for the next mass-producible and promotable industrialization goal.
5. 3D Printing: According to China Securities Journal, a research team led by researchers from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a new paradigm for printing multi-scale optical metamaterials. The roll-to-roll additive nano-printing manufacturing equipment independently developed by them has for the first time broken the long-term dilemma that optical metamaterials are difficult to balance low cost, large-scale and personalized mass production, realizing large-scale controllable preparation and precise integration of multi-scale optical metamaterials, making metamaterial production "as simple as printing newspapers".
Comment: As a transformative technology in the industry, 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is on the eve of the industrialization inflection point, and has formed a dual-drive pattern of "steady growth in the industrial level + explosive popularization in the consumer level". With the help of technological cost reduction, standard improvement and increasing demand, 3D printing technology is increasingly widely used in various fields, driving the manufacturing industry into the era of intelligent manufacturing. It is expected that the global 3D printing market scale will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2029, driving the scale of the upstream and downstream industrial chain to exceed 300 billion yuan.
6. Substrate: According to broker grass-roots research, as AI scenarios evolve from training to inference and agents, the status of CPUs continues to rise. In the training phase, the ratio of GPUs to CPUs is about 8:1; in the inference phase, it drops to 4:1; in the agent scenario, the ratio is close to 1:1, or even more biased towards CPUs. As model demand shifts from training to inference and agents, CPUs assume the core task scheduling and control functions, and computing and switching demand break out collectively, among which the CPU growth slope is higher. Currently, Intel's CPU capacity gap is huge, and demand is significantly higher than supply, which has become the core contradiction facing its business.
Comment: The growth of advanced semiconductor processes has comprehensively driven the demand for ABF substrates. CPUs, GPUs and switches all rely on ABF substrates, and upstream glass fiber cloth, copper foil and resin manufacturers will benefit together. Due to Japan's IBIDEN being limited by a 2-3 year expansion cycle and unable to meet the entire demand gap, driven by demand, domestic ABF substrate manufacturers are about to enter a boom cycle.
Today's Key News Preview
1. The Bank of Japan announces the interest rate decision, and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda holds a monetary policy press conference.
2. The US releases the February S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index.
3. Coca-Cola releases its Q1 2026 earnings report.
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