Daily Buzz: 7 July 2026

Russia Bombards Kiev on Eve of NATO Summit

Russia hammered Kiev with ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones on Monday, its second massive attack on Ukraine in less than a week. The assault came a day before a NATO summit convenes in Turkey, where US President Donald Trump is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Multi-story residential blocks and cars on streets in the Ukrainian capital were set alight, with at least 23 people killed. The barrage followed Ukraine's day-earlier strikes on a major oil terminal and naval facility in the Russian city of St Petersburg. The war is certain to be discussed at the NATO meeting. Trump promised to settle the conflict within 24 hours of taking office in 2024; it has now been underway for more 500 days of his second term.

Hamas Says It Will Cede Authority Over Gaza to US-Backed Group

Palestinian faction Hamas, which has governed Gaza for two decades, announced its intention to hand over authority to a US-backed interim administration but made no commitment to disarm. Israel called the announcement a stunt. A peace plan brokered by the US last year called for Hamas to give up control of the territory and lay down its arms. A ceasefire under the plan has been broken many times, and Israel has continued to restrict humanitarian aid to the coastal enclave despite a provision requiring unfettered access. The prospect of a political transition under the auspices of the Board of Peace established by US President Donald Trump remains problematical.

Top Business

US Court Issues Stay on Pentagon Ban on Alibaba

A US federal judge issued a temporary 60-day stay on enforcing a Pentagon ban on Alibaba's hiring of US lobbyists, while the court reviews its constitutionality. Bloomberg reported last week that the lobbying ban was imposed on Chinese companies suspected of ties with the Chinese military, forcing some of Washington's most influential lobbying firms to sever ties with Alibaba and other Chinese mainland companies. Under the judicial stay, the US Defense Department cannot treat Alibaba as a company linked to China's military. On June 8, the Pentagon added Alibaba to its blacklist list of Chinese companies operating in sectors such as semiconductors, AI, robotics and drones. Alibaba has challenged the action in a lawsuit, and the Chinese government has condemned such blacklists. Lobbyists in Washington are considered critical to companies dealing with the federal government.

Luxshare Begins Hong Kong's Biggest IPO So Far This Year

Luxshare Precision Industry, which assembles iPhones and AirPods for Apple, has launched Hong Kong's biggest initial public offering so far this year, seeking to raise as much as HK$24.3 billion (US$3.1 billion). The company is offering 383.5 million shares, with 90 percent reserved for institutions. The shares are scheduled to begin trading on July 9. The IPO would surpass the HK$20.1 billion listing of Victory Giant Technology in April. According to Frost & Sullivan, Shenzhen-based Luxshare ranks fifth globally among precision intelligent manufacturing providers. Its revenue last year rose 24 percent to 332 billion yuan. While consumer electronics remain its mainstay business, the company is expanding into new sectors, including automotive electronics and components for communications infrastructure and data centers.

Samsung Forecast to Post Third Straight Record Quarterly Earnings

South Korea chipmaking titan Samsung Electronics will release its second-quarter results today, with analysts predicting at least a 17 percent year-on-year increase in operating profit on surging AI chip price amid a global supply squeeze. Profit is estimated to come in at about 86 trillion won (US$56.4 billion), a third consecutive quarterly record. Samsung is a major memory chip supplier to Nvidia, Google and Apple. Citi said last week that second-quarter memory prices for dynamic random-access memory chips have surged 44 percent from the prior three months, and NAND flash memory chips have soared 53 percent.

Blackstone Unit Dumps World's Largest Data Center Project

Quality Technology Services (QTS), a subsidiary of private equity firm Blackstone, has officially scrapped plans for what would have been the largest data center in the world after years of legal battles over zoning and organized backlash from local residents and heritage groups in the state of Virginia. The mega-project, called Digital Gateway, comprised a cluster of 37 data centers on an 850-hectare site near a Civil War historical park. A recent Gallup poll found 70 percent of Americans don't want a data center where they live.

Economy & Markets

Expiry of Locked-Up Shares Poised to Hit HK Market

A wave of share lockups tied to some of Hong Kong's biggest Chinese mainland listings will expire this week, releasing HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion) worth of shares for market trading. Knowledge Atlas Technology, better known as Zhipu AI, will have 25.6 million shares – about 6 percent of outstanding shares – freed from a six-month lockup for cornerstone investors on Wednesday. The shares have surged 12-fold since listing earlier this year. Expirations will also occur for locked-up shares of AI startup MiniMax and Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor. Goldman Sachs estimates that a record US$274 billion of locked-up shares will be released into the Hong Kong market over the next 12 months, Reuters reported, and analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note, "These events can create liquidity headwinds even when fundamentals remain intact." Hong Kong's Hang Seng index has slipped almost 12 percent this year, though it closed up 1.1 percent on Monday.

Tencent Unit Seeks US$1.55 Billion in Sale of Kuaishou Shares

Tencent Mobility, a unit of Chinese tech giant Tencent, is seeking to raise up to HK$12.1 billion (US$1.55 billion) by selling shares in short-video provider Kuaishou, Reuters said, citing term sheet. The unit will offer about 273 million Kuaishou Class B shares in the sale. Kuaishou runs one of China's major short-video and livestreaming platforms. It earlier announced it will spin off its Kling AI unit and raised as much as US$3 billion for the video-generation business in a financing round valuing Kling at about US$18 billion.

SK Hynix Begins Mega IPO Share Sale in US

South Korean chipmaking giant SK Hynix launched its US initial public offering on Monday, seeking to raise about US$28 billion through the issue of almost 18 million shares. Shares in SK Hynix have risen 273 percent this year on global demand for AI-related stocks. The New York shares are expected to begin trading on Friday. The IPO is expected to second-biggest on Wall Street after the US$85.7 billion share sale last month by SpaceX. SK Hynix is key supplier of high bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia and Google. The company said it will use proceeds from the listing to build chip factories ⁠in South Korea and buy chipmaking equipment, including an extreme ultraviolet scanner made by Dutch equipment maker ASML.

Gold Fund Overtakes CSI 300 Index as China's Largest ETF

A spot gold fund is now China's largest exchange-traded fund. The Huaan Yifu Gold ETF surpassed the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF, with 90.1 billion yuan (US$13.3 billion) in assets under management. The fund tracking the CSI 300 stock index stood at 84.3 billion yuan. State-backed funds have been scaling back investment in the CSI 300 ETF.

Separately, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing reported record-high gold futures trading volume on Monday, totaling 6,676 US-denominated contracts. Gold prices have been volatile this year because of the Iran war, inflation and uncertainty over US Federal Reserve's rate moves. US gold futures in the US closed at US$4,177 an ounce.

Corporate

Chinese AI Giants Doubao, Qwen to Close Human-Simulated Bots

Chinese AI platforms Bytedance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen will terminate their custom virtual agent chatbots on July 15 to comply with Beijing's new AI regulations. The new rules prohibit human-like bots that can induce emotional dependency or virtual intimate relationships with users. The government is also requiring platforms to include anti-addiction tools and stricter protections for minors. All existing virtual personal data and user chat histories will be permanently deleted from the platforms by mid-October.

Midea Accelerates Air-Con Shipments to Heat-Plagued Europe

China home appliances maker Midea is fast-tracking the production of 30,000 portable air conditioners for France, with deliveries set to roll out over the next week. The company is also shipping dozens of containers each week via the China-Europe Railway Express and trucks to Germany, the UK, Spain and other European markets amid persistent heat waves there.

Smart Glasses Startup Even Realities Hits US$1 Billion Valuation

Shenzhen-based smart glasses maker Even Realities raised US$150 million in its latest funding round. The investment elevates the startup to a US$1 billion valuation. Chinese tech giants Meituan and Tencent led the financing. Founded by a team of former Apple employees, Even Realities designs camera-free smart glasses equipped with heads-up displays.

CATL Invests in CarbonScape to Produce Graphite from Forestry Products

Chinese battery giant Contemporary Ampere Technology (CATL) said it is investing in New Zealand technology company CarbonScape, which owns an innovative technology capable of converting forestry by-products into graphite raw materials for lithium batteries. CATL will join Hong Kong-based investment firm Lochpine Capital as strategic investors in CarbonScape, jointly holding a 20 percent said. Global demand for battery-grade graphite is expected to swell sixfold between 2025 and 2040.

Alibaba Announces US$50 Million Share Buyback in US

Alibaba Group said it repurchased 4.2 million of the company's shares on the New York Stock Exchange on July 2 for about US$50 million. The company has cumulatively bought back 21.6 million shares, comprising 0.11 percent of issued stock.

Longsys, Guotai Haitong, Hengli Signal Higher First-Half Profits

Longsys Electronics, a Chinese mainland provider of advanced memory card storage, said it expects net profit for the first half to surge up to 743 times to as high as 11 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion). The company cited growth in global demand and renewed orders for wafer supplies.

In other earnings advisories issued for investors, Guotai Haitong Securities said it expects to post record interim net profit of up to 20.5 billion yuan, an increase of 30 percent from a year earlier. Profit for the second quarter is forecast as high as 14.1 billion, a 304 percent increase. And Hengli Petrochemical said it expects first-half net of about 7.2 billion yuan, which would be 136 percent increase. The company cited recovering profit margins for refined products.