PANews June 12 news, according to the Sing Tao Daily report, the Hong Kong Financial Development Council (FDC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with TheCityUK. It is reported that the cooperation between the two parties will focus on financial transformation, virtual assets, and capacity building, while establishing a cooperation framework to promote knowledge exchange on regulatory practices, innovative financial products, and emerging Financial Service opportunities. According to previous reports, Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform Party in the UK, revealed plans to submit a new cryptocurrency bill to help the financial district innovate in crypto and establish a two-year regulatory sandbox.

On December 26th, Jinshi Data reported that the tough remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz have damaged the trust in the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for hostage releases and ceasefires, citing anonymous sources. The sources complained that Netanyahu and Katz's remarks about Israel continuing to control Gaza after the war were 'unnecessary and harmful' to the negotiations. The core of the negotiations is a phased protocol, the first part of which will release many hostages. The sources said: 'The only hope of entering the first stage is that people believe that the second and third stages will include a ceasefire.' 'Why should we go through the first stage when they say we won't transfer, won't withdraw, won't stop, and will maintain military control?' In response to the report, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office angrily stated in a statement that these criticisms once again echoed Hamas propaganda and came from negotiators who were unwilling.

Golden Finance reported that, according to Sing Tao Daily, Ma Haowen, Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong-listed company Sider Global, revealed that the company had suffered losses due to the closure of FTX. Sider Global spent 10.1 million yuan in 2021 to purchase 23.4 BTC, which was stored in FTX, which collapsed in 2022 and is still awaiting compensation. However, Ma Haowen stated that he still agrees with the company's strategy of holding BTC reserves, but has not yet responded to whether they will buy BTC again in the future, citing increased regulatory confidence in investors in Hong Kong at present.

On November 29th, Jinshi Data reported that the mid-term performance ending on September 30, 2024, of Dah Sing Group (00052.HK), had a slight decrease of 0.3% in revenue to HKD 1.554 billion, and the attributable net profit to equity shareholders was HKD 15.5 million, a decline of more than 50% from HKD 36.3 million in the same period last year. The company declared an interim dividend of HKD 0.05 per share.

Jinse Finance reported that, according to Hong Kong media Sing Tao Daily, in recent days, several large international virtual asset trading platforms have withdrawn their license applications in Hong Kong, CertiK co-founder, Web

This week, 9 banks raised interest rates, including Public Finance, Jiyu, ICBC, CCB, PAObank, Furong, Shangshang, Bank of Communications, and Fubon; 4 Hong Kong banks lowered interest rates, including Dah Sing, DBS, OCBC, and Public Finance; 6-month term became a popular deposit term; next week, small and medium-sized banks are expected to continue raising interest rates to compete for deposits.

PANews October 29th news, according to the Sing Tao Daily, Digital BankZA Bank announced that its virtual asset trading service has entered the sandbox testing phase.

Golden Finance reported that, according to Hong Kong media Sing Tao Daily, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the list of stablecoin issuers sandbox participants in July this year, with Standard Chartered Bank being one of them. Dominic Maffei, head of digital assets and financial technology at the bank, said that Standard Chartered Bank's research direction is to launch a "universal stablecoin full-function platform"

Daiwa Securities released a report stating that BYD's annual sales forecast is 4 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 33%, higher than the initial target of 3.6 million vehicles; the sales guidance for overseas markets remains at 450,000 to 500,000 vehicles. The bank raised its earnings forecast for BYD from 2024 to 2026 by 7% to 11% per share and raised the target price from HKD 351 to HKD 376. The investment rating is 'Buy', indicating that BYD's current valuation is equivalent to a forecasted P/E ratio of 13 times in 2025.

Jinshi data news on September 5th, according to the Sing Tao Daily, Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong will provide a 0.1% to 0.2% rebate for mortgage loans. The quotation of Hang Seng Bank will be similar to that of Standard Chartered. HSBC has launched a pre-approval service for mortgages, and the market expects the bank to resume rebates soon. Under the supervision of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the banking industry has promised to provide mortgage approval results to customers within two weeks. Since April, large banks have been reducing mortgage rebates, and by May, rebates have been completely canceled.

Nicholas Lardy, a well-known economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, believes that the pessimistic view of China's prospects is largely based on misunderstandings, which blind analysts to the potential for China's future large-scale growth. "Although growth has slowed in recent years, China could expand twice as fast as the United States in the coming years," Lardy wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine on Tuesday. Lardy said the misconception about economic growth also comes from the sharp tightening of interest rates in the United States since 2022, while the opposite is true in China. This has depressed the renminbi and eroded the value of China's GDP in dollar terms. But with U.S. monetary policy likely to ease soon and the renminbi to appreciate in the near term, "nominal GDP in dollar terms will almost certainly return to moving closer to the U.S. this year and possibly surpass the U.S. in about a decade." Lardy also noted that China bears are also wrong about China's domestic spending, and dismissed the idea that private investment in China is shrinking.

PANews reported on March 28 that, according to Sing Tao.com, Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong) announced that it had obtained a Type 9 license from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to provide asset management services, and could provide investors with a series of asset management services in the future, including special account services for retail and professional investors, as well as the management of collective investment plans for professional investors. Xu Yang, a partner at Tiger International, said that in addition to professional investors, the license also allows Tiger to provide discretionary account services for retail investors, lowering the entry threshold. The company also mentioned that in January this year, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) upgraded its Type 1 license conditions, allowing professional investors to trade virtual assets on the SFC-licensed platform through Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong), becoming the first online brokerage company to obtain the license upgrade, and the approval of the Type 9 license will help the company further develop its business circle in the Hong Kong market.

Cathy Wood said in an interview that she expects the SEC to approve the first BitcoinSpot ETF this week. Given the large increase in expectations for approvals, many believe that people will start selling Bitcoin when BitcoinSpot ETFs are actually approved, the so-called "buy the news, sell the facts". But Wood disagreed, saying, "We think that's going to give the agency the green light if it gets SEC approval." Moreover, there is no need for institutions to allocate a lot to Bitcoin, and Bitcoin will rise sharply, because Bitcoin is becoming a scarce asset. Wood also said that Bitcoin is digital gold. After the approval of the BitcoinSpot ETF, one may see some substitution between the two assets.

NetEase Cloud Music and Xiaoice X Studio jointly released an AI singer creation tool, launching two versions for Apple and Windows. It is understood that users can get dozens of singers from the cloud, and only need to provide MIDI and lyrics, and the singers will sing a human-like voice in 3 seconds, and each singer is unique. Users can adjust the parameters, whether it is portamento, transposition, vibrato, articulation, rhythm, timbre or intensity changes. It is reported that X Studio uses streaming rendering singing synthesis, which makes the singing voice synthesis 5 times faster than the previous version, and the synthesis can be completed in 3 seconds. At the same time, for the first time, X Studio has increased the number of tracks synthesized at the same time to 30.

Mike Wilson, chief equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said that disinflation is about to turn into deflation, which is the main headwind to corporate earnings, which in turn affects stock prices. Wilson noted that it will take about 12 months for the full impact of the rate hike to be felt in the real economy. That could mean that inflation will cool off much faster than expected until prices actually start to fall. The result could be not just disinflation (slower price rises) but outright deflation (falling prices). Deflation would deprive companies of pricing power, "which is a slippery slope for earnings growth and equity valuations, which are already pretty high."

The greenback's depreciation over the past week has some strategists and investors thinking that a turning point for the greenback is finally at hand. Steven Barrow, head of G10 strategy at Standard Bank, said in a report on Friday that the dollar will enter a multi-year downward trend, in part because the Fed's tightening cycle will switch to an easing cycle, even as other major central banks follow suit. A rate cut, but that would still pull the dollar lower. Michael Cahill, foreign exchange strategist at Goldman Sachs, pointed out that the biggest risk of further decline in the dollar is the divergence of inflation situation in different countries. The U.S. economy is less resilient than in the past, and if the Fed shifts gears to end the inflation fight but the ECB is forced to keep raising rates, the support for the dollar could collapse.

The greenback's depreciation over the past week has some strategists and investors thinking that a turning point for the greenback is finally at hand. Steven Barrow, head of G10 strategy at Standard Bank, said in a report on Friday that the dollar will enter a multi-year downward trend, in part because the Fed's tightening cycle will switch to an easing cycle, even as other major central banks follow suit. A rate cut, but that would still pull the dollar lower. Michael Cahill, foreign exchange strategist at Goldman Sachs, pointed out that the biggest risk of further decline in the dollar is the divergence of inflation situation in different countries. The U.S. economy is less resilient than in the past, and if the Fed shifts gears to end the inflation fight but the ECB is forced to keep raising rates, the support for the dollar could collapse.