The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the work and performance of the Ministry of Commerce for 2025. It was announced that in 2026, the Ministry of Commerce will deeply implement special actions to boost consumption, focusing on three areas: policy introduction, event organization, and scenario optimization. First, regarding policy introduction, efforts will be made to increase benefits for the public. This includes optimizing the implementation of consumer trade-in programs to stimulate consumption of major durable goods such as automobiles, home appliances, digital and smart products. Pilot reforms for automobile circulation and consumption will be conducted to further unlock the potential of automobile consumption. The pilot program for lottery-linked invoices will be carried out effectively, and the list of pilot cities was announced last weekend. Practical and effective policy measures, including those promoting the debut economy, will be pushed for implementation. Second, regarding event organization, the focus is on creating a consumption atmosphere. Centering on three major themes—goods consumption, service consumption, and consumption scenarios—more than 20 "Shop in China" themed events will be organized this year. Fifteen pilot cities for international consumption environments will host "City Spotlight" events, and support will be provided for various localities to hold "Local Station" activities. Through a matrix of thematically unified yet distinctive events, a strong consumption atmosphere will be fostered. Third, regarding scenario optimization, the aim is to improve the consumption environment. This involves accelerating the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities, advancing pilot projects for international consumption environment development and new consumption formats, models, and scenarios. A batch of new consumption scenarios with wide-reaching impact and high visibility will be created, allowing domestic and international consumers to enjoy a better life.
Overnight, the three major US stock indices closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 313.69 points, or 0.64%, to close at 49,412.4 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 100.11 points, or 0.43%, to settle at 23,601.36 points; and the S&P 500 Index climbed 34.62 points, or 0.5%, finishing at 6,950.23 points. Apple (AAPL.US) shares rose by 2.97%, Meta Platforms (META.US) gained 2.06%, Microsoft (MSFT.US) advanced 0.93%, while Tesla (TSLA.US) fell 3.09%. US healthcare concept stocks were mostly lower in after-hours trading, with CVS Health down over 11%, Humana dropping over 13%, and UnitedHealth declining over 10%. Reports indicated that the White House proposed keeping the 2027 Medicare payment rates to insurance companies unchanged, which was below market expectations. Most popular Chinese concept stocks declined, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing down 0.63%. The Hang Seng Index ADR also fell; calculated proportionally, it closed at 26,752.51 points, down 13.01 points or 0.05% from the Hong Kong market close. Gold, silver, and platinum retreated after hitting record highs. New York gold futures once surged over 2%, and New York silver futures once jumped over 16%. The COMEX gold continuous contract for the current month rose by $25.10, or 0.50%, to $5,004.8 per ounce. The COMEX silver continuous contract for the current month increased by $2.56, or 2.52%, to $103.89 per ounce.
Pony Ma, Chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings (00700), stated at the company's 2025 annual staff meeting that WeChat remains the cornerstone of Tencent, carrying high expectations. He emphasized that businesses like Channels and WeChat E-commerce have their own growth logic and trajectories. The key is to combine their unique characteristics to leverage new technological advancements, requiring time, patience, and strategic planning before action. Regarding advertising and financial payment services, Ma believes that with AI enhancement, Tencent's advertising revenue is growing rapidly. However, its revenue proportion remains relatively low compared to the industry average, indicating vast potential for future commercial development. At the 2025 annual staff meeting, Ma reviewed the work of various business units over the past year: For the Platform and Content Group (PCG), which oversees numerous businesses, the focus this year has been on actively exploring AI integration capabilities. QQ has become more focused, listening to user feedback, and bringing back popular legacy products like QQ Show and QQ Farm. QQ Show has integrated AI capabilities, allowing users to upload materials to generate images themselves. Tencent News continues to prioritize high-quality information content and is exploring ways to use AI to improve users' information browsing efficiency. MyApp has developed new scenarios enabling many Android mobile apps to run seamlessly on PC Windows systems, a feature that also received praise from Microsoft. Tencent Video is leveraging AI multimodal capabilities and, through cooperation with China Literature, is promoting the adaptation of more proprietary IP content into film and television productions.
Tight upstream supply and rising prices have led to expectations of significant net profit growth for some memory manufacturers. As memory product price increases affect the pricing of various consumer electronics, the memory price hike has garnered widespread attention. Recent market reports suggest that Samsung Electronics plans to raise the supply price of NAND flash memory by over 100% in the first quarter of this year. Inquiries made to Samsung Electronics regarding this news had not received a direct response by the time of publication. Calls to the securities departments of several A-share memory manufacturers also did not yield clear statements on the topic. However, the industry widely anticipates that memory chip prices will continue to rise in the first quarter. Recently, at an investor exchange event, BIWIN Storage indicated that, currently, memory product prices are expected to keep rising in the first and second quarters of 2026. TrendForce predicts that NAND Flash product prices will continue to increase by 33% to 38% in the first quarter, while general-purpose DRAM prices are expected to rise by 55% to 60%. The memory sector involves Hong Kong-listed GigaDevice (03986). A recent Goldman Sachs report pointed out that the DRAM market is experiencing a rare price imbalance, with spot prices showing a huge premium over contract prices. Specifically, the spot price for DDR4 is 172% higher than the contract price, and for DDR5, the difference is 76%. Goldman Sachs stated that such a spread has been extremely unsustainable in past cycles, ultimately leaving only one path: contract prices being forced to catch up significantly.
For the first time globally, a general-purpose large language model has been successfully deployed in orbit. At the "Star Computing · Intelligent Connectivity" Space Computing Power Seminar organized by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology on January 26, 2026, Wang Yabo, Executive Vice President of National Space Astronomy disclosed that in November 2025, National Space Astronomy successfully deployed the Tongyi Qianwen Qwen3 large model to the "Star Computing" Plan's 01 group space computing center. This marks the world's first instance of a general-purpose large model being uploaded from the ground to an in-orbit satellite, achieving on-orbit deployment. Subsequently, the Qwen large model successfully performed multiple end-to-end inference tasks in space. Questions were uploaded from the ground to the satellite, where the large model completed on-orbit inference, and the resulting data was transmitted back to the ground. The entire process took less than two minutes. The Qwen large model involves Hong Kong-listed Alibaba (09988).
Conant Optical (02276) announced a proposed placement of 27 million shares at a discount of approximately 11.1%, aiming to raise net proceeds of about HKD 1.4 billion. The company announced that on January 27, 2026 (before the trading session), it entered into a placement agreement with the placing agents, namely Haitong International and Huatai International. According to the agreement, the placing agents (acting as agents for the company) have conditionally agreed, on a several but not joint basis, to procure no fewer than six placees to subscribe for 27 million placement shares at the placing price of HKD 52.00 per share. The placement shares represent approximately 5.63% of the existing issued share capital as of the date of the announcement. The placing price of HKD 52.00 per share represents a discount of approximately 11.1% compared to the closing price of HKD 58.50 per share on January 26.
Zijin Mining Group (02899): Subsidiary plans to acquire 100% equity of Allied Gold Corporation for CNY 28 billion. Zijin Mining announced on January 26 that its controlled subsidiary, Zijin Gold International Limited (in which the company holds an 85% stake), has signed an Arrangement Agreement with Allied Gold Corporation. Zijin Gold International intends to acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Allied Gold for a cash price of CAD 44 per share, with a total transaction consideration of approximately CAD 5.5 billion (equivalent to approximately CNY 28 billion). Allied Gold's core assets include the producing Sadiola gold mine in Mali, the Côte d'Ivoire gold complex (comprising the Bonikro and Agbaou gold mines), and the Kurmuk gold mine in Ethiopia, which is expected to commence production in the second half of 2026. According to publicly disclosed information, as of the end of 2024, Allied Gold had gold resources of 533 tons, with an average grade of 1.48 grams per ton. Allied Gold produced 10.7 tons and 11.1 tons of gold in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and is expected to produce 11.7 to 12.4 tons of gold in 2025. Relying on the expansion of the Sadiola project and the commencement of production at the Kurmuk project, gold production is projected to increase to 25 tons by 2029. This transaction is subject to uncertainties, and its final completion is contingent upon meeting relevant conditions, including but not limited to approval by Allied Gold's shareholders, approval by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Canada, and approvals, filings, or exemptions from relevant government authorities in China, Canada, and other jurisdictions. Investors are advised to pay attention to investment risks.
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