Weekend Buzz
Top News
China, US to restart trade talks
China and US officials will meet in London on Monday to restart stalled trade talks, US President Donald Trump announced on his social media site, saying he thinks the meeting will "go very well." China has not responded. Trump's tweet comes after a phone call between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, believed to be their first personal communication since Trump started the global tariff war in March.
China and the US, in a meeting in Geneva early last month, agreed to a 90-truce in the trade war to facilitate negotiations. Since then, recriminations from both side about truce breaches and other issues have strained ties. Xi called bilateral relations a "ship off course" this week; Trump, who wrote a 1987 book entitled "Art of the Deal," called Xi is a hard man to make a deal with.
Israel attacks Lebanon
Israel struck sites in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut on the eve of the Islamic holiday Eid Al Adha, ending a 14-month truce with Hezbollah. It said the military attacks were targeted at the group's drone factories. No casualties were reported.
In Gaza, a contentious US-Israeli aid project trying to sideline the UN as the main source of humanitarian aid kept its food-distribution centers closed for a third day after dozens of Palestinians converging on the sites were killed by Israeli gunfire.
Russian retaliatory strikes
The Russian military responded to this week's Ukrainian attack on bomber planes parked deep inside Russia by launching a fresh wave of attacks on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine. Officials in Ukraine said a barrage of 407 drones and 45 missiles killed three people and injured 49. Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a phone call earlier in the week that he planned to retaliate for the drone attack that damaged or destroyed Russian planes, estimated between 10 and 20 in number. Trump on Thursday likened Russia and Ukraine to kids brawling on a playground and said it was probably best to let them fight it out for a while before seeking peace.
Judge temporarily halts Trump ban on Harvard foreign students
A US federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump's order barring an estimated 7,000 foreign student visa-holders from attending Harvard University. Chinese students comprise the largest group of foreign students on the campus. The Chinese government has severely criticized Trump's policy, saying education should not be politicized.
NATO defense members consider higher spending
NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels this week voiced "broad support" for an increase in defense spending to be presented at a leaders' summit in the Netherlands later this month. The US has repeatedly criticized NATO members for not paying their fair share of alliance costs. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, addressing the group earlier, said every country should be dedicating 5 percent of its gross domestic product to military spending.
Alliance Secretary-General Mark Rutte has proposed a two-tier plan whereby member countries could allocate 3.5 percent of GDP to "core defense spending" and 1.5 percent to their own security-related infrastructure and industries. The plan would give US President Trump his headline figure of 5 percent while giving countries more flexibility in spending.
North Korea refloats damaged warship
Two weeks after the dramatic failure of a warship launch, North Korea has manually refloated the 5,000-ton vessel, using tethers and barrage balloons, according to satellite imagery. State media said the ship is now moored and set for full repair ahead of a key leadership meeting. Kim Jong Un had called launch failure a "criminal act" that hurt national pride, leading to the arrests of some top military officials.
Indonesia looking to buy China combat jets
Indonesia is considering buying Chinese-made J-10 fighter jets, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the national news agency Antara. Deputy Defense Minister Donny Ermawan Taufanto said China offered the sale of the jets to an Indonesian air marshal attending an arms fair in China. "When we evaluated it, the plane was good, it met our criteria and it's affordable, so why not?" Taufanto said.
China launches satellites
China successfully launched a group of low Earth orbit satellites from its space center in Shanxi Province on Friday, Xinhua reported. The fourth of a series, the satellites will form an Internet constellation. The launch was the 580th mission using Long March carrier rockets.
Top Business
Mixed signals in the trade war
Boeing has begun delivering commercial jets to China for the first time since China lifted its ban on imports of the jetliners last month as part of a temporary trade truce with the US, Bloomberg reported. It cited Flightradar 24 data showing a Boeing 737 Max bound for the Chinese city of Zhoushan, where the company typically delivers jets. However, there have been no reports that the US has lifted its ban on sale of certain jet engines to China.
Separately, Reuters reported that China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers. China is the world's dominant source of rare earths vital in industrial production, amid reports that restrictions placed on their export as part of the trade war have started curtailing production at some foreign automakers.
Reuters also reported that the US has recently suspended licenses for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China's power plants. And the South China Morning Post reported that President Donald Trump signed executive orders aimed at potentially squeezing Chinese drone manufacturers like DJI and Autel Robotics out of the US market.
Subsidy program adds gold and jewelry
Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, is offering a special consumer subsidy on gold and jewelry, marking the first time that a government entity has included purchases of precious-metal products as part of the nation's program of subsidies on trade-ins. The program, which encompasses sectors such as household appliances, electronics and automobiles, is aimed at boosting consumer spending to shore up the economy.
China targets pharma monopolies
China ramped up antitrust enforcement in the pharmaceutical sector last year. According to the annual report of the State Administration for Market Regulation, major anti-monopoly cases led to price cuts of up to 62 percent for some drugs. Authorities focused on mergers, administrative abuses and compliance in nearly half of the nation's provinces.
Economy & Markets
US stocks, Tesla share rise
US stocks rose on Friday after monthly employment figures came in higher than expected, countering speculation that global tariffs would hurt the US economy. Payrolls in May rose by 139,000 jobs. The S&P 500 index gained 1 percent and the Nasdaq was up 1.2 percent.
Shares in electric carmaker Tesla, which fell 14 percent a day earlier when owner Elon Musk and President Donald Trump exchanged barbs in an explosive parting of the ways, managed a 3 percent gain on Friday despite apparently failed attempts to effect a reconciliation. Musk did walk back threats to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, the only vehicle available to send US astronauts to the International Space Station.
China local-government borrowing
In the first five months of 2025, Chinese local governments issued 4.31 trillion yuan (US$600 billion) of bonds, up 53 percent from a year earlier. Of that sum, 2.3 trillion yuan went to debt refinancing, while the remainder was earmarked for infrastructure and social services. About 30 percent of the special bonds went to municipal and industrial park infrastructure, 20 percent went to transport and 7 percent was dedicated to housing.
Canadians buying less from US
Canadian imports from the US in April fell by a monthly record of 20 percent as the tariff war between the two formerly close neighbors bit. That sliced Canada's trade deficit with the US almost in half. Canada is under Trump's base tariff of 10 percent imposed on all trading partners and has been stung by additional 25 percent product-specific tariffs on steel, aluminum and cars.
Japanese wages fall
Japan's inflation-adjusted real wages in April dropped 1.8 percent from a year earlier, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, as inflation outpaced pay increases. The data further clouded the already weak economic outlook in Japan, the world's fourth-largest economy that is forecast to be overtaken by India this year.
Deep Dive
What exactly are stablecoins and why are they sending big ripples through global capital markets?
Hong Kong's passage of new stablecoin law opens a new frontier for a cryptocurrency that acts as link between real-world and digital currencies.
(Click the headline to read the full article.)
Corporate
Cambricon fundraising for chip development
Shanghai-listed Cambricon, a maker of artificial intelligence chips, secured 4.98 billion yuan (US$690 million) in its largest fundraising since going public. The money will be used to develop chips for large AI models and support a software platform.
Cambricon has benefited from US restrictions on exports of Nvidia chips to China. Its revenue in the first quarter soared 4,200 percent from a year earlier to 11.1 billion yuan. However, it faces stiff competition from domestic chipmakers like Huawei.
'Black Myth' set for PS5 launch
The Chinese-developed action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong" will officially launch on PlayStation 5 in China on June 18, priced at 298 yuan (US$41.50), compared with digital editions ranging in price up to 328 yuan. A limited-time 20 percent discount will be offered across all platforms for the digital version.
HSBC chair leaves for AIA
HSBC Holdings Chairman Mark Tucker is leaving the bank to return to Hong Kong-based insurer AIA. He will replace Edmund Sze-Wing Tse as AIA chairman, effective October 1. Tucker is returning to familiar ground; he was chief executive and president of AIA in 2010-17. London-based HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong, named board member Brendana Nelson as interim chairman. Hongkong & Shanghai Bank was founded in Shanghai in 1865.
Lululemon slumps 20 percent on tariff fallout
Shares in Lululemon, a Canadian-based maker of leisure clothing and sportswear, plunged over 20 percent after the company slashed its annual profit forecast, citing weak store traffic in the US amid inflation, falling consumer confidence and Trump import tariffs. The company, which sources 68 percent of it products from China and Vietnam, said it will raise some prices and seek vendor cost cuts. It joins brands like Adidas, Nike and Skechers in warning that import levies are squeezing margins.
