Macroeconomic Highlights
U.S.-Iran negotiations enter a critical stalemate: Trump unilaterally amends the agreement, casting doubt on the signing timeline
Iranian nuclear negotiations have entered a critical phase of strategic maneuvering. After reviewing a draft agreement finalized by his negotiators with Iran, Trump demanded revisions to several provisions, plunging the talks into a new round of back-and-forth negotiations and casting uncertainty over the timeline for signing the deal. Trump’s primary concern centers on arrangements for the disposition of Iran’s nuclear materials. Some analysts suggest that Trump’s requested changes may be partly tactical—by demanding tougher terms, he aims to pressure Iran into accepting the original framework already submitted to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for review. According to U.S. officials, Iran needs approximately three days to respond to the revision requests, and finalizing the agreement "could take a week, or possibly longer."
The Trump administration will appeal a judge’s ruling requiring broad tariff refunds.
The Trump administration stated it will challenge the jurisdiction of a U.S. Court of International Trade judge who previously ruled that officials must establish procedures for handling billions of dollars in tariff refund claims. This move could inject legal uncertainty into the ongoing claims process, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court has already declared these tariffs unlawful. On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal against a court order compelling customs authorities to recalculate all import duties imposed by the Trump administration under an emergency powers statute from the 1970s.
China’s official Manufacturing PMI stood at 50.0 in May, while the Non-Manufacturing PMI rose to 50.1.
In May, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 50.0%, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The Composite PMI Output Index stood at 50.5%, up 0.4 percentage points month-over-month, indicating that business activities across Chinese enterprises remain in expansionary territory overall. The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index came in at 50.1%, rising by 0.7 percentage points from April, reflecting a recovery in non-manufacturing sector sentiment.
Goldman Sachs joins the 'AI bottleneck trade': MLCCs are the new memory, now the third-largest cost component in AI servers.
Recently, Goldman Sachs noted in multiple research reports that multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) have become the third-largest cost item on the bill of materials for AI servers, following GPUs and memory. Meanwhile, $Murata Manufacturing (6981.JP)$ raised prices on AI server-related multilayer ceramic capacitor products by 15% to 35% effective April 1, $Taiyo Yuden(6976.JP)$ also announced price increases for certain product lines starting in May. Goldman Sachs estimates that a 5% average price increase would boost Murata Manufacturing’s and Taiyo Yuden’s operating profit for fiscal year 2027 by approximately 13% and 37%, respectively. For the market, this suggests that the MLCC supply chain is replicating the prior upward pricing trajectory seen in the memory sector.
TrendForce significantly revised up its forecast for the memory market: size expected to exceed USD 1.28 trillion by 2027
TrendForce has significantly revised upward its global memory market forecast for 2026 from the previous $551.6 billion to $889.3 billion; the 2027 forecast has been raised from $842.7 billion to over $1.28 trillion, implying an annual growth rate of approximately 44%. The magnitude of this revision underscores how AI infrastructure investment is driving memory demand to an entirely new scale. Amid accelerating capital expenditures by cloud service providers and constrained wafer capacity, the industry’s supply shortfall is unlikely to close in the near term, and upward pricing momentum is expected to persist through 2027.
U.S. Stock Market Update
Major indices hit new highs, led by Dell in a tech stock rally
On Friday, the three major U.S. equity indices all closed slightly higher, reaching record highs. At the close, the S&P 500 rose 0.22% to 7,580.06 points; the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% to 26,972.62 points; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.72% to 51,032.46 points.
$Star Tech Stocks (LIST2518.US)$ Most stocks declined: NVIDIA fell 1.45%, Alphabet-A dropped 2.51%, Apple slipped 0.14%, Microsoft surged 5.45%, Amazon declined 1.23%, Taiwan Semiconductor lost 1.51%, Broadcom rose 4.73%, Tesla fell 1.43%, Meta decreased 0.44%, and Micron Technology jumped 5.14%.
$Popular Chinese Concept Stocks (LIST2517.US)$ Mixed performance: Alibaba fell 1.54%, PDD Holdings rose 1.7%, NetEase declined 0.97%, JD.com dropped 1.06%, Baidu gained 2.47%, Trip.com increased 0.74%, Li Auto tumbled 3.41%, Futu Holdings Ltd slipped 0.8%, Bilibili rose 0.58%, and Nio climbed 0.9%.
iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV.US) Up more than 6%, with a cumulative gain exceeding 21% in May—the ETF’s best monthly performance since October 2001. Palantir rose 9.21%, ServiceNow soared 14.38%, and Salesforce gained 8.47%.
The rocket explosion incident involving Blue Origin triggered a broad sell-off in the commercial space sector. With Bezos’s company losing its sole launchpad along with the rocket, AST SpaceMobile—whose satellite launches depend on Blue Origin—plunged 14.79% at the close.
Stock-specific news
NVIDIA and Microsoft jointly release cryptic teaser
Early Saturday morning Beijing time, Microsoft (MSFT.US)and$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$ both companies simultaneously launched promotional campaigns on social media for a mysterious new product set to debut next week. The official Windows and NVIDIA GeForce accounts posted identical messages at the exact same moment, each stating “A new era for personal computing” followed by a map coordinate. Market speculation suggests this could signal that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will unveil a highly anticipated PC chip during his speech next week.
Further reading:NVIDIA GTC Taipei 2026 Keynote
Musk publicly debunks rumor: SpaceX's alleged downward revision of its IPO valuation target is 'false' news
Musk publicly denied reports that SpaceX had lowered its IPO valuation. According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, the company’s target valuation has been reduced from over $2 trillion to at least $1.8 trillion. Despite this valuation discrepancy, the IPO is still expected to become the largest public offering globally.
The Chief Investment Officer of a Danish pension fund stated that SpaceX’s fair valuation should not exceed $1 trillion, whereas the company’s IPO target valuation is at least $1.8 trillion. He noted that SpaceX’s pricing is driven more by Musk’s “narrative” than by fundamentals. He also criticized SpaceX’s governance structure as “catastrophic,” highlighting that Musk is expected to control approximately 80% of voting power while simultaneously serving as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technical Officer, and Chairman of the Board.
“Asia’s Largest AI Tech Expo,” COMPUTEX, Set to Open with Jensen Huang Leading Lineup of AI Giants
$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$ CEO Jensen Huang will lead a delegation of AI computing giants at COMPUTEX 2026, Asia’s largest technology exhibition. What began as an industry gathering during the PC era has evolved into a central forum for the global AI race. COMPUTEX 2026 officially kicks off on June 2, with this year’s event focusing on three key themes: the rise of NVIDIA challengers, intensifying bottlenecks in the AI supply chain, and the potential impact of China’s technological capabilities. Qualcomm (QCOM.US) CEO Cristiano Amon will take the stage on Monday, $Intel (INTC.US)$ CEO Lip-Bu Tan and $Arm Holdings(ARM.US)$ CEO Rene Haas will also deliver speeches in succession, clearly illustrating the competitive dynamics among multiple players.
High Leverage, High Risk! U.S. Approves First-Ever “Perpetual Contracts,” Fully Embracing “Crypto Trading Models”
On May 29, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved the listing of Bitcoin perpetual contracts, with Kalshi and Coinbase receiving initial approval. Perpetual contracts have no expiration date and offer leverage of up to 40x, carrying extremely high risk. The severe disruption in energy markets triggered by the Iran conflict has exposed structural gaps in traditional markets, prompting a surge of U.S. users—using VPNs to circumvent regulations—to flock to the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. This regulatory easing may unleash a wave of high-risk speculation.
SoftBank pledges €75 billion investment to build AI infrastructure in France, totaling 5 GW in capacity
Japan $SoftBank Group (ADR) (SFTBY.US)$ Committed to investing up to EUR 75 billion in France to build an extensive network of artificial intelligence (AI) computing clusters, which will become Europe’s largest data center project. This commitment marks the single largest AI investment by SoftBank Group, led by Masayoshi Son, outside the United States. According to informed sources, the deal was swiftly finalized following a dinner between French President Emmanuel Macron and Son in Tokyo in early April this year.
Dell, Nokia, Lenovo, and Cisco: Veteran Tech Firms Stage a Comeback in the AI Era
Since the beginning of this year, $Dell Technologies (DELL.US)$ 、 Nokia (NOK.US) 、 Lenovo Group (00992.HK) 、 Cisco (CSCO.US), 、 $Intel (INTC.US)$ 、 Texas Instruments (TXN.US)andMicron Technology (MU.US) These seven established technology companies have seen their shares rise by an average of 158%, adding approximately USD 1.7 trillion in combined market capitalization. Yan Taw Boon, portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, noted that around six months ago, the market began recognizing that AI infrastructure development was accelerating rapidly, while hardware sectors—which had seen minimal capacity expansion over the past few years—were facing severe supply shortages. He stated that demand is surging sharply across the board, whether for standard CPUs, networking equipment, or storage and memory components.
Quantinuum Reportedly Considering Expanding IPO Size and Raising Offer Price
The latest reports on Friday indicated that quantum computing company Quantinuum has received several times more orders than its offering size for its initial public offering (IPO). The company, majority-owned by industrial conglomerate Honeywell, is expected to list in early June. According to its prospectus, Quantinuum plans to offer 21.05 million Class A ordinary shares at a price range of USD 45 to USD 50 per share. At the top end of the range, the company would raise USD 1.05 billion and achieve a valuation of approximately USD 13 billion. Recent reports suggest that Quantinuum is considering increasing the number of shares offered by 10% and raising the price range by roughly 10%. The company is expected to price its offering after the close of trading in New York next Wednesday and begin trading the following day.
Top 20 by trading value
Hong Kong Market Outlook
Southbound capital recorded net purchases of nearly HKD 9 billion in Pop Mart and added nearly HKD 7 billion in Tencent, while net selling Alibaba by more than HKD 4 billion.
On Friday, May 29, southbound capital recorded net purchases of HKD 18.84 billion in Hong Kong-listed stocks.
$Pop Mart (09992.HK)$、Tencent (00700.HK)、Montage Technology (06809.HK)received net purchases of HKD 8.78 billion, HKD 6.87 billion, and HKD 6.43 billion, respectively;
$Ying Fu Fund (02800.HK)$、$Alibaba-W (09988.HK)$、$CNOOC Limited (00883.HK)$recorded net sales of HKD 23.66 billion, HKD 4.5 billion, and HKD 1.67 billion, respectively.
"A+H" dual listing accelerates! MiniMax has officially commenced A-share listing counseling.
$MINIMAX-W(00100.HK)$ On May 29, the company signed an A-share listing counseling agreement, accelerating its dual-listing strategy on both the A-share and H-share markets. Benefiting from the launch of the M2.7 model, the company’s annualized recurring revenue has doubled to USD 300 million over the past two months, enterprise service users have surpassed one million, and losses have narrowed significantly.
Akeso: Over 40 clinical research findings from multiple innovative drugs presented at ASCO 2026
$Akeso (09926.HK)$ The company announced that over 40 clinical research findings from its independently developed innovative drug pipeline were formally presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. These studies primarily focus on the company’s globally first-in-class bispecific antibody candidates—Cadonilimab (PD-1/CTLA-4), Ivonescimab (PD-1/VEGF), and Leflunomab, a next-generation CD47 monoclonal antibody. The research spans multiple indications, including non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, renal cell carcinoma, melanoma, intestinal cancer, head and neck cancer, gynecologic tumors, and biliary tract cancer, fully demonstrating the breakthrough nature and broad clinical value of the company’s innovative therapeutics.
Foxconn: Targets shipment of 10,000 CPO switches this year, with 'several-fold growth' expected next year
At Friday’s shareholder meeting, Hon Hai Chairman Young Liu stated that shipments of CPO (co-packaged optics) switches would commence later this year, with a target of 10,000 units for 2024 as the company strives to become the global leader. Shipments are expected to achieve 'multiple-fold growth' next year.
Today's Focus
Keywords: Jensen Huang speech; Meituan/Credo/Hewlett Packard Enterprise earnings; China RatingDog and U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI
On the economic data front, China’s May RatingDog Manufacturing PMI, South Korea’s May trade balance, the final reading of the eurozone’s May Manufacturing PMI, and the U.S. May ISM Manufacturing PMI will all be released.
09:45 — China May RatingDog Manufacturing PMI
22:00 — U.S. May ISM Manufacturing PMI
On major events, $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$ CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a keynote speech at 11:00 AM Beijing time. Federal Reserve Governor Powell will attend the 'Kennedy Profile in Courage Award' ceremony and deliver acceptance remarks in the morning Beijing time.
On the earnings front, Hong Kong-listed stocks $Meituan-W(03690.HK)$ will release earnings reports, $Credo Technology (CRDO.US)$、 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE.US) will release earnings after the U.S. stock market closes.
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Editor/KOKO