Gary zhou

Conflict in the Middle East has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, sending international oil prices sharply higher. Mainland crude futures have broken above RMB900 a barrel for the first time, while chemical and manufacturing costs also come under pressure.

Sep 16, 2026

Japan’s machine tool orders rose 64.7% year on year to ¥197.88 billion in August. Overseas orders reached ¥146.347 billion, a record monthly high in JMTBA’s statistics, but total orders remained below the June record of ¥203.5 billion. Mainland machine tool stocks including Haitian Precision and Neway CNC are benefiting from an industry recovery and demand from AI and robotics.

Sep 16, 2026

BYD said the number of vehicles equipped with assisted-driving functions reached 3.72 million by the end of August, generating more than 230 million km of data a day. Group deliveries also hit a monthly record of 440,293 vehicles, although checks show that Fang Cheng Bao’s Bao 8 is currently the only model in the BYD group using Huawei’s assisted-driving system.

Sep 16, 2026

The US 30-year Treasury yield briefly rose above 5.40% on September 15, reaching its highest level since 2007. The 10-year Treasury yield also topped 5.02%, while long-term government bond yields in Britain, Japan, France and Germany climbed to multi-year highs, pointing to an unusually broad sell-off in global long-term bonds.

Sep 16, 2026

Trip.com has listed Virgin Galactic spaceflight tickets for 2027 at RMB5.1 million each and says 681 have been sold. But the converted price is close to the official US$750,000 fare, rather than reflecting a ‘China premium’, while Virgin Galactic has just over 700 customers worldwide.

Sep 16, 2026

US data centres could increase their natural gas consumption by 15 billion cubic feet a day by 2035, more than the current total consumption of any country except China, Russia, Iran and the US, according to a new BloombergNEF report. Technology giants are bypassing the grid to build their own gas-fired power plants.

Sep 16, 2026

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 originally had a retail price of US$1,999, but third-party sellers are now asking as much as US$9,500 — nearly 4.75 times the starting price. The shortage is mainly being driven by AI data centres competing for GDDR7 memory capacity, rather than the chip manufacturing constraints widely reported online.

Sep 16, 2026

ASR Microelectronics has applied for a Hong Kong listing. Despite ranking first globally in cellular connectivity chip shipments and improving revenue and gross margins, it remained loss-making after excluding extraordinary items and faces risks including customer concentration, rising inventories and Alibaba’s incomplete sell-down.

Sep 16, 2026

Chief Executive John Lee will deliver his Policy Address and Hong Kong's first five-year plan tomorrow, but the Tenant Purchase Scheme is unlikely to be relaunched immediately. The government may provide an update on the study, with any revival still dependent on its findings.

Sep 16, 2026

More than 700 suspected credit card fraud cases involving Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders have been reported, with about HK$14.7 million in transactions recorded over two days. Police and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are involved, while Apple Hong Kong says it is reviewing the orders.

Sep 15, 2026

As humanoid robot companies compete for exposure at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and move towards capital-market listings, questions are being raised over the revenue structures, data-collection-centre model and commercial viability of firms including Unitree Robotics.

Sep 15, 2026

The number of tents at the public transport interchange at LOHAS Park station in Tseung Kwan O has fallen significantly since July, but some domestic helpers have moved to less conspicuous locations. A lawmaker has suggested providing indoor or outdoor rest areas, though no implementation timetable has been set.

Sep 15, 2026

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called on the AI industry over the weekend to ‘hit the brakes’, drawing support from Sam Altman and Elon Musk. OpenAI also pushed back its potential listing, while US semiconductor stocks plunged on Monday, with Nvidia, Micron and ASML all suffering significant losses.

Sep 15, 2026

The Korea Exchange will extend trading until 8pm from September 14, while Nasdaq has confirmed plans to introduce five-day, 23-hour trading from December 6. Both are adding hours to compete with the round-the-clock cryptocurrency market.

Sep 15, 2026

Dutch TTF gas futures surged above €83 per megawatt-hour on Monday, hitting a three-year high as military conflict in the Gulf disrupted Qatar’s LNG supply and Saudi Arabia’s oil export routes. Europe’s gas storage level of just 68 per cent has further clouded the supply outlook.

Sep 15, 2026

Kowloon East’s Grade A office vacancy rate fell to 19.8 per cent at the end of July, marking a second consecutive monthly decline. Although it remains the highest among Hong Kong’s office submarkets, the latest figures suggest the gap between non-core districts and Central has not continued to widen.

Sep 13, 2026

Shein’s public offering was 5.63 times oversubscribed, yet its shares fell a cumulative 8% in the first three trading sessions. Analysts said the small public tranche, locked-up cornerstone shares and weakening fundamentals had all weighed on its short-term performance.

Sep 13, 2026

Anthropic has disclosed four incidents since July in which Claude models overstepped their authorised access and entered real-world systems. The company signed an agreement with METR on September 9 to investigate the incidents within eight weeks. On September 12, chief executive Dario Amodei called on the industry to slow the pace of AI capability gains and proposed its first specific self-restraint measures.

Sep 13, 2026

The recent sale of several properties by the Ma Kiu-sang family — from strong returns in Wuhu Street to losses at The Center — highlights the volatility and challenges facing Hong Kong’s retail property market.

Sep 10, 2026

A McKinsey survey found that Hong Kong financial advisers are trailing their clients in AI adoption, particularly those serving the mass market. Advisers serving wealthier customers are making greater use of AI to boost productivity and performance.

Sep 10, 2026

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank will stop offering personal precious-metals agency services through the Shanghai Gold Exchange from September, joining more than 10 mainland lenders including Postal Savings Bank, ICBC, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications. Regulatory efforts to curb risks from financial derivatives began as early as 2020. This year, some banks raised margin requirements to 140%, effectively cutting off retail investors' access to leveraged gold trading.

Sep 10, 2026

Expectations of US tariffs have sent copper into COMEX warehouses, pushing London copper above a record US$14,700 per tonne on September 8. At the same time, mainland smelters are being forced to cut production as treatment charges for copper concentrates fall into negative territory. Markets are closely watching the key September 28 deadline linked to US tariff policy.

Sep 10, 2026

Apple's new chief executive John Ternus is expected to put a foldable-screen iPhone at the centre of his debut, with an estimated price of more than US$2,000 (about HK$15,600). The device is expected to feature a 2nm A20 Pro chip, but suppliers say initial production will be limited. The standard iPhone 18 is also absent from the launch.

Sep 10, 2026

A series of court cases in Hong Kong reveal a pattern of cross-border money laundering, involving syndicates and unsuspecting account holders, highlighting the city's growing challenge in tackling financial crime.

Sep 09, 2026

Trading through China's Stock Connect programs reached record levels in early 2026, highlighting increased cross-border capital flows between mainland China and Hong Kong, according to a recent HKEX review.

Sep 09, 2026

Apple is set to unveil its first foldable phone, the iPhone Fold, at the 'Surprise and Shine' event. Expected to be Apple's most expensive iPhone, it aims to solve the crease issue seen in rivals.

Sep 09, 2026

Nomura's data shows ByteDance's apps surpassing Tencent in user time, but the comparison may misrepresent advertising competitiveness due to differing app functionalities.

Sep 09, 2026

Alibaba has restructured its wholesale operations, merging 1688 with its international arm, amidst AI advancements and market shifts. This move highlights a strategic focus on factory relationships over ad auctions.

Sep 09, 2026

In August, China's top ten best-selling passenger vehicles were all new-energy models, highlighting a shift as gasoline cars increasingly target export markets due to domestic fuel price hikes.

Sep 09, 2026