Wall Street Insights Breakfast FM-Radio | February 17, 2026

Wall Street Insights Breakfast FM-Radio | February 17, 2026

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Huajian Morning Voice

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Market Overview

US Stock Market Closed, Tech Stocks Drag Down European Market Rebound, Pan-European Index halts a two-day decline, UK stocks rise for the second day, setting a new closing high, banking sector up over 1%, tech sector down over 1%. Japanese GDP disappoints, yen ends five days of gains. Offshore RMB rises 200 points intraday, breaks above 6.89 for the first time in nearly three years. Bitcoin surges then pulls back, briefly falling nearly 4% after crossing $70,000 intraday.

Among commodities, metals mostly under pressure, crude oil continues to rebound. Gold loses “China momentum,” falls below $5000, gold drops over 1% intraday, silver futures fall over 4%; LME tin falls over 2%, LME aluminium drops three days in a row, LME copper falls to two-week lows; crude oil turns up over 1% intraday, Brent rises for the second day.

In Asian session, AI boom helps Hong Kong stocks end Year of the Snake on a high note, MiniMax surges 25%, Zhipu up 4.74% both to new highs, non-ferrous sector rises.

Top News

China

The industry's first! SDIC Silver LOF compensation plan for valuation adjustment released: Losses under 1000 yuan fully compensated.

Alibaba releases Qwen 3.5, becomes strongest open-source model globally, performance comparable to Gemini 3, token price only 1/18 of Gemini 3.

Four robot manufacturers: Unitree Technology, Magic Atom, Galaxy General, Songyan Power appear together at CCTV Lunar New Year Gala, reportedly spent big to secure cooperation; “WuBOT” ignited the audience, Unitree’s Wang Xingxing: this high-dynamic, high-coordination cluster control tech is a global first; several new products set to launch in 2026.

Overseas

US media: If US-Iran talks fail, Trump supports Israeli airstrikes on Iran's ballistic missile facilities; US military deploys 18 F-35 fighter jets to Middle East; Iran Revolutionary Guard Navyholds military exercises in Strait of Hormuz.

Russian President's spokesperson: Russia, US, Ukrainediscuss territorial issues in Geneva trilateral talks.

Apple will hold a launch event on March 4, new Mac series may debut; Apple pushes into video podcasts, directly challenging YouTube and Spotify.

Musk: Starlinkwill “soon” operate beyond Earth.

Market Recap

US & European Stock Markets: US stocks closed. Europe STOXX 600 index up 0.13%, at 618.52 points.

A-shares: Closed

Bond Market: US bond market closed.

Commodities: Brent April crude oil futures up 1.33%, at $68.65/barrel. LME copper down about 0.2%, at $12,850/ton. LME aluminium down about 0.8%, at $3,052/ton. LME tin down about 2.2%, at $45,681/ton.

Details of Headlines

Global Spotlight

China

Industry first! SDIC Silver LOF valuation adjustment compensation plan released: Losses under 1000 yuan fully compensated. For natural person investors suffering losses due to SDIC Silver LOF valuation adjustment, a tiered “recovery” mode is activated: full compensation for losses under 1000 yuan, over 90% of redeemers benefit.

Alibaba releases Qwen 3.5, performance comparable to Gemini 3, token price only 1/18. Qwen3.5-Plus tops the global strongest open-source model rankings. Breakthroughs include hybrid attention mechanisms, extreme sparse MoE architecture, native multi-token prediction, and system stability optimization, enabling stronger intelligence with less computing power. The model has vision agent capabilities, understands screens and can autonomously execute cross-app operations, and even converts sketches into code. API price as low as 0.8 yuan per million tokens.

Who spends thousands for the Spring Festival Gala? Four robot manufacturers Unitree Tech, Magic Atom, Galaxy General, Songyan Power appear together to compete. Reportedly, fierce competition for cooperation deals led to hefty spending. As a reference, leading domestic humanoid robot companies annual revenue ranges in hundreds of millions to a billion yuan. IDC reported global humanoid robot sales in 2025 of about $440 million (approx. 3.04 billion yuan). For these firms, marketing spend is not trivial.

Overseas

US media: If US-Iran talks fail, Trump supports Israeli airstrikes on Iran's ballistic missile facilities. According to Xinhua, Trump vows again—US media reveals in a secret meeting with Netanyahu he promised support if US-Iran talks collapse. US military studying refueling and support plans; Rubio still hoping for diplomacy. Before nuclear talks, the Middle East powder keg ignites, geopolitical risks spike.

  • US Air Force deploys 18 F-35 fighter jets to Middle East. As reported by CCTV News, with tanker support, 18 F-35A “Lightning II” jets from RAF Lakenheath headed for the Middle East, flying in teams of three, marking the largest single F-35 deployment in months—directly reflecting US military strategy amid current Iran tensions.
  • Iran Revolutionary Guard Navy holds military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz. On Feb 16 local time, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy held drills in the Strait of Hormuz called "Intelligent Control of the Strait of Hormuz," with goals to test the combat readiness of the navy, review security plans against potential security and military threats in the region, and anti-military action plans.

Peskov: Russia, US, and Ukraine discuss territorial issues in Geneva trilateral talks. On the 16th, Russian presidential spokesperson Peskov said the upcoming Geneva trilateral talks regarding Ukraine will see an expanded Russian delegation including presidential aide Medinsky, Deputy Foreign Minister Galuzin, GRU chief Kostyukov, etc. Main topics include territory.

Apple to hold event March 4, new Mac series may debut. Apple has invited media to gatherings in New York, Shanghai, and London, calling the event “Experience.” Apple plans to launch several new products in first half of 2026, including: new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro/Max chips, new MacBook Air with M5 chip, rumored low-cost MacBook around $699, and new iPad models including 12th gen iPad and M4 chip iPad Air.

  • Apple pushes into video podcasts: head-on challenge to YouTube and Spotify. Apple announces integrated video podcast experience coming to Apple Podcasts this spring. Users can seamlessly switch between "watch" and "listen" within the app, supports picture-in-picture and offline download. Comes as video continues reshaping the podcast industry—about 37% of people aged 12+ watch video podcasts monthly, per Edison Research.

Musk: Starlink will "soon" operate beyond Earth. Musk posted on X: “Starlink is awesome! Ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency anywhere on Earth, and soon beyond Earth.”

Goldman Sachs: Hedge funds are bottom-fishing Asian markets at the fastest pace in ten years. According to Goldman’s report, last week hedge funds became net buyers of global equities for the first time in three weeks, inflows to all major markets, but Asia stood out. As investors rotate from momentum trades and react to dollar weakness, emerging markets continue to outperform.

Selected Research Reports

BofA Hartnett: “AI disruption trade” spreading fast, any tech giant capex cuts will trigger US stock “rotation tsunami”. BofA Hartnett’s latest report warns AI megacap companies’ capital expenditure may reach $740 billion in 2026, depleting free cash flow. Once any giant announces capex cuts, it will trigger a large-scale shift from tech to small caps/emerging markets. From insurance to logistics, AI disruption of services is spreading fast. Yen-stock correlation turns positive for the first time in 20 years, indicates long bull market.

Cathie Wood: Current market volatility caused by algorithms, not fundamentals. Wood says recent sharp up/down moves are mostly created by algorithmic trading—programmatic selling and technical trading easily trigger chain reactions and irrational “sell first, ask later” volatility, which sellers may regret. She stresses AI is the biggest opportunity of her life, current market is in early stage, like 1996, tech giants’ aggressive capex is necessary; AI-driven productivity surge may drive inflation down.

Storage giant’s Q4 report “five key points”: Current cycle stronger than 2017-2018 “cloud boom”. BofA Merrill Lynch says SK Hynix inventory turnover days dropped to 127, finished goods inventory just 2-3 weeks. Samsung DRAM prices up 40% QoQ, spot prices at 25-year highs. Industry executives believe current cycle stronger than the 2017-2018 cloud boom; if shortage persists to 2027, prices may keep rising.

AI insiders: Massive transformation is happening, people are still unaware. An AI veteran warns current AI can autonomously build next-gen systems, iteration speed far exceeds public understanding—a weeks-long job now takes minutes. Predicts white-collar work will face disruptive impact within 1-5 years, and adaptation window is shrinking fast. People must act now: embed AI into daily workflows, solve real problems, and focus on critical thinking and skills AI can't easily replicate.

Domestic Macro

How to view RMB appreciation at the start of the new year? RMB rises above 6.9, a 33-month high. Yuyuan Tantan says it’s not just dollar weakness—the key turning point was China’s strong countermeasure against US tariffs, completely reversing global expectations. The direction of foreign capital has shifted from “wait and see” to “rush to buy.” As RMB accelerates from transaction settlement to asset allocation and financing, the appreciation is backed by China’s economic resilience and currency status leap.

Global Macro

Back to growth but still weak, Japan’s Q4 2025 GDP annualized rate at 0.2%, below expectations, expansionary fiscal policy gets support. Q4 real GDP annualized QoQ up just 0.2%, far below forecast of 1.6%, consumption and investment both weak. Data supports expansionary fiscal policy by Komeito’s Sanae Takaichi. Return to growth opens space for BOJ rate hikes this year, but subdued recovery dampens expectations for imminent action.

Global Companies

OpenClaw founder joins OpenAI, aims to “develop an AI assistant even my mother can use”. “AI circle rising star” OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger turned down Meta, chose OpenAI. His goal is to address the core challenge of AI adoption—turning from geek tools to mass consumer products, aiming to build “an AI assistant even my mother can use.” Altman calls Steinberger “a genius.”

India accounts for 100 million “weekly active users,” 1/8 of OpenAI actives, second only to US. OpenAI CEO Altman revealed India is now a key strategic market with 100 million ChatGPT weekly actives, about 1/8 of global total. To meet India’s price-sensitive market, OpenAI set up offices and launched low-priced plans. Students are core growth drivers—major tech giants competing for education scene. But how to convert traffic into sustainable economic value remains a challenge for OpenAI in India.

Today's News Preview

US January Retail Sales.

US February NAHB Housing Market Index.

Germany January CPI.

Fed Governor Barr, San Francisco Fed President Daly speeches.

India’s Artificial Intelligence Summit Feb 16-20, featuring tech leaders Huang Renxun, Google CEO, etc.

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Risk Disclosure and DisclaimerMarkets are risky, invest with caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not consider the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular situation. Invest at your own risk. ```