International Early Shift | Trump Visits China, Musk Brings 6-Year-Old Son to X Appearance, Wearing a Chinese-Style Top

Trump Visits China丨Elon Musk Shows Up with 6-Year-Old Son X, Wearing Chinese-Style Top

During Trump’s trip to Beijing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared with his 6-year-old son X, holding his hand. X wore a traditional Chinese-style top with Chinese elements, carrying a traditional tiger-head bag, bouncing and laughing all the way. Additionally, more than 10 American company executives accompanied Trump on his visit to China. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes China is one of the leading countries in AI and is doing very well. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Chinese market is very strong, with people holding high enthusiasm for AI and new technologies, and being eager to embrace them.

Xi-Trump Meeting丨Trump Invites Xi Jinping and Wife to Visit White House on September 24

On Thursday, Xi Jinping hosted a welcome banquet for Trump at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. During his speech, Trump stated that the US and China are engaging in productive and constructive dialogue, and he invited Xi Jinping and his wife to visit the White House on September 24. The China-U.S. leaders’ meeting lasted over 2 hours and 15 minutes, discussing China-U.S. economic and trade relations, Taiwan issues, Middle East situation, and Ukraine crisis. Trump told the media that China will purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. Reuters reports that the U.S. has approved about 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba (09988) and Tencent (00700), to buy Nvidia’s AI chip H200.

Williams: No Reason for the Fed to Raise or Cut Interest Rates

New York Fed President John Williams stated that the Federal Reserve currently has no reason to raise or cut interest rates; the FOMC’s monetary policy is moderately restrictive, and the current policy stance is good.

UK Health Secretary Resigns to Pave Way for Prime Minister Challenge

Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who intends to challenge the UK Prime Minister, has resigned from his position to pave the way for a leadership challenge against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Additionally, the leadership contest in the UK continues. Manchester City Councilor Josh Simons announced his resignation, triggering a by-election. Bex Bedd, seen as a strong contender to succeed Sunak as the next Labour leader and become Prime Minister under pressure, may return to Parliament through the by-election and challenge Sunak’s leadership.

US Stock Market Trend丨Dow Rises 370 Points, Reaching Over 50k; S&P First Closes Above 7,500

AI trading frenzy, coupled with market expectations of a US-China leaders’ meeting, which could further ease trade tensions, led the S&P and Nasdaq to hit new intraday and closing highs on Thursday. The S&P closed above 7,500 for the first time, and the Dow surpassed the 50k mark, rising as much as 507 points during the session, closing up 370 points or 0.75% at 50,063. The S&P gained 0.77%, the Nasdaq rose 0.88%, while the China Golden Dragon Index fell 3.37%. Nvidia surged 4.4%, and China’s planned aircraft purchases from Boeing may be less than expected, with Boeing stock dropping 4.7%. Cisco raised its revenue outlook, with shares soaring 13.4%.

External Focus Briefings

￭ U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, accompanying Trump on his China visit, said the U.S. and China are discussing establishing a mechanism to accelerate approval processes for some Chinese investments in the U.S., while considering reducing tariffs on a batch of non-critical goods.
￭ With Woshou confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next Federal Reserve Chair, Milan submitted his resignation from the Fed Board of Governors.
￭ U.S. Central Command Chief General Cooper submitted a statement to Congress indicating that over 90% of Iran’s 8,000 naval mines have been destroyed by U.S. forces, but the statement did not comment on Iran’s continued control of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
￭ Bloomberg reports that a two-year partnership between Apple and OpenAI has fractured, with OpenAI preparing potential legal action against Apple.
￭ The prospectus for SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) may be released as early as next week.
￭ Cerebras Systems, an AI chip manufacturer, debuted on the US stock market with its IPO, opening at $350, up 89% from the offering price, with a market cap exceeding $50k; closed at $311.07, still up 68.2%, after reaching a high of $386.34 during trading.
￭ “Stock Guru” Buffett held a charity luncheon auction again after four years, attended by NBA star Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha. The auction has entered its final 14 hours, with bids surpassing $9 million.
￭ Ford’s stock surged 13% on Wednesday and another 6.7% on Thursday, after Morgan Stanley praised Ford’s partnership with Chinese battery giant CATL.
￭ U.S. defense startup Anduril Industries confirmed a new funding round valued at $61 billion, raising $5 billion.
￭ U.S. retail sales in April increased 0.5% month-on-month, meeting expectations, but some of the growth may be driven by inflation, as energy-related prices rose due to conflicts with Iran. Last week, initial unemployment claims in the U.S. rose by 12k to 211k.
￭ The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly fell 4 basis points to 4.434%, then rebounded; the 2-year yield rose 2.5 basis points to 4.015%.
￭ The dollar index rose 0.39% to 98.91; the euro fell 0.42%; the yen declined 0.34%.
￭ Bitcoin fluctuated, rising 0.44% to $80,026.
￭ Spot gold rose 0.64% at one point, reaching a high of $4,718.64 per ounce; closed down 0.78% at $4,652.46.
￭ NY crude oil rose 0.15%, closing at $101.17 per barrel; Brent crude oil edged up 0.09% to $105.72.
￭ Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that after reaching an understanding on the management of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has begun allowing some Chinese ships to pass through the strait.
￭ Israel and Lebanon held their third direct talks in Washington, D.C., with officials stating the goal is to disarm Hezbollah and reach an agreement to establish formal diplomatic relations with Lebanon.
￭ Ukrainian authorities said Russia launched a large-scale airstrike on Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 12 people.
￭ Kremlin: Russia is looking forward to a meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping.
￭ A British cruise ship docked in France experienced Norovirus infections, with nearly 50 people showing symptoms of gastroenteritis; an elderly person died of a heart attack. Over 1,700 passengers and crew were stranded on the ship for most of the day before being allowed ashore, with those without symptoms permitted to disembark. It is currently believed to be unrelated to the recent outbreak of hantavirus on another cruise.
￭ Pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.76%. UK, France, and Germany stocks rose 0.46%, 0.93%, and 1.32%, respectively. Burberry achieved 10% growth in the Americas and China last quarter, boosting full-year same-store sales, but sales in EMEA and India declined 2%, with the stock falling 6.8%.
￭ Indian government issued directives tightening rules on duty-free gold imports for jewelry exports, limiting each license to 100 kilograms.
￭ Singapore Airlines’ annual net profit fell 57.38%, impacted by a one-time gain last year and increased losses for Air India due to the Iran conflict.

Local Focus Briefings

￭ The ADR Hong Kong Stock Ratio Index closed at 26,442, up 53 points from Hong Kong. HSBC (00005) rose 1.2%, AIA (01299) up 0.8%, CLP (00002) up 0.5%; Meituan (03690) down 1.3%.
￭ Hang Seng Index night session closed at 26,341, down 48 points.
￭ The government is gradually sending acquisition proposals to owners of Blocks A to H at Hong Fu Court. For Hong Chi Court, 75% of owners must agree by the end of June to include it in the resettlement plan.
￭ The latest quarterly public housing waiting time in Hong Kong dropped to 4.7 years, down 0.4 years from the previous quarter, the lowest in over 8 years, and below 5 years for the first time.
￭ The People’s Bank of China announced that in the first four months of this year, new loans totaled 8.59 trillion yuan. Based on this, April’s RMB loans decreased by 100 billion yuan, marking a decline since July last year.
￭ Citibank issued a report lowering its profit growth forecast for Hong Kong stocks in 2027, reducing the Hang Seng Index target from 30k to 29,600 by the end of 2026, with a mid-2024 target of 30,500.
￭ Standard Chartered research reports that, given the strong economic performance in Hong Kong in Q1, the full-year 2026 growth forecast has been raised from 3.2% to 4.3%, mainly supported by the resilience of the mainland economy, which helps sustain Hong Kong’s financial activities and tourism.
￭ Biotech company Denno Medicine (06872) announced an IPO, offering 8.2806 million shares at HKD 75.7 each, raising up to approximately HKD 627 million. The lot size is HKD 3,823.17.
￭ Bloomberg reports that Aetree Technology plans to list in Hong Kong, with the application possibly submitted as early as this Friday, raising up to $500 million, with an estimated valuation of $3 to $4 billion.
￭ New World Development (00017) stated that it has not reached an agreement with the Airport Authority regarding the 11 SKIES project. The Airport Authority said it is in close communication with the developer, New World.
￭ Hong Kong International Airport is conducting an “Integrated Operations Test” at Terminal 2, preparing for the new passenger departure facilities opening on the 27th of this month.
￭ Wang Weiji, Vice Chairman and Founder of HKTVmall, said that last week, HKTVmall launched a year-round price reduction campaign, aiming to increase market share to 20%.
￭ EY’s integrated data shows that the average net interest margin of mainland-listed banks in 2025 is 1.4%, down 13 basis points year-on-year, marking six consecutive years of decline.
￭ Manulife Hong Kong and Macau’s first-quarter core profit reached HKD 2.5 billion, up 27% year-on-year. During the period, core profit, annualized premium equivalent (APE) sales, and new business value all saw double-digit growth.
￭ Asia Television Holdings (00707) learned that its indirect subsidiary, Asia Television, held approximately 689 million common shares, which were forcibly sold by the receiver on November 14 last year for HKD 199 million to Prestige Media.