US employers added 162,000 jobs in August, far above expectations of 65,000. The Labour Department also revised June and July payrolls higher by a combined 55,000. Restaurants and bars led gains with 59,000 new jobs, while construction added 22,000 and manufacturing 16,000. The labor force rose by 683,000, but average hourly wages increased 3.1% from a year earlier, the weakest pace since May 2021.

HKEX gold futures recorded physical delivery of 145kg on Wednesday, more than double the previous 63kg record set in December 2018, marking the contract’s highest single-day tally since its 2018 launch. The contract was relaunched on July 6 with a market-wide waiver of the US$1 per-contract trading fee, and it has averaged 9,974 contracts a day with total trading value of US$1.35 billion. On the same day, the US Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for long-dated bonds, and gold rose to about US$4,540 per ounce on Friday.

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) rose 12% on Monday to close at 61.80 yuan, pushing its market capitalisation to 4.13 trillion yuan and making it China’s most valuable listed company. SanDisk has gained nearly 30% over the past two sessions as its investor day reinforced expectations that artificial intelligence will keep memory supplies tight, with AI data-centre SSD shipments forecast to hit 1,200EB in 2030. Micron Technology also climbed 6.7%. The broader rally in global memory shares has been supported by optimism around AI-driven demand.

JD.com reported a 15% year-on-year increase in net profit for the second quarter, even as net revenue fell 2.9% to 346.4 billion yuan. The company’s revenue still topped the 342.1 billion yuan consensus estimate from analysts polled by Bloomberg. CEO Sandy Xu Ran said improving profitability in the core retail business and narrower losses in newer initiatives such as food delivery marked an inflection point in the firm’s profit trajectory. JD.com said it plans to build on that momentum in the second half of the year.

Shares of major Hong Kong-listed insurers and banks fell after a report said mainland Chinese tax officials began levying a 20% tax on income from Hong Kong insurance products. The reported tax applies to items such as dividend distributions and interest on prepaid premiums in cities including Beijing and Hangzhou, according to Caixin. In early trading at 9.45am, Prudential fell 5.9% and AIA Group slid 6.6%, while HSBC dropped 4.1% and Standard Chartered declined 3.4%.

China’s A-share market saw a sharp deleveraging in July, with the combined margin-financing balance falling from a June 25 peak of 3.01 trillion yuan to 2.59 trillion yuan by the end of the month, a drop of 14%. Most of the pullback was concentrated in individual tech-board stocks such as those on the STAR Market and ChiNext. The retreat helped drive the tech-heavy Star Market 50 Index down 26% for the month, its worst monthly performance on record. Analysts said the move was mainly driven by leveraged investors closing positions rather than deteriorating fundamentals, and was catalyzed by swings in overseas AI-related stocks.

Wuxi AppTec said net profit attributable to owners rose 33.7% year on year to 11.08 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, beating analysts’ expectations. Revenue in the United States increased to 22.28 billion yuan, up from 14.24 billion yuan a year earlier. The company said it benefited from commercial progress across clients’ drug programmes, driving strong growth in revenue, profit and cash flow. Despite US regulatory scrutiny, its US business continued to expand, underscoring its role in global pharmaceutical supply chains.

China’s National Social Security Fund increased its stakes in A-share listed companies in the first seven months of 2025, adding mainly to semiconductors, electronics and components. Those holdings accounted for 58.96% of its total portfolio value, data show. Over the same period, the CSI 300 Index fell 2.16% in the first half, highlighting broader market pressure. The fund’s largest positions were in chipmaker Espressif Systems and Zhongxin Group, while it managed 3.5 trillion yuan in pension assets.

China Construction Bank’s Xiamen branch, working with its Labuan branch in Malaysia, completed the first outbound digital yuan (e-CNY) payment to Malaysia, cutting durian import settlement to 30 minutes. The transaction used direct bank-to-bank ledger connectivity, bypassing intermediary clearing banks. It also enabled real-time conversion of e-CNY into Malaysian ringgit. The payment follows an inbound pilot in January, completing a bilateral digital-currency loop and marking an infrastructure step in renminbi internationalization for cross-border trade without directly affecting prices of traditional financial assets.