Next week’s major events: China GDP and US CPI, WAIC Artificial Intelligence Conference, Changxin Technology IPO, TSMC earnings report

July 12 - July 20 Major Financial Events of the Week (all times are Beijing Time): Key focus next week: Macro data & central bank policy: US June CPI and PPI will be released in succession; Federal Reserve Chair Walsh will testify before Congress for the first time on monetary policy; the Fed’s Beige Book will be released simultaneously, with markets assessing the direction of interest rates. Chinese Q2 GDP, retail sales, industrial value-added, and home prices in 70 cities will be announced together. CICC expects GDP year-on-year growth of about 4.4%. Meanwhile, Bank of Korea is expected to restart rate hikes after 5 years, and Bank of Canada will announce its rate decision. The divergence in global monetary policy will become more pronounced. Korean stock market faces triple pressures: rate hike expectations, capital outflow, and leveraged ETF risks. Earnings season: Wall Street’s big five banks — Goldman Sachs, Citi, and others — will release results on the same day; ASML and TSMC results will directly test global AI-chip demand; A-share interim results season kicks off, with Changxin Technology’s STAR Market IPO launch sparking market sentiment. Tech industry: WAIC Artificial Intelligence Conference (July 17-20) is the biggest highlight. Huawei Atlas 950 SuperPoD may debut globally at the conference; Gemini 3.5 Pro is rumored to be released simultaneously. Geopolitics: US-Iran relations have recently reversed sharply; Iran again threatens to close Hormuz. Keep close watch next week. UK Labour Party may confirm its new leader on July 17; Andy Burnham may become new Prime Minister, political changes worth noting. Economic Indicators - China GDP, imports/exports, retail sales, industrial value-added, home prices in 70 cities July 14-15: China’s imports/exports, Q2 GDP, retail sales, industrial value-added, home price data will be released intensively. CICC expects the “stronger external, weaker internal” pattern to continue in June. Retail sales may return to positive growth as the high base effect fades; base rise may cause export growth to slightly soften. Overall, CICC expects Q2 GDP year-on-year growth at about 4.4%. - US PPI, CPI, Beige Book July 14-15: US PPI and CPI will be released. CPI expected to show moderate easing of inflation, while PPI offers upstream price pressure signals. Fed Chair Walsh will testify on the semiannual monetary policy report in both the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee (July 14 & 15); inflation data will be the core topic. The Beige Book (July 15) provides regional economic assessment. Markets will closely watch to gauge whether inflation is moving toward Fed targets. - Korea, Canada central bank policy rate decisions July 15: Bank of Canada will announce its rate decision. The bank cut rates to 2.75% in January, then stood pat in March, April, and June. This decision comes amid global rate hike action: Australian central bank has raised rates three times this year, Bank of Japan increased rates to 1.0% in June. Bank of Korea is expected to start a tightening cycle July 16. On July 9, Governor Rhee Chang-yong stated it’s necessary to raise rates at an appropriate time, given persistent inflation, improved growth, and rising financial stability risks — the first hike since August 2021. Triple pressures of rate hike expectations, capital outflow, and leveraged ETF risks are brewing, presenting a severe test for Korea’s once-popular semiconductor-driven market. Financial Events - July 17-20: World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai Main themes: domestic computing platforms, general large models & AI agents, humanoid/industrial robots, autonomous driving, AI terminals, AR glasses, industrial AI. The expo will showcase global-first big models, domestic AI chips, and new embodied intelligence products. - Huawei Atlas 950 real machine may debut at WAIC The 2026 WAIC and Global AI Governance High-level Conference will be held July 17-20. Huawei will make its first show of the industry’s largest-scale super-node, Atlas 950 SuperPoD. Public info: Huawei Atlas 950 uses self-developed "UnifiedBus" protocol; bandwidth up to 16.3PB/s, exceeding Nvidia NVL144; Atlas 950 SuperPoD is a fully liquid-cooled datacenter super-node. - AGI Summit SF 2026, OpenAI/Anthropic/Nvidia will attend AGI Summit SF 2026 is one of the largest AI industry events in the San Francisco Bay Area, July 18-19. 15,000+ attendees, 200+ speakers, covering OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind. - Fed Chair Walsh to attend Congressional hearings (Senate & House) July 14-15 According to the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Kevin Walsh will testify on FOMC monetary policy July 14 at 10AM Eastern Time (10PM Beijing Time) in Congress. By law, Fed Chair testifies twice yearly (February, July). July 15, Walsh will appear before the Senate Banking Committee to discuss the Fed's semiannual monetary policy report. Other Fed appearances next week: - Monday: Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks - Wednesday: NY Fed President John Williams, Fed Gov Lisa Cook, speeches - Thursday: Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid, speeches - Changxin Technology IPO subscription July 16 Changxin Technology has officially launched STAR Market IPO issuance, subscription date July 16. H1 net profit soared 22x; Chairman promises no reduction for 10 years, and gives 768 million shares to employees. The market widely believes, based on strong profit and AI computing valuation, Changxin’s post-listing theoretical valuation may reach 2 trillion-3 trillion RMB. According to Shanghai Stock Exchange, Changxin's security code/offline subscription: “688825”, online: “787825”. Planned public offering: up to 6.688088608 billion shares (before green shoe); with green shoe, total shares may expand to 7.691301608 billion. - UK Labour Party sets leadership election timetable, Andy Burnham likely new PM On June 25, UK Labour NEC finalized the leadership election timetable. If only one candidate qualifies, the new leader will be announced at Labour's extraordinary conference July 17. Currently, ex-Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is regarded as the only viable candidate with enough party support. If no other nominees qualify, Burnham is expected to be elected directly without a vote. - Gemini 3.5 Pro rumored to be released July 17, front-end crushes Fable 5 Google’s Gemini 3.5 Pro reportedly to be released July 17, aiming to catch up to GPT-5.6 and Fable 5 after a two-month retraining delay. Leaks show major leaps in front-end and SVG visual generation, outpacing competitors, though still lagging in hardcore reasoning and engineering. Google positions it for cost-sensitive enterprise customers. - Korea’s financial regulator will meet with asset management companies, including Samsung According to Korea Culture Daily, Korea Financial Supervisory Service leaders will meet asset management company executives July 13. Samsung, Mirae Asset Securities, Korea Investment Management, Shinhan, Hanwha are expected to attend. Discussion will focus on strengthening investor protection for leveraged ETFs. - US Treasury Secretary Besant chairs Financial Stability Oversight Council meeting July 15: US Treasury Secretary Besant will chair FSOC meeting, discussing geopolitical risk, AI, and financial stability. Also, July 14: Fed Board hosts annual Financial Inclusion Conference in Washington. - Singapore bank Chief Investment Officer Summit focuses on geopolitics and AI July 14: Singapore bank CIO Summit in Hong Kong, discussions will focus on geopolitics and AI. Also, HK Monetary and Financial Research Centre, BIS, and IMF jointly hold global connectivity and financial stability conference (July 13-14). - FIFA World Cup semifinals FIFA World Cup semifinals from July 14 to July 15. - China (Western) International AI & Embodied Intelligence Robot Industry Conference China (Western) International AI & Embodied Intelligent Robot Industry Chain Conference and Expo will be held in Chengdu July 15-17. White Paper on Western Embodied Intelligence Industry + Chengdu-Chongqing cooperation policy to be released; Tesla Optimus demo + Western delivery plan; UBTech / Zhiyuan mass production pace update. - 7th Asia-Pacific International Smart Equipment Expo (APIE 2026) July 16-19 in Qingdao Main forum: China-Japan-Korea Smart Manufacturing Conference, with possible new cross-border cooperation policies. - Salesforce and Alibaba Cloud host annual summit in Shanghai Alibaba Cloud & Salesforce will discuss enterprise AI transition from pilot to real business at annual summit. Topics: AI+CRM trend & innovation, intelligent agent enterprises at scale, AI in sales/service, industry cloud innovation, China outbound strategy, customer cases, live demos. Event: July 15, 2:00-5:30 PM in Shanghai. - Alibaba Cloud: DDoS protection price increase from July 15 Alibaba Cloud: From July 15, DDoS High Protection (Mainland China) price for elastic 95 changes from ¥100/Mbps/month to ¥150/Mbps/month. - Shengquan Group to raise prices of PPO and other oligomer products 15%-20% Blue Whale News reports that Shengquan Group will adjust prices of PPO, PPE, OPE, MPPO oligomer products from July 13, 2026, with overall increase 15%-20%. Rise due to geopolitical conflict and raw material volatility. - Cowell: 5%-10% price hikes on some power supply products July 6: Cowell announced price hikes of 5%-10% on some power supplies, citing rising costs of main materials. Orders signed before July 15, 2026, will be at old prices; new and supplementary orders after that date follow new pricing. - Doubao, Qianwen: AI agent functions to go offline July 15 Doubao announced AI agent functions will be offline July 15, directing users to ByteDance's Maoxiang App. Qianwen platform says AI agent functions will be shut down July 15, 2026; users will be unable to access configurations or history. Earnings Reports - TSMC June sales and Q2 report TSMC delayed June sales report to July 13 due to Typhoon Bavi, which halted Friday work in Taipei. Q2 earnings report will be released July 16, with focus on AI revenue, advanced process utilization, capex guidance. TSMC and ASML are key in the AI-computing supply chain; their results will impact market views on the sustainability of AI investment. - ASML Q2 earnings ASML will release Q2 earnings July 15. Wall Street expects Q2 EPS of $7.98 (about €7.15), revenue of $10.33 billion. As the sole supplier of EUV lithography machines, ASML’s backlog and delivery progress are leading indicators for global semiconductor expansion. - Wall Street’s five big banks to report: Goldman, Citi, BofA, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo Five of the six big US banks will report results the same day, with unusually packed conference calls. Bank of America and JPMorgan will announce results first in the morning, followed by Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup. Bloomberg reports even renowned analyst Mike Mayo says covering all five banks in one day will be tough. All eyes are on next Tuesday. - First Shanghai Stock Exchange interim report: CSSC Special Gas takes lead Shanghai-listed companies’ 2026 interim reporting schedule is out. CSSC Special Gas reports July 18, Haitong Development reports July 21, Longsoft Technology and Shentong Technology report July 23. - First Shenzhen Stock Exchange interim report: Wohua Pharma and YOUCAI Resources Wohua Pharma and YOUCAI Resources (main board) will publish interim reports July 16. Hozhi Electromechanical (Growth Enterprise Market) leads and will report July 21. - Mandatory interim report pre-announcement deadline: July 15 Before July 15: Main board losses, turnaround, or ±50% YoY must be pre-announced. Risk Warning and Disclaimer Market risks exist; investment should be prudent. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account individual users' specific investment objectives, financial status, or needs. Users should consider if opinions, views, or conclusions herein are suitable for their circumstances. Investing accordingly is at your own risk.