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Hong Kong equities retreated ahead of the Lunar New Year, with the Hang Seng down 1.72% as metals and mining stocks led losses. Tech names proved more resilient, while investors await U.S. inflation data and post‑holiday Chinese activity for direction.

China’s central bank data for January show broad money (M2) up 9% and an increase of 8.09 trillion yuan in RMB deposits, while total social financing expanded by 7.22 trillion yuan. Government bond issuance and short‑term bank credit powered the monthly financing increase, against a backdrop of plentiful interbank liquidity and low short‑term rates.

China’s A‑share indices closed lower on the final trading day of the Year of the Snake, with turnover subdued ahead of the Lunar New Year. Investors rotated into robotics, PCB materials and memory‑adjacent stocks after bullish commentary on embodied AI and signs of a sharp rally in DRAM prices, while CPO‑related names plunged.

Zhipu AI’s shares surged after open‑sourcing its GLM‑5 foundation model and hiking prices for an AI coding subscription, boosting investor optimism about product traction. Yet the company continues to incur large losses driven by heavy R&D and compute costs, and is pursuing a mainland Shanghai listing to broaden its capital base.

Meituan expects a heavy net loss for 2025 after its core local commerce arm swung from large operating profit to an operating loss, driven by intensified domestic competition and increased overseas and ecosystem investment. The reversal has unsettled investors and highlights the tough trade‑off between defending market share and preserving profitability in China’s on‑demand services market.

The U.S. Air Force says it is prepared to reintroduce MIRVs on Minuteman ICBMs and restore B‑52 nuclear carriage now that New START has lapsed. Those options, while technically reversible, broaden U.S. military choices and risk provoking reciprocal moves by Russia and China, complicating arms‑control prospects.

Yushu Technology CEO Wang Xingxing says embodied intelligence — AI embodied in robots and edge devices — is in its early platform phase but could surpass the mobile internet in scale and economic impact. Scaling will depend on industrial innovation in hardware, safety standards and supply chains rather than software breakthroughs alone.

ByteDance’s Volcano Engine has launched Seedream 5.0 Lite, a lightweight image‑generation model that for the first time supports real‑time web retrieval and chain‑of‑thought reasoning. Available now on the JiMeng creative platform and due for API rollout later in February, the release tightens the gap between static generative systems and live, context‑aware content creation while raising new questions about provenance, copyright and content safety.

Rapid generational gains in Chinese AI models and compute infrastructure, paired with Waymo’s adoption of a China‑made chassis for its new Ojai taxi, underscore 2026 as an inflection point for AI and autonomous vehicle commercialisation. Index funds such as Tianhong’s CSI AI thematic product are positioning to capture demand across optics, chips, servers and applications, though deployment risks and regulatory hurdles remain.

Amazon launched 32 more low-Earth-orbit satellites for its Kuiper broadband network aboard a European rocket, marking another incremental step toward its multi-thousand-satellite constellation. The flight highlights Kuiper’s reliance on international launch partners, Europe's competitiveness in commercial launches, and mounting concerns about orbital congestion and governance.

Oriental Youxuan — the company behind the popular Oriental Selection livestream brand — has sued a Xi'an individual merchant called Zhenxuan Jubao for unfair competition. The Xi'an Xincheng People's Court issued service by public notice and scheduled an open hearing after the evidence phase, highlighting broader tensions over name imitation in China's livestream e‑commerce sector.

Yu Donglai, founder of Henan retailer Pangdonglai, has formalised his retirement after a prior symbolic exit failed to stick. He has relinquished executive power to a decision committee while retaining an advisory role; the move — backed by explicit age limits for executives — is a rare example of a founder stepping aside at a company high point, but maintaining the firm’s culture without his magnetic leadership remains a key uncertainty.

A proposed NT$1.25 trillion special defence budget in Taiwan has sparked a domestic row after defence officials claimed it would generate NT$400 billion in output and 90,000 jobs, while critics say most spending will go to US arms purchases and demand greater transparency. The dispute draws in US pressure, opposition allegations of corruption, and Beijing’s condemnation, underscoring tensions between urgent rearmament needs and demands for legislative oversight.

Anthropic raised about $30 billion in a financing that values the AI startup at around $380 billion, placing it with OpenAI and SpaceX among the most valuable private companies. The round cements deep commercial ties with Microsoft and other cloud and chip vendors, sharpens the race toward high‑profile AI IPOs, and highlights risks around profitability, compute concentration and regulatory scrutiny.

Images of a J‑15T carrying what appear to be long‑range YJ‑15 anti‑ship missiles suggest China is extending the reach of its carrier aviation to counter a US move to lengthen carrier strike range via the MQ‑25 aerial tanker. The interaction reflects a broader shift from platform v. platform engagements to system‑level contests of surveillance, networking and standoff firepower across the western Pacific.

A hastily arranged pre-summit breakfast hosted by Italy with Germany and Belgium delayed the start of an EU summit and provoked complaints from several member states who said they were not invited. The meeting—intended to coordinate tougher migration policy—produced little substance but highlighted risks to EU cohesion from informal, selective gatherings.

In Jiangxi’s Ji'an region, militia-led teams are delivering patriotic lectures, performances and livestreams at Jinggangshan sites and villages ahead of the Lunar New Year. Combining on-site storytelling, cultural services and digital outreach, the campaign reinforces revolutionary memory while supporting local red-tourism economies and civic education efforts.

Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi said she is trying to create a “suitable environment” for visiting Yasukuni Shrine and expects neighbouring countries to understand. The statement signals an effort to normalize a contentious nationalist symbol that enshrines Class-A war criminals and is likely to aggravate tensions with China and South Korea while complicating regional cooperation.

KMT vice‑chair Zhang Rong‑gong vowed to revitalise cross‑Strait exchanges following a Beijing think‑tank forum that produced 15 joint opinions across five areas. He accused the DPP of blocking cooperation and argued that promoting a Chinese identity in Taiwan will deliver economic benefits and greater stability in the Taiwan Strait.

January 2026 housing data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show month‑on‑month price declines across first, second and third‑tier cities have narrowed, but year‑on‑year drops remain substantial, particularly in resale markets. Shanghai bucks the national trend with annual gains in new‑home prices, highlighting persistent city‑level divergence.