China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) announced on Monday (15th) that the central parity of USD/ RMB added 21 bps from the previous day to 6.8088, hitting a new high since 10 February 2023.
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Ant Group is testing a comprehensive revamp of Alipay, which will introduce an AI agent interface to step up competition with WeChat, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported.

Ant Group will reportedly roll out a new feature allowing users to input text or voice commands to enable the Alipay AI assistant to book rides, order coffee or arrange food delivery.

With user authorization, the assistant will also be able to execute wealth management tasks such as purchasing mutual funds.

The new version of Alipay, which is still undergoing internal testing, has not yet had a final launch timetable, sources divulged.
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Michigan Consumer Sentiment Prel for Jun in United States is 48.9, higher than the previous value of 44.8. The forecast was 46.~



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TENCENT (00700.HK)'s Tencent Cloud announced that it will provide live streaming technical services during this World Cup to official broadcasting platforms in 16 countries and regions worldwide, covering China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Chile. This marks the widest coverage by a Chinese cloud service provider in serving World Cup broadcasting platforms.
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A draft memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US comprises of a US commitment to lift oil sanctions and an Iranian commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported.

International oil prices extended losses, with Brent oil futures and New York oil futures diving more than 4% to USD86.16 per barrel and USD83.67 per barrel, respectively.

Under the 14-point document, final negotiations will not begin until part of Iran's frozen funds are released, oil sanctions are suspended and the maritime blockade is lifted.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said the US had reached a reconciliation agreement with Iran, provided that the final text of the document can be finalized. Once the agreement is signed, Hormuz will be reopened immediately.
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The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) announced that it organized a seminar on Wednesday (10th) under the theme of "Trusted Token Cloud Services".

During the event, CAICT, together with eSurfing Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, JD Cloud, LENOVO GROUP (00992.HK), and StepFun, among more than ten enterprises, jointly launched the "Token Cloud Service Quality and Empowerment Evaluation Initiative" and released multiple outcomes.

Among the initiatives, a "Cloud-Model-Chip-Application" ecosystem advancement matrix was established. The matrix, relying on the Cloud Computing Open Source Industry Alliance, aims to build a "standardized, measurable and sustainable" industry benchmark for collaboration across cloud, model, chip and application.

The matrix will focus on five major areas: industry research, standards formulation, evaluation and verification, ecosystem development, and international cooperation. It seeks to promote industry exchanges, foster a healthy ecosystem, and drive high-quality industry development.
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If the war in the Middle East wreaks an urgent need, the European Central Bank (ECB) is prepared to raise interest rates again next month for a second consecutive time, the ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said.

The central bank will retain all policy tools and stand ready to respond again if necessary, emphasizing that it will remain data-dependent and make decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis.

The market currently expects the ECB to raise rates two more times, by 25 bps each, to curb rising prices. If conditions do not improve, the central bank could raise rates again as early as July.
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Tesla's FSD is set to be launched in China, while BYD COMPANY (01211.HK) is expanding its fully self-developed advanced intelligent driving system "God's Eye" to the mass market, HSBC Global Investment Research wrote in its report.

The broker expected this to enhance consumer awareness of autonomous driving and willingness to pay, thereby accelerating industry commercialization.

HSBC Global Investment Research favored companies leading in L4 commercialization, suppliers with value-added capabilities, and automakers with strong model cycles.

It maintained Buy ratings on HORIZONROBOT-W (09660.HK), XPENG-W (09868.HK), WERIDE-W (00800.HK), JOYSON ELEC (00699.HK) and PONY-W (02026.HK), with TP of HKD11.5, HKD105, HKD29.6, HKD21.1 and HKD135, respectively.

Among them, it showed a preference for PONY-W, WERIDE-W, HORIZONROBOT-W and XPENG-W.
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Copper prices skyrocketed to a new peak in early May before ebbing amid risk-off sentiment, HSBC Global Investment Research said in its report. Despite the pullback, copper prices will remain at elevated levels, backed by resilient end-user demand, ongoing supply disruptions, and new uncertainties arising from potential US trade measures.

As a result, it raised its average copper price forecast for 2026 by 6% to USD6.12 per pound, increased its 2027 forecast by 7% to USD5.81 per pound, and lifted its 2028 forecast by 3% to USD5.3 per pound, while maintaining its projections for 2029-30 and the long term unchanged.
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China is reportedly planning to invest RMB2 trillion over the next five years to build data centers, with support from CHINA MOBILE (00941.HK) and CHINA TELECOM (00728.HK), CLSA said in a research report. The broker believed this is the reason behind the recent pullback in BABA-W (09988.HK)'s share price.

The broker noted that this development may raise market concerns about computing power becoming commoditized. However, it believed BABA-W's competitive edge lies in Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) and application-level offerings, rather than merely Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), which are areas where CHINA MOBILE and CHINA TELECOM are unlikely to compete.

In response to some investors questioning whether BABA-W's management culture remains competitive in the AI era, the broker said large enterprises often face more challenging organizational structures and cultural issues when dabbling into new arenas, but they also possess strong capital and resource advantages. BABA-W's senior management has demonstrated determination to capture greater AI market share.
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Goldman Sachs reduced its forecast for the average price of Brent crude in 2027 to USD80/ bbl, citing strong supply growth and continued weak demand. However, it warned that oil prices could experience radical volatility under different geopolitical scenarios.

Goldman Sachs said production in the US, Brazil, Venezuela and the UAE continued to increase, while structural demand is also changing, particularly in China. It assumed that a demand decline of slightly more than 10% will persist as China accelerates its transition to alternative energy sources.

G Sachs continued to expect Brent crude to average USD90/ bbl in 4Q26. The impact of a prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has so far been offset by a smaller-than-expected supply shortfall. The global supply gap in 2Q is expected to be relatively limited, estimated at 5-6 million bpd.
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As AI commercialization accelerates, valuations of China’s AI internet sector remain attractive, CMS said in its report. The broker noted that, following expectation resets, HSTECH has underperformed in 2Q26 to date compared with 1Q26. Although valuations of China’s internet sector remain at historical lows, results in 1Q26 demonstrated relatively strong earnings resilience.

The broker maintained its recommendation rating on the sector. Its top stock picks are BABA-W (09988.HK) (Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA.US)), KNOWLEDGE ATLAS (02513.HK), KUAISHOU-W (01024.HK), and JOYY Inc. (JOYY.US). It also suggested paying attention to undervalued companies such as TENCENT (00700.HK) and MINIMAX-W (00100.HK), believing both have greater potential for valuation recovery.
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Liu Liehong, Party Secretary and Director of the National Data Administration, convened a symposium titled "Improving Data-related Rules to Empower Innovative Development of Artificial Intelligence" on June 4.

At the meeting, experts from Tsinghua University and the University of International Business and Economics and other institutions, as well as representatives from companies including DeepSeek, ByteDance, Alibaba Cloud and TENCENT (00700.HK), put forward opinions and suggestions on improving fundamental data systems and promoting data empowerment for innovative development of artificial intelligence. Xia Bing, a member of the Party leadership group and Deputy Director of the National Data Administration, attended the meeting.

Participants unanimously agreed on the need to coordinate data development and security, adhere to both goal-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, and further advance the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements. They stressed better adaptation to the needs of artificial intelligence development, greater efforts to improve data-related institutional rules, and the establishment of a high-quality data supply system geared toward artificial intelligence development, so as to further unlock the value of data elements and achieve new progress in empowering artificial intelligence innovation through data elements.
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