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1. Asian stocks at new record, as China and Japan rally.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index headed for a record close, with TSMC and Tencent among the biggest boosts. Japanese benchmarks were among the region’s best performers on expectations that pro-stimulus Sanae Takaichi will become the country’s prime minister.

Also helping the market’s rebound are hopes that the US and China may reach an agreement to avoid further escalation in tensions at talks planned for this week. While Monday’s data release showed a mixed picture for China’s economy, the government said it’s still on track to reach this year’s expansion goal.
“From capital market perspective, weak GDP is better for stock market, because weak numbers will force Beijing towards more stimulus,” said Xin-Yao Ng, a fund manager at Aberdeen Investments.

2. Apple is making robots.

Apple reportedly is expected to collaborate with BYD (a Chinese battery and autos company) for the manufacture of its AI-enabled robots.

If the Bloomberg report is accurate, what does this mean for the manufacturing base? Who supplies the bearings, harmonic reducers, encoders, semiconductors and all those rare earths for these products? As AI moves from the digital world to the physical world, investors can expect to see unprecedented examples of tech firms moving into the industrial world and industrial companies partnering with tech firms.

The physical AI addressable market has the potential to exceed the size of global GDP ($115tn) by multiples.

Below: Apple rips on Chinese iPhone demand

3. Oracle boosts long-term targets, but paying for an artificial-intelligence build-out will stretch its resources.

Powering AI workloads first requires pricey chips from companies like Nvidia and AMD, and the components to run them in data centers. The company’s capital expenditures exceeded its operating cash flow for the first time since 1990 in its latest fiscal year that ended in May.

That is likely just the start of it. Wall Street expects Oracle’s negative free cash flow to continue for the next three fiscal years, with cash burn for the period totaling nearly $29 billion by the end of fiscal 2028.

4. Electricity prices in the US are sharply higher since 2020.

5. Nuclear power has experienced a resurgence in interest and investment – driven by both research breakthroughs and geopolitics.

China currently leads the world in terms of number of new nuclear reactors in the construction pipeline through 2030. India’s government has set an ambitious target to grow nuclear capacity to at least 100 GW by 2047.

Materials matter and new research has led to interest in thorium as a different fuel source to power nuclear reactors. Thorium is three times more abundant in nature than uranium, with significant deposits in India. Due to the use of molten salt for temperature control in thorium reactors inhibiting catastrophic meltdown, they are also considered less dangerous.

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