Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund posted earnings of HK$134.7 billion in the first half of 2026, down 37% from a year earlier. The decline was driven by the Hong Kong stock portfolio swinging from a HK$22.9 billion gain to a HK$11.8 billion loss, alongside weaker bond income. The Hang Seng Index fell 11% over the same period, underscoring pressure across the local equity market.

Brazil shipped 34.75 million tonnes of soybeans to China in the first half, up 9.1% year on year, while US exports to China fell 42.4% to 9.31 million tonnes. June arrivals hit a record 13.55 million tonnes, boosted by greater Brazilian supply and the clearance of cargoes previously delayed at Chinese ports. The shift toward Brazil comes despite China’s pledge to buy at least 25 million tonnes of US soybeans a year through 2028, reshaping the import mix and affecting spot pricing and nearby contract premiums and discounts.

Asia holds nearly threefifths of the world’s known coal reserves. Rapid growth in AI infrastructure is driving a surge in electricity demand, while solar and wind still cannot reliably provide the around-the-clock baseload power data centres require. As a result, coal is emerging as the region’s main transitional fuel for AI. The shift underlines coal-fired power’s short-term role in the AI era, without pointing to specific companies, policy changes or immediate supply-and-demand data.

Washington is stepping up AI export controls on China while working more closely with US AI companies to curb technology leakage. Anthropic said major Chinese AI labs are widely using unauthorised model “distillation” to copy leading US models, and it has begun blocking accounts tied to the practice. The US lead in frontier AI models is assessed at 6–9 months, but could be 12–18 months without distillation, according to Anthropic.

Police arrested Dang Ngoc Thao, the former head of PNJ Laboratory, over alleged involvement in a diamond-smuggling network spanning India, Hong Kong and Vietnam. PNJ said the allegations concern Thao personally and that no smuggled diamonds entered its retail network. The company’s shares have fallen more than 25% since the news emerged in early July, and VinaCapital-managed funds have sold out and exited the company’s major shareholders. Analysts said PNJ needs to rebuild confidence in its corporate governance or risk deeper business and financing pressure if the investigation expands.

Kuaishou Technology shares slid more than 6% in Tuesday morning trading after Tencent Holdings disclosed it had sold 273 million Class B shares. Tencent’s stake fell to 9.37% from 15.68%, meaning it is no longer a substantial shareholder, according to a Kuaishou filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday. Based on Kuaishou’s Monday close of HK$46, the sale is expected to raise about HK$12.56 billion (US$1.6 billion). Kuaishou said the transaction would not have any material adverse effect on operations, and noted it has repurchased HK$8.35 billion of shares, or 52% of its HK$16 billion buyback plan.

Australia’s Lynas has signed a partnership agreement with South Korea’s JS Link to jointly develop a neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, with annual capacity of 3,000 tonnes. Under the deal, Lynas will supply rare earth materials to JS Link’s magnet factories in South Korea and Malaysia through January 2038. Lynas will invest about US$34.8 million by subscribing for JS Link shares.

Shanghai Biren Technology plans to raise about US$892.5 million to accelerate mass production of its next-generation general-purpose GPUs, aiming to meet surging demand for AI computing from domestic customers such as cloud providers and AI data centres. The move underscores how China’s AI chipmakers are stepping up efforts to narrow the gap with Nvidia, but the fundraising is framed as routine capacity expansion rather than being tied to new orders, technical breakthroughs or policy support. It adds longer-term competitive pressure on Nvidia from local alternatives, without pointing to near-term catalysts such as fresh internal orders, shipments or regulatory changes.

Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) plans to revise its rules to let all gold ETFs that meet set criteria qualify for MPF investment, replacing the current case-by-case approval process. The new framework will include risk controls that bar ETFs from using derivatives and cap MPF exposure to any single gold ETF at 10%. The change targets the city’s 4.8 million MPF members, aiming to broaden product choices and support Hong Kong’s bid to become a regional gold trading hub. The MPF oversees HK$1.53 trillion (US$195 billion) in assets.