More important news for the holidays (8):
1. State Administration of Foreign Exchange: As of the end of May, the scale of the mainland's foreign exchange reserves was US$3,232 billion, an increase of US$31.2 billion or 0.98% from the end of April; China's official gold reserves stood at 72.8 million ounces in May 2024, unchanged from the previous month, implying that the central bank paused its holdings in May after increasing its holdings for 18 consecutive months.
2. Wu Qing, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, recently emphasized that it is necessary to deeply learn the lessons of typical cases of violation of discipline and law, and adhere to a strict tone, measures and atmosphere for a long time through the method of promoting reform and governance through cases. This move reflects the determination of the regulators to strengthen market supervision, prevent financial risks and maintain market order.
According to the latest news, the Shanghai and Shenzhen North Stock Exchanges have respectively formulated the implementation rules for the management of programmatic transactions on June 7 and solicited opinions from the public. This initiative is to further improve the transaction supervision system, strengthen the management of programmatic transactions, and ensure the fairness, impartiality and transparency of the market. It is reported that the Shanghai and Shenzhen North Stock Exchange has formulated targeted abnormal transaction monitoring standards for programmatic trading, and has conducted trial operation internally. These measures will help prevent and identify potential violations, protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, and maintain the stable operation of the market.
3. The May non-farm payrolls report released by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that the number of non-farm payrolls increased by 272,000, far exceeding market estimates of an increase of 180,000 and the previous increase of 175,000. This strong job growth data significantly weighed on market expectations that the Fed may cut interest rates.
As strong employment data is often seen as a sign of economic health, market participants may believe that the Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates to stimulate the economy at this stage. As a result, US stocks weakened across the board on Friday after the release of this data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.22%, the Nasdaq Composite down 0.23%, and the S&P 500 down 0.11%. In addition, precious metals and non-ferrous metals also fell across the board, and international gold prices weakened sharply. At the same time, Chinese concept stocks generally fell, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index falling 1.74%.
The impact of this employment data on the market shows that investors are very sensitive to the direction of the Fed's policy, and a strong employment data may delay market expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates, which in turn will affect the performance of various asset classes.
4. CATL issued a statement on the evening of June 7 on supply chain issues, responding to the allegations made by members of the U.S. Congress in a letter sent on June 5. In the statement, CATL made it clear that the allegations that it was linked to forced labor were completely false and baseless.
In its statement, CATL stressed that the company's business relationships with some of the suppliers mentioned in the letter have been terminated. At the same time, CATL's business dealings with other suppliers are conducted by its subsidiaries separately, and these business activities do not involve any forced labor and do not violate applicable laws and regulations in the United States.
CATL's statement reflects the company's commitment to maintaining supply chain compliance and ethical standards, as well as the company's firm denial of false allegations. Such a statement is essential to protect the company's reputation, ensure investor confidence, and maintain good relationships with global partners.
5. The General Administration of Customs of China released the import and export data for May on June 7, 2024. In terms of the export of key commodities, the performance of integrated circuits is particularly prominent, with a year-on-year increase of 28.47% in the export value in May, ranking second among all commodities, second only to the 57.13% increase in ships. In the first five months of 2024 (January-May), the export value of integrated circuits increased by 21.2% year-on-year, which exceeded the 20.1% year-on-year increase in automobile exports in the same period.
As the cornerstone of modern information technology, the growth of integrated circuit exports reflects China's important position in the global semiconductor industry chain and the increase in foreign demand. This data also shows that China's competitiveness in the high-tech sector, especially in the manufacture and export of integrated circuits, is increasing.
6. On June 7, 2024, China's Ministry of Transport and 13 other departments jointly issued the Action Plan for Large-scale Equipment Renewal in Transportation. The goal of the program is to improve the efficiency and environmental protection of the transportation system by updating and upgrading the transportation equipment.
The Plan sets out a series of specific goals, including achieving improvements in the following areas by 2028:
Effective improvement of ship capacity structure: Improve the efficiency and environmental performance of ship transportation by updating and optimizing the ship fleet.
Promotion and application of new energy public transport vehicles: continue to promote the development of new energy buses and reduce traditional fuel buses to reduce the impact of public transport on the environment.
Elimination of old locomotives in key areas and large-scale replacement of new energy locomotives: Eliminate old locomotives in key areas and promote the use of new energy locomotives to reduce pollution and improve transportation efficiency.
Widely promoted and used intelligent security inspection equipment for mail and express mail: Intelligent security inspection equipment is widely used in the field of mail delivery to improve the efficiency and safety of security inspection.
Through these measures, the plan aims to significantly improve the security capacity of the mail and delivery sector, and at the same time promote the green development and intelligent upgrading of the transportation industry, laying a solid foundation for achieving the goal of becoming a transportation power.
7. On the evening of June 7, 2024, the official website of the Beijing Stock Exchange announced that the listing committee will hold a review meeting on the morning of June 17, at which time it will consider the initial offering application of Chengdianguangxin. The meeting marked the first reopening of the BSE's listing committee after a four-month suspension. At the same time, it also means that the listing committee meetings of China's three major stock exchanges – the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Beijing Stock Exchange – have resumed.
The resumption of the Listing Committee of the Beijing Stock Exchange is of great significance to support the development of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and improve the multi-level capital market system. The review of Chengdian Guangxin's initial application will be the first case after the Beijing Stock Exchange returns to normalcy, and its review results and subsequent development will be highly concerned by the market.
8. Recently, the China Institute of Atomic Energy cooperated with Qinshan Nuclear Power to successfully produce molybdenum-99 samples that meet medical requirements and have a nuclear purity of up to 99%. This achievement is expected to change the status quo of China's long-term dependence on imports of medical molybdenum-99 and realize the localization of medical molybdenum-99.
Molybdenum-99 is an important radioisotope and it is the best source for obtaining technetium-99m. Technetium-99M is known as the "diagnostic expert" of nuclear medicine, and more than 40 million people worldwide use technetium-99M for medical diagnosis every year. Technetium-99M has a short half-life, suitable physical properties, and high biological distribution, making it one of the most widely used radioisotopes in nuclear medicine diagnostics.
The cooperation between the China Institute of Atomic Energy and Qinshan Nuclear Power not only marks China's important progress in the production of medical radioisotopes, but also is of great significance for improving the independent support capacity of domestic nuclear medicine diagnosis, reducing foreign dependence, and ensuring the security of the domestic nuclear medicine examination supply chain. By localizing molybdenum 99 for medical use, China will be able to better meet the needs of the domestic medical market, while also helping to promote the development of the nuclear medicine field.