Daily Buzz: 4 August 2026

Trump Berates Iran After Tehran Denies Talks Underway

US President Trump's called Iran's leadership "unbelievably duplicitous" after Iran said it had no plans to hold direct talks with Washington, contradicting Trump's claim that negotiations would start on Monday. A day earlier, Trump called off what he called "the biggest attacks since World War II," citing resumption of negotiations. He said he wanted to give Iran "every last chance before decapitation." Trump's carrot-and-stick approach to bringing the war to an end has thus far failed.

"To avoid any misunderstanding, we are not negotiating with the US at this time," Iran's foreign ministry said. Iran's Mehr News agency called Trump's latest remarks "repeated lies." However, talks with third-party negotiators like Pakistan are known to be ongoing. Iran also said it is in talks with Oman, the other nation bordering the Strait of Hormuz, about establishing a temporary safe route through the strait. Cargo traffic through the strait. and the Red Sea - two vital Middle East oil routes - "remains constrained," data firm Kpler reported on Monday. Global benchmark Brent crude futures hovered around US$84 a barrel on Monday.

Israel Leery About Latest Gaza Plan

Israel said it has "serious security concerns" regarding the proposed disarmament deal with Hamas, as Israeli strikes over the weekend killed at least 17 people, including children, in Gaza.

Doron Spielman, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, told Associated Press that Israel's intelligence assessment points to Hamas remaining committed to rebuilding its military rather than genuinely disarming. He said the Israeli military would not withdraw from Gaza, where it controls more than 60 percent of the territory, until Hamas completely disarms. US President Donald Trump announced last week that the group, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, had agreed to disarm under a new agreement from his "Board of Peace" that includes Israeli withdrawal and more humanitarian aid for the war-torn enclave. The issue is a sensitive one for Netanyahu, who faces parliamentary elections in October.

US Confirms It Helped Japan Stabilize Yen. But Why?

"They wanted a little help," US President Donald Trump said of Washington's first bilateral intervention with Japan in currency markets to prop up the yen in 28 years. "It was a signal of friendship," he said. But some analysts suggested the motivation for the rare joint effort may point to Washington concerns over Japan's financial system and its own Treasury markets, CNBC reported. The fear is that Japan, the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds, might be forced to dump some of those securities to finance unilateral intervention, sending yields – and borrowing costs for the deficit-ridden US government - higher. Louise Loo, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, told CNBC, "There is a self-preservation element here. Volatile markets driven by potentially fiscally aggressive policies from Japan could extend to the US Treasury markets, destabilizing the dollar." UBS said Japan's policy mix remains "unlikely to generate sustained yen strength."

The last time the US helped prop up the yen was in concert with other G7 countries in 2011 after the magnitude-9.1 earthquake. The yen, which has recently dropped to 40-year lows against the dollar, was trading at 157.33 in late New York trading on Monday, compared with 163.73 on Friday.

Russia Says Ukraine Drone Killed 7 at Black Sea Beach

Russia blamed Ukraine for a drone strike on a popular Black Sea beach that killed seven people, including three children, and injured 40. Ukraine has not commented. The beach is especially crowded during the summer holiday season.

Top Business

Alibaba Unveils Qwen Model to Challenge Moonshot's Kimi K3

China's Alibaba on Monday unveiled what it said is its largest and most capable AI model, the Qwen3.8-Max, which is not far behind in size to the new Kimi K5 model released by Chinese mainland rival Moonshot AI two weeks ago. The Qwen3.8-Max open-source model has 2.4 trillion parameters, the numerical settings a model learns from data and uses to recognize patterns, generate answers and carry out tasks. Moonshot's Kimi K3 has 2.8 trillion parameters. Chinese tech companies are locked in battle to build more powerful systems without making them prohibitively expensive to run. A higher number of parameters doesn't automatically make a model better, but it has become a closely watched measure of the scale of the computing and data behind advanced AI systems. The new model immediately shot up on Arena. Ai's leaderboard for models that analyze images and other visual material, ranking second globally behind Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.

Hugging Face Head Says China May Soon Catch Up With US AI Models

The chief executive of New York-based AI platform Hugging Face, which had to resort to a Chinese open-source model recently to repel a hack from a rogue OpenAI agent, said China is winning the global AI race with its open-weight models and could catch up to US model makers as soon as this year. "They're clearly dominating on open models right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if they start dominating at the frontier either by the end of this year or next year at the rate of progress," Clément Delangue told CNBC. This revolution, he said, is fueled by the open collaboration and sharing ecosystem in China, while model makers in the US are "building in silos" and risk falling behind.

WuXi AppTec Profit Surges on Pharma Research

Shanghai-based WuXi AppTec, which provides research for pharmaceutical research and manufacturing, said first-half profit surged 34 percent to 11.1 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) on a 39 percent revenue gain to 29 billion yuan. Founded in 2000 by chemist Ge Li, the company provides services across the drug-development chain, producing key components used in treatment of diseases including leukemia, lymphoma, HIV and obesity. The company raised its guidance for 2026 revenue to up to 60.5 billion, with capital spending pegged as high as 8.5 billion yuan.

WuXi App Tech said it has taken legal action against the US Department of Defense for its inclusion on a blacklist of companies with alleged links to China's military, which WuXi App Tech denies. The largest portion of the company's revenue in the first half came from the US. The company operates a global network of 20 sites, with major hubs in China, the US and Europe.

CXMT Reportedly May Build New Chip Plant in Beijing

CXMT, China's largest chipmaker by market valuation, is considering building a second chip factory in Beijing, Reuters reported. The decision reflects a global chip shortage driven by AI infrastructure spending and CXMT's successful US$8.6 billion listing in Shanghai last week, the biggest-ever in Chinese mainland. Reuters earlier reported the company, the world's fourth-largest maker of dynamic random-access memory chips, is building new plants in Shanghai and its home base in the city of Hefei.

Luckin Coffee Posts Profit Gain, Expands Outlet Network

Beijing-based Luckin Coffee, the Chinese mainland's largest café chain, said net income in the second quarter rose 16 percent to 1.5 billion yuan (US$218.7 million) on a 29 percent increase in revenue to 15.9 billion yuan. Operating expenses jumped 13 percent to 13.7 billion yuan, largely on expansion of outlets. The company said added 2,714 cafes in the quarter, taking the total to 36,310 at the end of June. Forty-six of the new outlets were overseas, including eight in the US. The company said it had a record 113 million monthly customers and debuted 28 new freshly brewed coffee products.

Economy & Markets

VW to Close Three Production Sites in China

Volkswagen said it will close three factories in China and reduce capacity at two others to address its waning sales on the Chinese mainland. The closures will be in Nanjing, Ningbo and Urumqi. VW is lowering its global production capacity target from 12 million to 9 million vehicles a year.

VW and other German carmakers are shedding thousands of management and white-collar jobs as they step up restructuring efforts to cope with mounting competition from Chinese rivals. VW said it plans to eliminate another 50,000 jobs in admin, product development and sales. Recruiters say the layoffs have flooded the executive job market, with one headhunter approached to help place up to 500 departing VW managers. Porsche is cutting another 5,000 jobs, mainly in back-office functions, while BMW aims to reduce its workforce by 8,000 through voluntary redundancies by 2027.

Hong Kong Begins Trading Chinese Government Bond Futures

Hong Kong debuted Chinese government bond futures on Monday, giving foreign investors a new risk-management tool as Beijing steps up efforts to expand the yuan's global use through the Asian financial hub, the Hong Kong Standard reported. The offshore five-year futures, the only such contract listed outside Chinese mainland, rose 1 percent after beginning trading. The futures broaden interest-rate risk-management options for international investors and allows them to gain exposure to China's government bonds.

China's Londian Wason Seeks US$1.7 Billion Valuation in IPO

Chinese electrolytic copper-foil maker Londian Wason New Energy Tech is targeting a valuation of up to US$1.7 billion in its US initial public offering in what could be the biggest New York listing of a Chinese company in more than a year despite its small size, Reuters reported. Shenzhen-based Londian Wason is seeking to raise up to US$78.6 million by offering about 3.6 million shares.

Shanghai Fines Ride-Hailing Operators

Shanghai regulators fined 12 ride-hailing platforms, including DiDi and Caocao Mobility, more than 25 million yuan (US$3.7 million) in the first administrative penalties since launching a crackdown on illegal passenger transport operations, Yicai reported.

Corporate

Ant Robot Arm in Talks on First Fundraising Round

Robbyant, the humanoid robot unit of China's Ant Group, confirmed it's in talks with investors for its first funding round, aimed at raising 1.5 billion yuan (US$222 million), with plans to complete a second round by the end of the year, 36Kr reported.

China Mobile Reportedly Mulls Thai Telecom Stake Sale

China Mobile, the largest Chinese mainland telecom, is working with advisers to gauge buyer interest for a potential sale of its minority stake in Thai telecommunications firm True Corp, Bloomberg reported. The Chinese carrier holds about a 7.8 percent stake in the Thai operator, valued at roughly US$1.1 billion.

Chery, Great Wall Motor Post July Sales Gains

Wuhu-based Chery Automobile said July sales rose 24 percent from a year earlier to 261,876 vehicles. For the first seven months of the year, sales were up 10 percent to 1.5 million. Baoding-based Great Wall Motor said its sales last month rose 3.5 percent to 108,067 vehicles, with a year-to-date total of 691,962, up 2.6 percent.

Xiaomi Raises Prices of Some Flagship Phone Models

Leading Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has raised prices of several flagship by between 300 yuan (US$44) and 500 yuan to meet rising costs of memory chips. The Xiaomi 17 rose from 4,499 yuan to 4,799 yuan, the Xiaomi 17 Pro from 4,999 yuan to 5,399 yuan, and the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max saw the largest hike, jumping 500 yuan to 6,499 yuan. Xiaomi President William Lu Weibing said in May that the price some phone models could exceed 10,000 yuan by the end of the year. Chinese mainland rivals, including Oppo, Vivo and Honor, have announced price increases this year.

Moonshot Reportedly Gets Nvidia Chips From Alibaba

AI startup Moonshot reached a computing power agreement with Alibaba allowing it to use about 20,000 Nvidia chips, Bloomberg reported. Alibaba denied it supplied H200 chips to Moonshot but didn't deny that other Nvidia chip models might have been provided.