🌹 [Morning News Highlights on August 22]
1. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning hosted a routine press conference yesterday, where a reporter mentioned that U.S. warships are patrolling the Caribbean coast and may use force under the pretext of combating drugs. Mao Ning stated that China opposes the use or threat of force in international relations and opposes external forces interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext, urging the U.S. to do more to benefit peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean.
2. The White House issued a joint statement with the European Union stating that the U.S. and EU have reached an agreement on a framework for a trade agreement. The EU also issued a joint statement subsequently. The statement specifies that the EU will purchase U.S. energy products, including liquefied natural gas, oil, and nuclear products, with expected purchases reaching $750 billion by 2028. Additionally, the EU has committed to purchasing at least $40 billion worth of U.S. artificial intelligence chips for the construction of data centers in Europe. The statement anticipates that European companies will invest an additional $600 billion in strategic U.S. sectors before 2028. Furthermore, the EU plans to significantly increase its procurement of military and defense equipment from the U.S.
3. According to information disclosed by local sources, the funding scale of new policy-based financial tools is 500 billion yuan, focusing on emerging industries, infrastructure, and other fields, specifically including the digital economy, artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, consumer sector, green low-carbon initiatives, agriculture and rural areas, transportation logistics, urban infrastructure, etc. Policy banks such as the National Development Bank, China Agricultural Development Bank, and China Exim Bank are involved.
4. The State Council has given principle approval to the 'Open and Innovative Development Plan for the Biomedical Industry Chain in the China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone'. The plan aims to promote integrated innovation development of the entire biomedical industry chain, making the China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone a globally influential hub for the biomedical industry and a more internationally competitive high ground for biomedical innovation and development.
5. Recently, due to the hot summer weather and weak seasonal consumption, coupled with the earlier market release of fattened pigs, the supply of pork in the market has increased, leading to a slight decline in pig prices. According to monitoring by the National Development and Reform Commission, the average pig-to-feed price ratio nationwide recently dropped below 6:1, entering a level three warning zone as per the 'Improvement of Government Pork Reserve Adjustment Mechanism to Ensure Supply and Stabilize Prices in the Pork Market' regulations. To promote the stable operation of the pig market, the National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant departments to conduct central frozen pork reserve purchases.
6. After experiencing a prolonged period of low prices, as 'Golden September and Silver October' approach, titanium dioxide companies have once again announced price increases. Following Longbai's price adjustment notice, most domestic titanium manufacturers have sequentially followed suit, with over 20 production companies having formally issued price increase notices to date.
7. The total electricity consumption in society historically surpassed 1 trillion kilowatt-hours in July, marking a first globally. The National Energy Administration released data yesterday indicating that the total electricity consumption in July reached 1.02 trillion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. This is double the consumption from ten years ago, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of ASEAN countries.
8. The first partner conference of Zhiyuan Robotics was held in Shanghai on August 21. Reporters learned at the conference that Zhiyuan Robotics expects to ship thousands of units this year, with an expected shipment of tens of thousands next year. The company hopes to reach an annual shipment volume of hundreds of thousands of units in the coming years.
9. According to the official WeChat account of DeepSeek, DeepSeek-V3.1 has been officially released. In the announcement article for DeepSeek-V3.1, it was mentioned that DeepSeek-V3.1 uses the UE8M0 FP8 Scale parameter precision. Additionally, V3.1 has undergone significant adjustments to the tokenizer and chat template, showing clear differences from DeepSeek-V3. DeepSeek’s official account stated in a pinned message that UE8M0 FP8 is designed for the upcoming generation of domestic chips.
10. The three major U.S. stock indexes all closed slightly lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.4%, the Dow down 0.34%, and the Nasdaq down 0.34%. The S&P 500 has now fallen for five consecutive days, and the Nasdaq has fallen for three consecutive days. Most popular Chinese concept stocks rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 1.35%. XPeng Motors rose nearly 12%, NIO rose over 9%, Xiangshang Rongke and Miniso rose over 6%, and iQIYI and Niu Technologies rose over 2%.
