Macroeconomic News

Iranian Foreign Minister: Held talks with mediators on Monday, will not stay in New York waiting for a response from the United States

According to reports from ITAR ( IRNA ), Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Khamenei stated that Iran met again with Qatari mediators on Monday (the 28th) to hold talks, discussing several proposals to be presented to the United States. Khamenei mentioned that Iran has put forward conditions for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran's supreme leader has also emphasized this point; the Strait of Hormuz can only be reopened once these conditions are fulfilled. Khamenei said that Iran has conveyed these conditions to the United States and the international community, and added that if the United States claims to be seeking an agreement or a peaceful solution, Iran has already proposed corresponding proposals.

Alagzi stated that he will return to Tehran in a few hours and will not stay in New York waiting for a response from the United States; after receiving a reply from the US side, Qatar will pass it on to Iran through appropriate channels. He also mentioned that communication channels for exchanging information between Qatar and Pakistani mediators have always existed, but since Iran has proposed a plan, these communications have now entered a more serious phase.

Trump calls reports in U.S. media about "lifting sanctions on Iran and unfreezing funds" to be false

U.S. President Donald Trump stated: “Axios just published a report claiming that ‘Trump’ provided Iran with sanctions exemptions and the conditions for unfreezing frozen funds. This is not true. I have not given them anything of the sort! The reports from Axios are, like most other reports, a scam, merely intended to satisfy their ‘Trump delusion syndrome.’ They should immediately retract this false report!”

Trump willing to provide sanctions relief to Iran if "substantial progress" is made on nuclear issues

According to Al Jazeera, U.S. President Donald Trump is willing to consider lifting sanctions against Iran and releasing frozen funds if there is "concrete progress" on the Iranian nuclear issue. U.S. officials stated that the United States and Iran are engaged in "active and constructive" discussions through intermediaries, but if the nuclear issue cannot be resolved, no agreement will be reached between the two sides. The official mentioned that Iran has shown some flexibility on the nuclear issue, but the two parties have not yet agreed on the timing for implementing these commitments. Trump previously rejected Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling it "unacceptable."

Trump stated that more talks with Iran are expected this week. The United States is led in the negotiations by Special Envoy for Middle East Issues Brett Cook, Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Pompeo said that Trump is skeptical about Iran's proposals, believing that Iran wants to obtain all conditions before proceeding with further negotiations. White House officials also noted that the U.S. is cautious about Iran's commitments, as Iran previously violated the memorandum of understanding reached in July by attacking commercial vessels.

OpenAI Release of GPT-6.1 postponed due to security issues Astra

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has canceled the release plan for its next-generation AI model due to security issues discovered by researchers during internal testing. OpenAI was originally scheduled to launch a model named GPT-6.1 Astra in the coming days or weeks. This new model is supposed to be more capable of completing complex end-to-end tasks and writing tasks without human assistance. OpenAI, the person in charge of the security system, stated that GPT-6.1 Astra has regressed in two security aspects compared to the previous models, hence it cannot be released safely. The model performed poorly in tests measuring "alignment," which refers to its ability to follow human expected behavior. Specifically, GPT-6.1 Astra exhibited a higher degree of deception, such as an inability to always honestly inform users about the actions it took or did not take.

Anthropic releases the Sonnet 5.5 model

Anthropic releases the Sonnet 5.5 model. The Sonnet 5.5 runs significantly faster than the Sonnet 5 and serves as a low-cost alternative to the Opus 5.5. The pricing for Sonnet 5.5 is $2 per million inputs, $10 per million outputs, and $0.2 per million cache reads. The Haiku 5.5 model is about to be launched, designed specifically for fast, high-throughput tasks.

Rare in 25 years: 10-year U.S. Treasury yield exceeds the earnings yield of the S&P 500

The yield gap between bonds and stocks has reversed to its most favorable level for bonds in 25 years, and this structural shift is forcing investors to re-evaluate their asset allocation strategies. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond has surpassed 5%, making bonds more attractive than stocks at their highest level in about 25 years. The earnings yield of stocks, measured by the inverse price-earnings ratio of the S&P 500 index, is now lower than the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds, which means that bonds are clearly outperforming stocks in terms of returns.

Fed Governor Cook: Inflationary pressures from artificial intelligence and conflicts in the Middle East are expected to continue in the coming months

Fed Governor Cook stated that inflationary pressures from artificial intelligence and conflicts in the Middle East are expected to continue in the coming months, and the labor market is ready to cope with interest rate hikes. The extent and frequency of future interest rate adjustments will be influenced by inflation and labor market data, as well as the economy's response to the actions taken by the Fed so far; there are signs of widespread pressure in inflation data; the productivity gains brought about by artificial intelligence will have a moderate deflationary effect over the next few years. She also noted that the productivity improvements from artificial intelligence will not offset the inflationary pressures that have spread this year in a timely manner; under such circumstances, the tools available to the Fed will be limited; and interest rate cuts could potentially drive up inflation.

US stock market quotes

U.S. Treasury yields rise, and all three major indices fall

On Monday, Eastern Time, the deadlock between the United States and Iran continued to intensify, leading to volatile oil prices and the 10-year Treasury yield rising to nearly its highest level in over two decades. By the close of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 347.11 points, or 0.67%, to 51,481.51 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 248.34 points, or 0.92%, to 26,820.38 points. The S&P 500 Index lost 59.72 points, or 0.77%, to 7,683.69 points.

$Star tech stocks ($LIST2518.US)$ mostly fell: Intel dropped nearly 6%, Meta fell nearly 5%, AMD and Tesla fell nearly 4%, Micron fell nearly 3%, SpaceX fell over 2%, Amazon and Microsoft fell over 1%, Apple fell nearly 1%, and NVIDIA rose nearly 2%.

$Popular Chinese concept stocks ( LIST2517.US )$ generally rose, with the NASDAQ China Golden Dragon Index closing up 1.12%. Huazhu increased by over 3%, Ctrip and Pinduoduo rose by over 1%, TSMC and JD.com had slight gains, Alibaba fell nearly 1%, and Baidu saw a slight decline.

$Optical Communications ( LIST23979.US )$ stocks fell, Credo fell nearly 9%, Coherent fell over 4%, Astera Labs and Marvell Technologies fell nearly 4%, Corning, Ciena fell over 3%, Lumentum fell over 2%.

$Storage Concepts ( LIST23925.US )$ stocks fell, SK Hynix dropped by over 5%, Sandisk fell by nearly 4%, Micron Technology, Rambus fell by nearly 3%, Western Digital fell by nearly 1%.

$Cybersecurity concepts ($LIST2570.US) led the gains, with Palo Alto Networks rising nearly 5%, Zscaler and Okta both exceeding 3%, CrowdStrike rising nearly 3%, and Cloudflare as well as Feita Information increasing by over 1%.

$Gold ( LIST2110.US )$, $Silver ( LIST2093.US )$: The CSI 300 index fell. Kitano Gold dropped nearly 13%, Eldorado Gold fell nearly 6%, Newman Mining and Endeavour Silver fell more than 4%, and Kinross Gold fell nearly 4%.

Individual Stock Information

U.S. "Starship" achieves its first Earth orbit flight, but ends the mission ahead of schedule

$ SpaceX ( SPCX.US )$ The “Starship” spacecraft completed its first Earth orbit flight on the 28th, sending 26 new-generation “Starlink” V3 satellites into orbit, although the test flight mission ended ahead of schedule. At around 7:50 a.m. Central Time on the 28th (around 8:50 p.m. Beijing Time on the 28th), the “Starship” was launched from a launch base in southern Texas. Subsequently, the first stage of the rocket, the “Super Heavy” booster, made a controlled splashdown in the waters near the Gulf of Mexico. The second stage of the “Starship” spacecraft entered Earth orbit and delivered the 26 new-generation “Starlink” V3 satellites into their intended orbits.

As originally planned, this mission was supposed to last for about 10 hours, but the spacecraft ended its mission ahead of time after about 3 hours of orbital flight and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation has not yet announced the specific reason for the early termination of the mission. According to the company, the previous 13 test flights of the "Starship" were all suborbital flights, and this mission marked the first time it achieved Earth orbit flight, which is seen as an important step towards the goal of complete and rapid reusability of the "Starship."

NVIDIA adds another $150 billion to its buyback program, setting a new record for total authorized buybacks by a U.S. company

NVIDIA ($NVDA.US) announced on Monday that its board of directors has approved an increase in the share repurchase plan by $150 billion. Together with the existing plan, NVIDIA is now authorized to spend up to $235 billion on share repurchases before January 2028. Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, stated in a statement on Monday that this new plan reflects the company's "confidence in the long-term opportunities in the AI field." He emphasized that the platform transformation driven by AI and accelerated computing has led to business growth, and the company's strong cash flow generation capability enables it to return capital to shareholders while investing in driving technological transformation.

Zuckerberg: Meta launches an enterprise platform, opening up AI technology to businesses and developers

$ Meta Platforms ( META.US )$ CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company has launched Meta Enterprise Platform ( Meta Enterprise Platform), which helps businesses utilize artificial intelligence to achieve business growth and transformation. Zuckerberg stated that the platform will integrate technologies such as Meta models, AI intelligents, and infrastructure, and in its initial phase, it will provide businesses and developers with products and services including Muse intelligents, Meta Business Agent, Muse API, and Muse Code.

OpenAI is reportedly to release its assistant "o" on September 29th to directly confront Meta Muse.

According to market reports, OpenAI plans to launch an assistant named “o” at its Developer Day event on September 29th local time, in order to directly compete with Meta Muse. The report indicates that this assistant is positioned as a personal AI assistant capable of running sustainably and handling long-term tasks, and it may utilize a version of GPT-6 Astra known as “Aeon”. As of now, OpenAI has not released any detailed information about “o”.

Qualcomm expands its Snapdragon platform to personal AI devices, laying out new forms such as smart glasses

$Qualcomm ($QCOM.US)$'s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wearables and Personal Devices ($XR), Ziad Asghar, stated that the company is expanding the Snapdragon platform from smartphones to smartwatches, smart glasses, wireless headphones, and other personal AI devices in order to address the new generation of device market driven by AI smart entities.

Qualcomm evaluates Samsung's 2-nanometer manufacturing process, possibly for use in the production of next-generation chips

$Qualcomm ($QCOM.US)$'s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Business, Chris Patrick, stated that Qualcomm is evaluating Samsung Electronics' 2-nanometer wafer manufacturing process to study its potential for use in next-generation application processors. At present, neither party has determined the specific products or mass production plans, and Qualcomm is still in the preliminary evaluation stage.

AMD invests $8.2 billion to acquire World Labs, with Li Feifei taking on the role of Chief Scientist

On September 28, $American Ultrafine Company ( AMD.US )$ announced that it will acquire the startup World Labs for approximately $8.2 billion in a all-stock transaction. World Labs was co-founded by the renowned AI research pioneer Feifei Li, who also serves as the CEO of the company. Following the completion of the transaction, Feifei Li will join AMD in the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, reporting directly to CEO Su Zifeng. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and fulfillment of other customary closing conditions.

Anthropic IPO Prospectus Revealed, Revenue to Reach $4.59 Billion in Fiscal Year 2025

A prospectus reveals that Anthropic has proposed a development plan for transformative artificial intelligence technology in its promotion to investors targeting IPO. The prospectus also shows that Anthropic had revenue of $4.59 billion in fiscal year 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1088%, but after deducting the impact of impairment of liabilities mainly related to previous financings, the company still incurred a loss of over $8 billion at the operating level. Anthropic stated that nearly a quarter of last year's revenue came from two customers and warned in the risk factors section that many of its largest customers have not signed long-term contracts and may reduce or stop spending in the future.

This may prompt investors to be more cautious when evaluating high valuations of high-growth companies. Recently, there has been selling off of AI and chip-related stocks, and the upcoming listing of Anthropic will further test whether the market's enthusiasm for investing in AI can withstand more stringent scrutiny. As of December 31, 2025, Anthropic held a total of $20.28 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. The prospectus indicates that Anthropic plans to invest $518 billion in cloud computing, computing resources, and infrastructure over the next year.

MongoDB closed down more than 18% on the previous trading day; previously, the company's CEO resigned and joined Meta.

AI Application Software Stock $ MongoDB ( MDB.US )$ announced on September 28th that the President and CEO CJ Desai will step down immediately to take on the role of "Chief Enterprise Platform Officer" at Meta, reporting directly to Zuckerberg, and will be in charge of the newly established Meta Enterprise Platform department. Desai has been in office at MongoDB for less than a year (only taking over in November 2025), and such a sudden departure within such a short period has intensified market concerns about the continuity of the company's strategy.

Nawee Semiconductor's night session price rose nearly 13%; it has secured a contract from the U.S. government to develop next-generation chip technology

$Nanoway Semiconductor ( NVTS.US )$ indicates that the company has been awarded the ALATTIS project by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, which is aimed at developing next-generation 10 kV silicon carbide power semiconductor technology for defense applications. ALATTIS is the abbreviation for "Accelerated Large-Scale 10 kV Silicon Carbide Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor Prototype Project." The project seeks to develop indigenous manufacturing processes for 10 kV silicon carbide insulated gate bipolar transistors and PIN diodes. It is funded by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory under the DEVCOM framework and also receives support from JETX. No details such as the contract amount, duration, or work location were disclosed in the announcement.

Trump Administration: General Motors' technical costs are expected to decrease by $20.4 billion by 2031

The US Department of Transportation stated that due to the significantly relaxed vehicle fuel efficiency standards agreed upon on Monday, General Motors ($GM.US') technical costs will be reduced by $20.4 billion by 2031. The Trump administration expects that as a result, automakers' total technical costs will be reduced by $60.6 billion by 2031, which is approximately $1,89 per vehicle. Previously, it was estimated that if the original fuel efficiency standards set for 2024 had been implemented, General Motors would have spent $31.7 billion on this by 2031.

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Related Reading: U.S. stock market closes down; prospects for U.S.-Iran negotiations uncertain, all three major indices decline; AI concept weakens, Intel falls more than 5%; U.S. Treasury yields continue to rise; crude oil prices surge and then fall.

Hong Kong Stock Market Outlook

North Water reduced its holdings in Hong Kong stocks by over HK$6.5 billion, net bought JianTao laminated boards for over HK$400 million, and sold Tencent Holdings for nearly HK$1 billion

On September 28th (Monday), funds moving south sold HK$6.554 billion worth of Hong Kong stocks net.

$Jiantao Circuit Board (01888. HK )$, $CNOOC (00883. HK )$, and $ MINIMAX-W (00100. HK )$ recorded net purchases of HK$434 million, HK$427 million, and HK$55.05 million respectively;

$Yingfu Fund (02800. HK)$, $Hang Seng China Enterprises (02828. HK)$, and $Tencent Holdings (00700. HK)$ were each net sold by HK$2.118 billion, HK$1.278 billion, and HK$976 million respectively.

Xiyin: Net revenue in the first half of the year was $20.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1%.

$Xiyin-W(00625. HK)$ released its first interim results since listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the first half of 2026, the total number of orders reached 549 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%. Net revenue was $20.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.0%. The adjusted net profit for the six months ending June 30, 2026, was $499 million, accounting for 2.5% of net revenue. Net revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was $11.08 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%; the adjusted net profit was $228 million, accounting for 2.1% of net revenue.

Kuaishou Keling 4.0 will be officially launched in October.

Kuaishou-W (01024. HK ) announced that Kling 4.0 will be officially launched in October. Among them, Kling 4.0 Flash will be open for a small-scale trial on September 28th first. It is reported that Kling 4.0 supports 4K and 1080p bit HDR format output; a maximum of 10 pictures, 5 videos, and 7 main subjects can be input at one time, which can be used in the same generation task; it supports generating videos up to 30 seconds long at a time, and supports long shots and continuous narration.

UBS gives Changfei Fiber Optic Cables a buy rating for the first time; concerns about overcapacity are overstated

In its latest research report, UBS raised its net profit forecasts for $CFFC Optical Fibre and Cable (06869.HK) from 2026 to 2028 by 116%-158%, and increased the target price from HKD 290 to HKD 330, indicating a potential upside of around 73% compared to the current stock price. UBS analysts pointed out that CFFC's H-share valuation is currently only 8-9 times the expected price-earnings ratio for 2027, which is significantly lower than the 12-36 times for its peers in China and globally. Investors' concerns about overcapacity in the optical fibre industry have been overly reflected in the stock price, and CFFC's strategic value as a core player in the global AI supply chain is seriously underestimated.

Today's Focus

Keywords: August in the United States; JOLTs job vacancies; Carnival Cruise Line performance; Benmo Technology, Jingwang Electronics, Tongcheng New Materials, Robotech listing; Huanchuang Technology off-exchange trading

In terms of economic data, at 21:00 there will be the monthly rate of the US FHFA housing price index for July, as well as the annual rate of the S&P/ CS20 unadjusted housing price index for major cities in the US for July; at 22:00, there will be the US JOLTs job vacancies (in tens of thousands) for August, and the Consumer Confidence Index from the Council of Economic Advisers for September.

In terms of financial events, today at 09:20, a 7-day reverse repurchase transaction worth 35 billion yuan matured.

In terms of performance, Carnival Cruise Lines ($CCL.US)$ and CarMax ($KMX.US)$ announced their financial results before the market opening; $AAR Corp ($AIR.US)$ announced its results after the market closing.

In terms of new shares, $Benmo Technology (06731. HK)$, $Jingwang Electronics (03228. HK)$, $Tongcheng New Materials (09607. HK)$, and $Robotech (03757. HK)$ went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, while $Huanchuang Technology (06802. HK)$ is in the pre-market trading phase.