EIA Crude Oil Stocks Change for May/29 in the United States is -7.974M, lower than the previous value of -3.327M. The forecast was -4M.~



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Factory Orders MoM for Apr in United States is 4.8%, higher than the previous value of 1.5%. The forecast was 4.6%.~



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ISM Services PMI for May in United States is 54.5, higher than the previous value of 53.6. The forecast was 53.8.~



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ADP Employment Change for May in the United States is 122K, higher than the previous value of 109K. The forecast was 117K.~



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PPI YoY for Apr in the Euro Area is 4.9%, higher than the previous value of 2.0%. The forecast was 4.8%.~



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PPI MoM for Apr in Euro Area is 0.6%, lower than the previous value of 3.4%. The forecast was 0.4%.~



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Spot USD/CNY lost 98 bps to close at 6.7720 today (3rd). As of 4:47 pm, USD/CNY in the night session dropped 108 bps. USD/CNH plummeted 150 bps to 6.7751, 31 bps below USD/CNY.
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Morgan Stanley issued a report upgrading Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM.US) from Equalweight to Overweight, and raising its TP from USD180 to USD185. The broker also downgraded Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG.US) from Overweight to Equalweight, lowering its TP from USD49 to USD37.

The broker said it prefers Yum! Brands, Inc. among large-cap quick-service restaurant names, noting that its share price appears not to fully reflect its solid growth profile and tech narrative. Morgan Stanley viewed a potential sale of Pizza Hut would be positive.

Regarding Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., the broker said that it has not seen changes in the investment thesis despite the stock's underperformance.
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Thanks to iterative upgrades in electrification technology by leading carmakers and the concentrated launch of several blockbuster new models, NEV wholesale volumes of multiple major carmakers in Mainland China hit record highs for the same period in May, highlighting the tangible results of domestic automakers' electrification transformation, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said.

Carmakers including BYD COMPANY (01211.HK), CHERY AUTO (09973.HK), Tesla China, LEAPMOTOR (09863.HK), SAIC-GM-Wuling, NIO-SW (09866.HK), Arcfox, SAIC-GM, Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Toyota, and GAC Trumpchi, all recorded their best-ever NEV wholesale results for the month of May.

Among the top 10 passenger vehicle manufacturers in terms of NEV wholesale volume in mainland China in May, eight were listed carmakers. BYD COMPANY, GEELY AUTO (00175.HK), CHERY AUTO, Tesla and LEAPMOTOR ranked in the top five, with BYD COMPANY leading by a wide margin at 376,990 units, data showed.

Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the CPCA, estimated that national passenger vehicle manufacturers NEV wholesale volume reached 1.36 million units in May, up 12% YoY and 11% MoM.
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Morgan Stanley published a report raising its revenue and earnings forecasts for Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) and Sandisk Corporation (SNDK.US), and sharply lifted their TPs. Micron's TP was raised from USD520 to USD1,050, while Sandisk's TP was increased from USD1,100 to USD1,750. Both are rated Overweight. Morgan Stanley said memory chip stocks performed strongly in 2025 and will continue to lead the market in 2026, yet it believes this strong run is not yet over.

Morgan Stanley noted, as highlighted in its global report today (3rd) and its Taiwan field study report earlier this week, that there is no quick fix to the memory shortage. This is expected to keep memory supply tight for 2-3 years (or longer). The shortage is most severe in DRAM, but NAND Flash is also affected. The market is beginning to recognize the implications for earnings sustainability, with Micron's consensus forward P/E expanding from 4x at end-March to 11x.
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The Qwen APP announced that it will fully open to third-party Agents and Skills. All enterprises can operate their own branded Agents on Qwen, with the ability to customize Agent personas and service boundaries in the future, providing various forms of products and services to users through conversational interactions.

In the meantime, Agents are equipped with memory and proactive planning capabilities, enabling them to actively offer services in specific scenarios, such as itinerary reminders, benefit expiry alerts, and repeat purchase recommendations.

At present, Luckin Coffee, KFC, MIXUE GROUP (02097.HK) and CHINA EAST AIR (00670.HK), among others, are conducting initial Agent service trials on Qwen, with gradual rollouts to follow.

In the future, the CHINA EAST AIR Agent, after gaining a deep understanding of users travel plans and preferences, will be able to intelligently recommend itinerary options tailored to travelers needs, providing one-stop travel solutions.

On the Luckin Coffee Agent, users may be proactively notified, for example, that "queues are long at noon and it is advisable to place orders half an hour in advance."
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The State Council of China announced new regulations (No. 837) targeting outbound investments by Mainland investors, including investments into Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which will take effect from 1 July 2026, UBS said in its report. Under the new rules, outbound investments will be subject to additional procedures and reviews, although specific implementation details have yet to be released.

The broker noted that the new regulation was introduced alongside the recently issued "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Rectification of Illegal Cross-border Securities, Futures and Fund Business Activities", which sets a two-year target to clean up illegal cross-border activities. The potential impact on capital flows will depend on the implementation details and enforcement intensity.

As the MSCI Hong Kong Index is mainly composed of sectors sensitive to capital flows, including property developers, insurers, banks, brokers and Macau casinos, the index could face pressure if the new rules lead to material changes in cross-border capital inflows into Hong Kong and Macau.

UBS further quantified the exposure of relevant Hong Kong sectors to Mainland cross-border capital flows. For residential property developers, in 1Q26, Mainland buyers (identified by surname pinyin) accounted for 49% of primary market transaction value and 32% of total transaction value. However, not all Mainland buyers will be subject to regulation, as those who have become Hong Kong permanent residents are exempt.

In the insurance sector, Mainland visitors contributed approximately 50% of the NBV of AIA (01299.HK). In the banking sector, non-bank Mainland exposure accounted for around 40% of bank loans. For the securities industry, in 1Q26, Mainland clients contributed 13% of total funded accounts according to UBS estimates, 17% of client AUM and 20% of revenue of Futu Holdings Limited (FUTU.US).

For the Macau gaming sector, UBS estimated that about 60% of GGR is driven by the premium segment, including VIP and premium mass.
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TENCENT (00700.HK) is advancing the launch of an embedded AI agent for WeChat, BofA Securities said in its report, citing media reports. The company is testing prototype features to help users complete tasks within WeChat. TENCENT reportedly aims to begin the required compliance procedures as early as this month and will roll out the feature in phases after launching it to a small group of external users, although the official public release date has not yet been confirmed. Users will be able to access the AI agents' chat interface by swiping right on the WeChat main interface and enter commands to allow the agent to automatically connect to the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem.

BofA Securities believed the launch of the WeChat AI agent will support a potential valuation re-rating of the stock, shifting market narratives toward TENCENT can execute well in AI applications and reducing investor focus on ByteDance's leading independent AI chatbot app daily active users (DAUs). In addition, the public launch of the WeChat AI agent will require substantial computing power, supporting room for capex growth for TENCENT in FY2026-28. While the agent may result in higher token costs, TENCENT's core businesses are well positioned, and its advertising and gaming assets remain under-monetized. The broker expected the WeChat AI agent to expand gradually through multiple rounds of beta testing and may enter full public testing as early as 4Q26.

BofA Securities sees a clear re-rating path ahead, including more upgrades to the Hunyuan large model family in the next 3-6 months, acceleration in capex and cloud revenue in the next 6-12 months, and the commercialization of the WeChat AI agent in the next 9-18 months. The broker reiterated its Buy rating on TENCENT, maintaining a TP of HKD780, and continued to name it as its top pick in the China internet sector.
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Intel Corporation (INTC.US) CEO Lip-Bu Tan said yesterday (2nd) at Computex Taipei that agentic AI requires new architectures, and central processing units (CPUs) are crucial for reinforcement learning and orchestration, opining that demand is rising, but supply is constrained.

He stressed that Intel places great emphasis on supply to ensure it can meet customer demand and keep clients satisfied. Over the past four weeks, many CEOs have called him requesting more CPUs. He has asked his executives to assist in expediting efforts in hopes of catching up with customers' timelines.

He added that Intel has made notable progress in its foundry business and is in talks with many potential customers.

Regarding Intel's relationships with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSM.US) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US), Tan said Intel does not view others as competitors but values collaboration. NVIDIA is a good friend of Intel and one of its largest shareholders, while Intel is a customer of TSMC, with many of its products relying on TSMC.
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Tiger Brokers announced compliance adjustments to its services for existing investors in mainland China. Starting next Friday (12th), for domestic trading services, it will suspend new position openings and additional position increases for stocks and all other products, and will only support sell and position-closing transactions. For domestic fund transfer services, fund deposits will be suspended, while withdrawal functions will remain normal, with full efforts to safeguard client fund security.

The company stated that this adjustment will not affect services provided to existing investors overseas, nor will it affect the safety of existing client assets. Clients can continue to access their accounts, review holdings and sell existing positions as usual.
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TENCENT (00700.HK) is currently impossible to determine when the WeChat AI agent will be launched, Chinese media reported, citing people with the knowledge of the matter.

Its rollout timeline largely hinges on the progress of regulatory approval for AI agents, TENCENT said. Given WeChat's user base of 1.4 billion, the compliance process may be more stringent than for other products.

The WeChat AI agent has so far been TENCENT's "top-priority confidential project," with preparations having started as early as 1H25, according to early rumor. TENCENT sources confirmed the news to the Chinese media.

TENCENT last quoted at HKD466.4, down 3.16%, with turnover of 18.8665 million shares, involving HKD8.941 billion.
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The yen fell to the key level of near 160 against the US dollar this morning (3rd), a level at which the Japanese government intervened in the FX market in late April. The yen was last quoted at 159.85 per US dollar.

Japan Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reiterated that authorities are fully prepared to respond to FX market volatility as necessary. When asked whether monetary policy would be a key tool to correct the yen's weakness, Katayama said she shares many views with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda on various issues.

Ueda is scheduled to deliver a speech this afternoon, marking his final public appearance before the central bank's interest rate meeting on June 16.
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TENCENT (00700.HK)'s QQ will expand into the comic drama by launching a new "QQ Comic Drama" business, Tech Planet, citing sources, reported.

Leveraging QQ's broad base of young users, the initiative aims to build a content gateway and creator platform, enhance its pan-entertainment content ecosystem, and capture the next-generation content consumption market.

Within QQ's "Novels and Animation" section, a "Comic Drama" tab has already been embedded. However, the content currently comes from TENCENT's "Comic Drama" mini program, where users must switch to the mini program to watch, resulting in cumbersome operations and a limited viewing experience that makes it difficult to achieve content retention and immersive binge-watching.

As a dedicated streaming portal, "QQ Comic Drama" is expected to lower operational barriers for viewing.
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