Gold prices have once again set a new record, with markets entering a defensive posture ahead of remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Powell. In the early hours of January 19th, Beijing time, New York gold futures surged past $5,450 per ounce, marking an intraday gain of 6.44% and a cumulative increase of over 20% year-to-date. Spot gold broke through $5,410 per ounce, rising 4.52% during the day. The US dollar is currently mired in a "crisis of confidence," further enhancing gold's appeal to overseas investors. Kelvin Wong, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda, stated that the rise in gold prices stems from its strong inverse correlation with the US dollar and responses from Donald Trump, reflecting a potential broad consensus within the White House to push for a weaker dollar. Trump also indicated he would soon announce his choice for Fed Chair and expects interest rates to fall after the new chair takes office. Ilya Spivak, Head of Global Macro at Tastylive, noted that given the tension between the Fed's mandate and the White House's stance, markets are merely adopting a defensive positioning.

US stocks were mixed overnight, while gold prices surged to new highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 12.19 points to close at 49,015.6, a gain of 0.02%. The S&P 500 index dipped 0.57 points to 6,978.03, a decline of 0.01%. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 40.35 points to 23,857.45, up 0.17%. The Federal Reserve announced it would maintain the target range for the federal funds rate between 3.5% and 3.75%, aligning with market expectations. Chair Jerome Powell stated during a press conference that policy could be relaxed if tariff-driven inflation peaks and then recedes. He also noted that no one anticipates a rate hike at the next meeting. Major tech stocks were mixed: Intel surged over 11%, while NVIDIA and TSMC gained over 1%; Tesla rose over 3% in after-hours trading. Several large tech firms reported earnings after the bell: IBM jumped over 8%, Microsoft fell nearly 5%, and META climbed over 9%. Multiple storage-related stocks collectively hit new highs: Seagate Technology soared over 19%, Western Digital surged over 10%, SanDisk gained over 9%, and Micron Technology rose over 6%. Popular US-listed Chinese stocks were mixed; the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed up 0.32%, with Bilibili rising over 3% and Li Auto gaining over 2%. The Hang Seng Index ADR declined proportionally, closing at 27,511.69 points, down 315.22 points or 1.13% from the Hong Kong close. Gold prices continued their strong rally to new highs. The COMEX gold continuous contract rose $328.40, or 6.46%, to $5,411.0 per ounce. The COMEX silver continuous contract increased by $10.66, or 10.06%, to $116.62 per ounce.

Several property developers have reportedly indicated that they are no longer required by regulators to submit the "three red lines" metrics on a monthly basis. Sources from multiple developers revealed that their companies are currently exempt from this requirement. However, some financially distressed developers are still required to regularly report financial indicators, such as their asset-liability ratio, to special task forces in their headquarters' cities. In August 2020, regulators introduced a pilot rule setting financing "three red lines" for developers to control their interest-bearing debt. In 2021, the policy was expanded to cover dozens of developers, who were then required to report these metrics monthly.

Jones Lang LaSalle's "Hong Kong Residential Sales Market Review," released on January 28th, mentioned that over the past five years, the Hang Seng Index has, on average, led residential capital values by approximately 2.2 months. This indicates a significant correlation between the index and property values, with the lag primarily attributed to lower liquidity in the property market and the longer time required for transaction registration procedures.

Alibaba Cloud has launched a full suite of Clawdbot cloud services. Users can quickly enable Clawdbot on Alibaba Cloud's Lightweight Application Server or Wuying Cloud Computers and on-demand access over a hundred Qianwen series models on Alibaba's Bailian platform. For messaging channels, the solution supports not only the iMessage application but also enables DingTalk message interactions based on Alibaba Cloud's Computing Nest. This development involves the Hong Kong-listed stock Alibaba (09988).

Tecent's AI assistant "Yuanbao" climbed to the top of application store charts on January 28th. Driven by the beta testing of its new AI social feature "Yuanbao Pai" and a Spring Festival红包活动 involving 10 billion RMB, Yuanbao saw its ranking soar across major app stores, reaching first place on Huawei's AppGallery trending chart, second place on Apple's China iOS free chart, and second place on VIVO's App Store download chart. Since the internal testing of "Yuanbao Pai" began, its popularity has surged, with users engaging the Yuanbao AI in chats, mood-setting, task execution, and photo editing, showcasing a variety of creative uses. It is reported that "Yuanbao Pai" will be launched for public testing in the near future.

According to the latest solid-state battery report from TrendForce, as humanoid robot development reaches a critical point for commercialization around 2026, the batteries that provide their "energy supply" are receiving increased attention. Although current humanoid robots primarily use liquid lithium batteries, future demands for longer endurance and high-load operation may prompt a shift towards solid-state lithium batteries with higher energy density, making them the mainstream solution. TrendForce estimates that the demand for solid-state batteries from humanoid robots could exceed 74GWh by 2035, representing growth of over a thousand times compared to 2026. The solid-state battery industry chain involves several Hong Kong-listed stocks, including Longpan Technology (02465), REPT BATTERO (00666), Ganfeng Lithium (01772), Tianqi Lithium (09696), CALB (03931), CATL (03750), GAC Group (02238), and Zhongwei New Materials (02579).

CHINA EAST AIR (00670) announced that its board of directors meeting on January 27th approved the 2026 hedging work plan. The plan involves conducting USD exchange rate and jet fuel hedging transactions from January 1st to December 31st to hedge against related risks. The position limits for USD exchange rate and cash flow hedging are $1 billion and $500 million, respectively, and the total jet fuel hedging volume shall not exceed 14.25 million barrels. The maximum contract value on any single trading day is estimated to be RMB 20.266 billion, with a maximum margin and premium requirement of RMB 2.113 billion, funded by the company's own and borrowed funds. The company cautioned that the business carries potential market and liquidity risks, for which corresponding risk control measures have been established.

NEW ORIENTAL-S (09901) reported its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, ended November 30, 2025. The Group's net revenues for Q2 FY2026 increased by 14.7% year-on-year to $1.191 billion; operating profit surged 244.4% to $66.3 million; and profit attributable to New Oriental shareholders rose 42.3% to $45.5 million.

EAST BUY (01797) announced its interim results for the six months ended November 30, 2025, for fiscal year 2026. During the reporting period, total net revenue increased by 5.7% to RMB 2.312 billion from RMB 2.2 billion in the six months ended November 30, 2024. Excluding the total revenue generated by the "Yu Hui Tong Xing" live stream room, the company's total revenue increased by 17.0% from RMB 2.0 billion in the prior period. Concurrently, the Group shifted from a net loss of RMB 96.5 million for the six months ended November 30, 2024, to a net profit of RMB 239 million for the same period in 2025.

Huaxin Cement (06655) issued an announcement forecasting that its net profit attributable to owners of the parent for the full year 2025 will be between RMB 2.7 billion and RMB 2.95 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.6% to 21.9%. It also forecasted that its net profit attributable to owners of the parent after deducting non-recurring gains and losses for 2025 will be between RMB 2.58 billion and RMB 2.76 billion, an increase of 45.0% to 55.0% year-on-year.

Nine Dragons Paper (02689) issued a profit alert, expecting to record a profit for the interim period (six months ended December 31, 2025) of approximately RMB 2.15 billion to RMB 2.25 billion. This represents a significant increase of 216.0% to 230.7% compared to the profit of RMB 680 million in the same period last year. The profit growth is mainly attributable to increased product sales volume, higher selling prices, and a substantial improvement in gross profit due to decreased raw material costs.

YOFC (06869): Fiber Demand Recovery Coupled with Price Increases. The accelerated development of AI applications is driving intelligent computing power construction into a fast lane, significantly increasing demand for new types of fiber for high-speed interconnects within data centers and between core nodes. The company is a global leader in the optical fiber and cable industry, consistently maintaining the world's top market share in optical fiber preforms, optical fibers, and optical cables. It possesses the three mainstream preform manufacturing processes (PCVD, VAD, OVD), boasts the highest level of preform-fiber-cable integration, and has strong cost control capabilities. Although the company's performance was under pressure in the first half of 2025, the downward trend of declining volume and price for fiber and cable in the telecom market is nearing its end. The company is poised to benefit fully from the cyclical bottoming and recovery in the domestic market, overseas expansion as a hedge, and demand upgrades driven by AI computing power, entering a period of upward performance trajectory. China Securities (CSC) believes that since the third quarter of 2025, fiber prices in the Chinese market have continued to rise, reflecting improving demand and a generally tight supply. Overseas demand is robust, with strong export performance indicating vigorous global demand for fiber and cable. After experiencing a supply-demand imbalance and a sharp price drop in 2019, capacity expansion by manufacturers in this cycle is expected to be more rational. Furthermore, expansion cycles for segments like preforms are relatively long. This round of demand recovery, combined with rising prices, could lead to a dual improvement in both profitability and valuation for leading companies within the industry.