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A rapid reversal in precious-metals markets has cooled the retail scramble for physical gold in China, with major banks reporting renewed inventory after weeks of sell-outs. The correction was triggered by a drop in fears over Fed independence following a high-profile nomination, prompting a dollar rebound and sending volatile price signals through both futures and retail channels.

China saw a sharp increase in marriage registrations in 2025—driven by a removal of hukou limits in a revised Marriage Registration Ordinance and auspicious lunar‑calendar timing. Analysts warn the rise is probably a temporary rebound and that deeper economic constraints will determine longer‑term marriage and fertility trends.

Guotou-UBS’s silver LOF plunged 31.5% in a single day after the manager revalued domestic Shanghai silver futures positions by reference to international prices, creating a rush of limit-down selling and exposing a socially-driven retail arbitrage bubble. The fund — China’s only public vehicle tracking silver futures — faces possible further limit-down sessions as investors try to escape a crowded position.

Tencent distributed RMB 1 billion in red envelopes to promote its AI app Yuanbao ahead of the 2026 Lunar New Year, briefly overloading servers and generating broad, short‑term engagement. The campaign bought reach inside Tencent’s vast social graph, but turning festive trials into lasting AI habits will depend on product depth, day‑to‑day usefulness and sustained infrastructure investment.

A historic surge and collapse in gold and silver prices at the end of January exposed fragile market mechanics and left many Chinese retail investors—particularly Gen‑Z—caught in volatile trades around Guotou Silver LOF (161226). The shock combined stretched valuations, elevated implied volatility, regulatory curbs and a hawkish shift in U.S. monetary policy to produce a rapid deleveraging in precious metals.

A panic sell‑off pushed spot gold down roughly 10% intraday to about $4,400/oz, marking a more than 20% decline from recent highs after markets repriced US monetary policy following the nomination of former Fed governor Warsh. While short‑term volatility and technical damage argue against immediate bottom‑fishing, long‑term structural drivers such as central‑bank buying, physical demand and questions about dollar dominance keep a multi‑year bullish case alive.

Zhongke Huiling has signed a three‑party agreement with Guangda Tongchuang and Delos to co‑develop lightweight structural and exterior materials for its CASBOT Lingbao humanoid robots, pairing materials R&D with manufacturing capacity to accelerate engineered, scalable delivery. The move highlights materials as a critical enabler of commercial humanoids but does not remove remaining technical and market hurdles.

SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk’s xAI and, via an internal memo, framed the move as the first step toward hosting large AI systems in orbit powered by solar energy. The plan leverages SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and launch capabilities to propose a new, space‑based infrastructure for AI, but faces major technical, environmental and regulatory hurdles.

Zeekr said parts of its forthcoming 8X model's information leaked ahead of schedule, disrupting the planned release rhythm and prompting the company to reassert the importance of orderly product launches. The episode highlights how leaks can distort marketing, dealer and competitive dynamics in China's cutthroat EV market.

A Shenzhen market survey finds consumer CPU prices largely unchanged while server CPUs show fragmented pricing moves tied to AI demand and model-specific tightness. Traders are shifting attention to memory amid dramatic DRAM and NAND price increases, and analysts expect continued structural divergence between consumer stability and server-side episodic volatility.

COMAC showcased its C909 firefighting aircraft and the larger C919 airliner at the Singapore Airshow and signed a contract with a Shanxi general aviation operator for six C909s. The deal signals China’s strategy of using specialised and government‑linked buyers to build operational track records while the C919 progresses toward wider commercial acceptance.

SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk’s xAI with the stated aim of building solar‑powered data centres in orbit, a strategy Musk argues will solve the energy and scale limits of terrestrial AI. The plan links Starlink connectivity and Starship launch capacity into a long‑term bet that could reshape AI compute economics but faces steep technical, regulatory and financial hurdles.

Elon Musk has merged xAI into SpaceX in a stock-swap that values the combined entity at roughly $1.25 trillion and lays out a plan to move large-scale AI compute into orbit using Starship, Starlink and lunar resources. The integration aims to create virtually unlimited solar-powered compute capacity but faces steep technical, regulatory and geopolitical hurdles.

Waymo has secured a record $16 billion financing round valuing the company at about $126 billion, signalling investor confidence in robotaxis. The deal accelerates global expansion plans but arrives amid safety incidents and federal probes that underscore regulatory and operational risks.

A rapid sell‑off in international precious metals markets on 2–3 February triggered a cascade of limit‑down moves across 13 Chinese futures contracts and sharp equity losses across Asia. Indonesia’s market fell nearly 5% and South Korea briefly invoked an emergency trading halt, underscoring crowded long positions, leverage and fragile liquidity. Regulators and exchanges have responded with valuation changes and supervisory interventions, but the episode raises questions about market structure and systemic risk.

China’s internet giants have deployed more than RMB4 billion in AI‑themed red‑packet campaigns ahead of Lunar New Year, prompting a sell‑off in Hong Kong technology stocks. Tencent fell nearly 5% as investors weighed rapid user‑acquisition tactics against margin pressure and uncertain monetisation timelines.

Cambricon’s shares tumbled up to 14% intraday on 3 February, reducing its market value to about RMB 450 billion. The company said it did not know the precise cause, dismissed many market rumours as false, and attributed the move to secondary-market fund flows and sentiment. The episode highlights the fragility of AI-related valuations in China and the importance of timely corporate communication to prevent rumor-driven volatility.

A Huaxia Fund product launched in late 2020 with a tech-and-consumption strategy has underperformed severely, suffering near-50% cumulative losses and a nearly 70% drawdown amid manager turnover and strategy drift. Successive managers failed to restore performance in time to capture the 2024–25 AI-led market recovery, exposing governance and succession weaknesses within the asset manager. The episode highlights systemic risks in China’s mutual fund industry: overreliance on star managers, misalignment between rhetoric and trading, and the reputational danger of poor product governance.

Cambricon shares plunged nearly 10% as Alibaba’s chip unit unveiled a new high‑end AI chip and reports suggested its Zhenwu PPU shipped at scale in 2025. The drop came despite Cambricon forecasting a strong full‑year turnaround and a fivefold revenue increase, underlining investor concerns about intensifying domestic competition in AI semiconductors.

China’s A‑shares rallied at mid‑day as speculative themes — notably commercial space, photovoltaic and AI application stocks — led a broad advance that saw over 4,400 stocks rise. Turnover was about RMB1.6 trillion, while precious metals and non‑ferrous miners fell sharply, highlighting a rotation in domestic investor flows.