【Morning Briefing】UK and US Reach Agreement on Terms of Tariff Trade Deal

Macro News

1. President Xi Jinping and President Putin signed the "Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Further Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era between China and Russia on the Occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, and the Founding of the United Nations."

2. At the regular press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on the afternoon of May 8, a reporter asked about the high-level economic and trade talks between China and the US. He Yadong, the spokesperson for MOFCOM, stated that if the US side wants to resolve issues through negotiations, it must face up to the serious negative impacts of unilateral tariff measures on itself and the world, respect international economic and trade rules, fairness, justice, and the rational voices of all sectors, and demonstrate sincerity in negotiations. It should be prepared to take actions to correct erroneous practices and cancel unilateral tariff hikes, work in the same direction as China, and resolve mutual concerns through equal consultations.

3. At the regular press conference held by MOFCOM yesterday, a reporter asked whether the "second phase" of the China-US trade agreement would be proposed during the talks. MOFCOM stated that China has repeatedly emphasized that the door to negotiations remains open, but any dialogue or negotiations must be conducted on the premise of mutual respect, equal consultations, and mutual benefit.

4. On the 8th local time, the UK and the US reached an agreement on the terms of a tariff and trade deal. The UK government agreed to make concessions on importing US food and agricultural products in exchange for the US reducing tariffs on British car exports.

5. In response to the US Fed's decision on interest rates, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) stated that the US Fed's decision to maintain interest rates unchanged was in line with market expectations. The HKMA emphasized that it would continue to closely monitor market changes and maintain monetary and financial stability.

Industry News

1. Zhang Guoqing, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, conducted research on food safety, market supervision, and other work in Henan from the 7th to the 8th. Zhang Guoqing emphasized the need to strengthen supervision capabilities throughout the entire food safety chain by focusing on daily work and maintaining strict standards at all times.

2. The Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau issued the latest bulletin on the supervision of private equity funds in Shenzhen. The bulletin pointed out that in recent years, during routine supervision, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau has discovered that some private equity fund managers in the jurisdiction have engaged in investment operations that violate laws, regulations, and fund contract agreements. The Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau requires that investment operations must comply with regulatory rules and fund contract agreements and must not harm the legitimate rights and interests of investors.

3. The magazine "Qizhi" recently published an article titled "Vigorously Boost Consumption, Expand Domestic Demand in All Aspects, and Promote Sustained Economic Rebound and Improvement" by Wang Wentao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce.The article points out that efforts should be made to expand service consumption and tap into incremental consumption potential. It also advocates for promoting "AI + consumption" and "IP + consumption" to cultivate a number of AI-driven consumer brands.

4. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has publicly solicited opinions, proposing to strengthen the safety logic of automotive exterior door handles in accident scenarios such as collisions and vehicle fires. It calls for the addition of safety redundancy design requirements, such as mechanical or power-off protection, to ensure that the door system can be opened during power outages, collisions, and other accidents, thereby facilitating rescue and escape activities.

5. A research team from China has developed a long-lasting and stable in-situ expansion force monitoring technology for lithium-ion batteries. According to the researchers, this technology opens up new avenues for the design of smart batteries, with its low cost, high precision, and long lifespan making it particularly suitable for vehicle battery management systems.

6. According to the Hefei Housing Authority, recent investigations based on netizen reports and patrols have revealed that a small number of self-media accounts on platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and WeChat Video Accounts have been using exaggerated and sensational headlines to attract followers and drive traffic. These accounts have been illegally publishing false information, misleading the public, and disrupting market order. Multiple departments in Hefei have jointly summoned self-media accounts in the real estate sector to address false statements such as "the money you spend on buying a house this year can buy two houses next year."

7. Caixin reporters have noticed that several banks have recently launched limited-time promotional offers for cash installment services, with some banks offering interest discounts as low as 17%. After the discounts, the annualized interest rates for cash installment products, which traditionally have higher interest rates than general loans, have fallen below 3%, with the lowest rate reported at 2.76%.

Corporate News

1. China Merchants Bank announced its intention to establish a financial asset investment company with a capital injection of 15 billion yuan.

2. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) released its Q1 financial report, showing a year-on-year increase of 167% in net profit. It is expected that revenue in Q2 will decline by 4% to 6% QoQ, with a gross profit margin of 18% to 20%.

3. China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited announced that its application for a major asset restructuring has been accepted.

4. Jinhe Biotechnology stated on an interactive platform that it has increased the terminal selling prices in the US market.

5. Guoke Hengtai announced that four shareholders intend to collectively reduce their holdings by no more than 4.7% of the company's shares.

6. Zhucheng Technology announced that its controlling shareholder and actual controller, Zhang Jianchun, and Shi Lefen have dissolved their marriage and are undergoing property division.

7. Sichuan Changhong announced its intention to repurchase company shares worth 250 million to 500 million yuan for equity incentives.

8. Shandong Molong announced that from May 7 to May 8, Zhimeng Holdings and its concerted actors cumulatively reduced their holdings of the company's H shares by 107 million shares, accounting for 13.3866% of the company's total share capital.

9. Ningbo Huaxiang announced a collaboration with Xiangshan Industrial Investment and Shanghai Zhiyuan to strengthen cooperation in areas such as robotics.

10. China CITIC Bank announced plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, CITIC Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan.

11. Donghua Software announced that its actual controller and concerted action parties plan to reduce their holdings by no more than 1% of the company's shares.

Global Markets

1. The three major US stock indices closed higher collectively. The Nasdaq rose 1.07%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.58%. Tesla and Intel both rose more than 3%. ARM fell more than 6% as the company's earnings guidance fell short of expectations. Novavax rose approximately 12% after the company issued higher-than-expected sales guidance for fiscal 2025. QBTS surged more than 51%, marking its best single-day performance since May 2023 and leading a group of quantum computing concept stocks. Most popular Chinese ADRs rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing up 0.97%. The three major European stock indices closed with mixed results, with the German DAX rising 1.02%.

2. International crude oil futures settlement prices rose approximately 3%. The June contract for WTI crude oil futures rose 3.17%, and the July contract for Brent crude oil futures rose 2.81%.

3. COMEX gold futures fell 2.4% to $3,310.4 per ounce; COMEX silver futures fell 0.58% to $32.6 per ounce.

4. On the 8th, US President Trump announced at the White House that the US and the UK had reached a new trade agreement, partially withdrawing tariffs in specific areas and further expanding market access for each other's products.

Investment Opportunities Reference

1. Another company launches AI agent products; institutions say the commercialization of AI agents both domestically and internationally continues to evolve.

Media reports indicate that IBM recently unveiled a series of hybrid cloud technology innovations at its annual Think conference, which are expected to break the long-standing barriers to the large-scale application of enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI) and help enterprises build and deploy advanced AI agents using their own data. IBM has developed a comprehensive, enterprise-ready agent toolkit based on watsonxOrchestrate to achieve this goal.

An agent is a system capable of autonomous perception, decision-making, and execution, with characteristics such as autonomy, interactivity, reactivity, and adaptability, enabling it to independently complete tasks in complex and dynamic environments. The emergence of agents marks a step forward for AI towards higher levels of autonomous intelligence. Shanghai Securities believes that the commercialization of AI agents both domestically and internationally continues to evolve, with a broad market space. On the enterprise (B2B) side, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Zoom, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and others continue to increase their investments, driving the commercialization of AI agents.C-side, domestic and overseas Agents have emerged impressively. OpenAI released AI agents Operator and DeepResearch; Zhipu launched two major systems, AutoGLM and GLM-PC, covering mobile devices and desktops, and introduced AutoGLM Meditation; Anthropic released the Computeruse feature. The AI Agent market has vast potential. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global AI Agent market is expected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2024 to $47.1 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 44.8%.

2. MIIT stated that China's software and information technology service industry revenue in Q1 increased by 10.6% YoY

According to media reports, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that in Q1 this year, China's software and information technology service industry revenue reached 3,147.9 billion yuan, up 10.6% YoY, with total profit maintaining double-digit growth, and software export growth turning from negative to positive. Information technology service revenue maintained double-digit growth. In Q1, information technology service revenue was 2,082 billion yuan, up 11.0% YoY, accounting for nearly 70% of the industry's total revenue. Among them, cloud computing and big data services generated 354 billion yuan, up 11.1% YoY, and integrated circuit design revenue was 90.6 billion yuan, up 19.7% YoY. Additionally, information security revenue growth accelerated. In Q1, information security product and service revenue was 48.1 billion yuan, up 8.6% YoY.

According to the First New Voice Research Institute, the market size of the domestic innovation industry is expected to accelerate in the future, reaching 2,655.9 billion yuan by 2026. Dongguan Securities stated that in recent years, the Chinese government has continuously strengthened policy support and financial guarantees in the domestic innovation field, and the accelerated pace of publishing safety and reliability evaluation results is expected to boost downstream customers' purchasing enthusiasm. Under the catalysis of multiple factors, China's domestic innovation industry is expected to usher in new development opportunities.

3. Domestic and overseas industrial sectors have seen intensive catalysts, and the humanoid robot industry chain has entered a stage of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending"

It is reported that in the first working week after the Labour Day holiday, humanoid robots made in Foshan will also start "working" in factories. On May 6, a special "send-off ceremony" was held at Midea's global packaging center, with the main character being the company's self-developed humanoid robot, which will head to Midea's washing machine factory in Jingzhou, Hubei, to "start work" and begin its labor journey.

Shanghai Securities believes that recently, domestic and overseas industrial sectors have seen intensive catalysts, with a significant increase in industry entrants. Domestic automakers and tech producers such as Huawei, ByteDance, BYD, Xiaomi, GAC, and Ant have increased their investments in embodied intelligence, while overseas companies like Tesla, 1X, and Figure AI have accelerated the pace of commercial mass production. The emergence of DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Company has promoted the development of general-purpose robot models, helping humanoid robots achieve embodied intelligence. The humanoid robot industry chain has entered a stage of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending." Currently, humanoid robots entering industrial scenarios have become a highly certain application trend both domestically and overseas, and the commercial landing of humanoid robots is promising. It is recommended to pay attention to the benefiting domestic parts producers.

4. Another AI event hosted by Volcengine is about to kick off. AI is expected to reshape the gaming industry in terms of development, interaction, and commercialization.

The 2025 Volcengine ForceLink AI Innovation Tour - Shanghai Station will commence on May 13. Ding Chaofan, General Manager of Giant AI Business Unit, will deliver a speech titled "AI Reshaping the Boundaries of Gaming, Unlocking Infinite Possibilities for Innovation."

AI is expected to reshape gaming in terms of development, interaction, and commercialization. Specifically, Kaiyuan Securities believes that: (1) From auxiliary tools to core drivers, AI is reshaping the game development process: AI technology has been widely applied in various aspects of game development, from auxiliary tasks such as early-stage art asset generation and code-assisted writing, gradually penetrating into core creative areas such as gameplay design, narrative architecture, and intelligent NPCs. This is expected to continuously improve game R&D efficiency and expand content supply. (2) Intelligent NPCs, dynamic narratives, and personalized gameplay bring about interaction innovation: Intelligent NPCs can make the narrative development more immersive and random. AI-driven dynamic narrative generation systems can automatically generate subsequent narratives based on players' real-time decisions, breaking the limitations of linear storytelling, greatly enhancing game replayability, and further expanding the game's revenue potential. (3) New opportunities may arise for business models such as subscription, in-app purchases, and advertising monetization: Based on AI's ability to continuously update high-quality content, the subscription-based business model may become more feasible. AI can accurately recommend in-app purchase items to players, increasing their willingness to pay. Additionally, AI can achieve precise matching of advertising content with players' interests, improving ad click-through rates and conversion rates.