[Morning Post] The third batch of pilot reforms for long-term investment of insurance funds will be approved. The People's Bank of China conducted 500 billion yuan of Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) operations today.

Macro News

1. On the afternoon of May 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron at the latter's request. President Xi pointed out that during his visit to France in May last year, both sides agreed to carry forward the spirit of China-France diplomatic relations, which is characterized by independence, mutual understanding, foresight, and mutual benefit and win-win results, and to endow it with new connotations of the times. Since then, China-France cooperation has achieved many new developments. Both sides should strengthen strategic communication and build consensus. They should seize opportunities to deepen cooperation in traditional areas such as investment, aerospace, and nuclear energy, and expand cooperation in emerging areas such as digital, green, biomedical, and silver economy. They should also enhance people-to-people exchanges and promote friendship between the two peoples.

2. He Lifeng, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., on the evening of the 22nd. He Lifeng expressed welcome to US enterprises, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., to continue deepening mutually beneficial cooperation with China and to contribute to the healthy, stable, and sustained development of China-US economic and trade relations. Jamie Dimon positively evaluated the outcomes of the US-China economic and trade talks and expressed his willingness to continue to deepen involvement in China's capital market, better serve multinational corporations expanding their businesses in China, and support Chinese companies in their overseas development.

3. Yesterday, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Guo Wuping, spokesperson of the National Financial Regulatory Administration and Director General of the Policy Research Department, stated that the third batch of pilot reforms for long-term investment of insurance funds would be approved soon, with a scale of 60 billion yuan. Yan Bojin, Director General of the Issuance Supervision Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, stated that the fifth set of listing criteria for the Science and Technology Innovation Board would be implemented prudently to promote the implementation of new typical cases; the domestic listing environment for technology companies would be continuously optimized to support the return of high-quality red-chip technology companies for domestic listing; and a more flexible and precise counter-cyclical adjustment mechanism for new share issuance would be implemented.

4. He Yongqian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, presided over a regular press conference yesterday. A reporter asked about the US export controls on AI chips. He Yongqian stated that China firmly opposes this and will closely monitor subsequent developments by the US side, taking resolute measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.

5. The People's Bank of China announced that to maintain ample liquidity in the banking system, it would conduct a 500 billion yuan Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) operation today through fixed-quantity, interest-rate tendering, and multiple-price bidding, with a term of one year.

6. The Ministry of Commerce reported on China's outbound investment and cooperation in the first four months of this year. From January to April 2025, China's outbound direct investment across all industries amounted to 57.54 billion US dollars, up 7.5% YoY. Among this, outbound non-financial direct investment was 51.04 billion US dollars, up 5.6% YoY. Non-financial direct investment in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative was 12.78 billion US dollars, up 16.4% YoY.

Industry News

1. The China Society of Automotive Engineers officially released the group standard "Determination Method for All-Solid-State Batteries," clearly defining all-solid-state batteries for the first time. The new standard stipulates that "all-solid-state batteries" must achieve ion transfer exclusively through solid electrolytes, establishing a strict technical demarcation from hybrid solid-liquid electrolyte batteries.

2. Last night, Xiaomi unveiled its first 3-nanometer flagship processor, the "Xuanjie O1," independently developed and designed by the company. The processor is integrated into Xiaomi's latest flagship smartphone and tablet products. Additionally, the Xiaomi YU 7 was officially launched at yesterday's event. The YU 7 is equipped with Xiaomi's Super Motor V6s Plus, delivering a maximum horsepower of 690PS. It accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.23 seconds, reaches a top speed of 253 km/h, and has a shortest braking distance from 100 to 0 km/h of 33.9 meters.

3. He Yongqian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that according to statistics from relevant departments, from September 2024 to April 2025, retail sales of home appliances maintained double-digit growth for eight consecutive months. In April, retail sales of home appliances and audio-visual equipment by enterprises above designated size increased by 38.8% year-on-year, ranking first among the 16 major categories of consumer goods in terms of growth rate.

4. In response to reports of HiPhi Auto's alleged "resurrection," Lanjing Auto called HiPhi's official customer service hotline. Staff members stated that there was no news at present, that the company had not yet announced information on resuming work and production, nor had it opened order bookings. Currently, the company is still undergoing restructuring.

5. Miao Bo, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of the National Radio and Television Administration, stated at the 5th China (Beijing) Radio and Television Media Integration Development Conference on the 22nd that it is necessary to plan and promote the healthy and sustainable development of artificial intelligence in the radio, television, and audiovisual sectors with a higher stance, deeper understanding, broader perspective, and wider vision.

6. BYD's EV sales in Europe surpassed Tesla's for the first time, overtaking the US brand, which has long dominated the European EV market. According to data from market research firm Jato Dynamics, BYD registered 7,231 new EV sales in April, representing a 169% increase compared to the same period last year, placing BYD among the top 10 EV brands in terms of sales.

7. According to a report by CRIC Real Estate Research, as of the end of 2024, the total land reserves of the TOP 100 real estate enterprises amounted to 25.23 trillion yuan, a 13% decrease from the end of last year. Based on the TOP 100 real estate enterprises' total land reserve value rankings, the weighted average de-stocking period for the land reserves of the top 100 enterprises as of the end of 2024 was 6.93 years, a record high.

8. It is reported that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken plans to allow non-US customers to trade popular stocks such as Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia in tokenized form through digital ledgers. The company stated that such "tokenized stocks" will make it easier for non-US investors to invest in US stocks.

Company News

1. Xinhua Insurance announced that it would invest 10 billion yuan to subscribe for shares in private equity funds.

2. Daqian Ecology announced that Xinhua Publishing Group and Wang Zheng'an plan to jointly reduce their holdings by no more than 3.3% of the company's shares.

3. Nanjing Port announced that its holding subsidiary does not directly participate in import and export trade.

4. Zangge Mining announced that it had received a cash dividend of 1.539 billion yuan from its participating company, Julong Copper.

5. Laysen & Thorne announced that it had not signed any major contracts recently, and its production costs, sales, and other conditions were normal.

6. Tiantie Technology announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Xinjie Energy, planning to cooperate in solid-state battery lithium metal anode materials and related fields.

7. Sany Heavy Industry announced that it had submitted an application for the listing and issuance of H shares to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and published the application materials.

8. Changan Automobile stated in its investor relations activity record that it would launch 35 new digital and intelligent vehicles in the next three years and achieve solid-state battery vehicle installation verification by 2026.

9. Cao Peng, Chairman of the Technical Committee of JD Group and President of JD Cloud Business Unit, revealed that 14,000 intelligent agents had been put into "competition," with digital humans achieving sales performance exceeding 80% of human anchors.

10. 3S Bio announced that it had reached a cooperation agreement with Pfizer on Project 707, with uncertainty regarding the actual sales milestone payments and royalties received by the licensor.

11. Hongchuang Holding announced that it planned to purchase 100% of the equity in Hongtuo Industrial for 63.518 billion yuan.

12. Demashi announced that the company's actual controller would change from He Jianping to Pan Yi, and its shares would resume trading.

Global Markets

1. The three major US stock indices closed with mixed changes. The Dow closed flat, the Nasdaq rose 0.28%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.04%. Most popular Chinese ADRs closed lower, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index falling 1.18%.

2. WTI crude oil futures closed down 0.6% at $61.20 per barrel; Brent crude oil futures closed down 0.72% at $64.44 per barrel.

3. COMEX gold futures closed down 0.56% at $3,295.1 per ounce, and COMEX silver futures closed down 1.39% at $33.18 per ounce.

Investment Opportunities Reference

1. XPeng Motors plans to launch humanoid robots for industrial and commercial scenarios in 2026

According to media reports, at XPeng Motors' Q1 2025 earnings call, XPeng Motors Chairman He Xiaopeng stated that XPeng's physical world foundation large model would be fully applied in the AI automotive field in 2025, while a larger-scale cloud foundation large model and edge-side model were also under development. Next, XPeng Motors will advance from the R&D of L2+ assisted driving to higher-level autonomous driving technologies, specifically L3 and L4. The company aims to launch humanoid robots for industrial and commercial applications by 2026, leveraging data-driven evolution through mass production scenarios.

Minsheng Securities believes that the inflection point for the industrialisation of humanoid robots has been established, with three key drivers opening up a trillion-yuan market. The humanoid robot sector is transitioning from thematic investment to growth investment, with 2025 expected to be the first year of global mass production. On the technology front, large models have broken through the versatility bottleneck, and DeepSeek's low-cost training paradigm is accelerating the deployment of AGI. On the industrial front, tech giants such as Tesla, NVIDIA, and Huawei are intensively deploying in this area. On the policy front, the government work report clearly states the need to cultivate future industries such as embodied intelligence and vigorously develop intelligent robots.

2. One of the emerging tracks in AI hardware, with overall demand radiating across all age groups

It is reported that, as one of the emerging tracks in AI hardware, the AI toy market is growing rapidly. According to data from consulting firm IMARC Group, the market size reached $18.1 billion in 2024 alone, accounting for nearly 20% of the $108 billion global toy market in the same year.

Northeast Securities believes that AI toys have endowed toys with the ability to "move," namely, triple capabilities of interaction, companionship, and education (Q&A). Overall demand is radiating across all age groups. AI is expected to become the core catalyst for the toy market after trendy IPs, with potential far exceeding that of the Z-generation during the boom of trendy toys. From a neutral perspective, the penetration rate of AI toys is expected to at least match that of trendy toys. It is projected that the domestic penetration rate will reach 29%, 41%, and 47% by 2026, 2028, and 2030, respectively, with the domestic market potentially approaching 85 billion yuan by 2030.

3. The increasingly diversified needs of companies going global, with policy guidance expected to open up new growth spaces for the industry

According to media reports, as the financial service needs of companies going global become increasingly diversified, more and more domestic cross-border payment institutions are actively seeking higher-value overseas payment licenses as the foundation for upgrading their cross-border fund collection, payment, and exchange services.

Guotai Haitong Securities pointed out that the plan proposed by the People's Bank of China and three other departments aims to enhance the functionality and global network coverage of the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and promote more banks to join CIPS. In addition, the State Council has deployed and implemented a strategy to upgrade pilot free trade zones and advance high-level opening up. Policy guidance is expected to support the cross-border payment industry in opening up new growth spaces.

4. The National Press and Publication Administration announces approval information for online games in May

According to media reports, the National Press and Publication Administration announced the approval information for domestic online games in May, with a total of 130 games approved in May. So far this year, a total of 610 domestic games have been approved. In addition, the National Press and Publication Administration also released the approval information for imported online games in 2025, with a total of 14 imported games approved in May. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 44 imported games have been approved.

In May, the issuance of game licenses proceeded at a steady pace, with the total number of domestic game approvals remaining above 100. Overall, the supply side continued to release, the trend of normalized license issuance remained firm, and the pace of industry recovery continued to advance. Wanlian Securities stated that, from the perspective of fund overweight allocations and valuation levels in the SW Media industry in Q1 2025, valuation levels have significantly recovered. The industry as a whole is still in an underweight allocation range, with significant room for improvement. Leading companies in the gaming and advertising & marketing sectors are the core focus of institutional attention. It is recommended to pay attention to gaming companies with abundant game license reserves and AI application layouts, as well as leading companies in the digital marketing and elevator media sectors.