Eastmoney Financial Breakfast Thursday, March 12

Daily Highlights

14th National People’s Congress Fourth Session Closing Ceremony:

On Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 3:00 PM, the closing ceremony of the 14th National People’s Congress Fourth Session will be held at the Great Hall of the People.

Trump Claims Military Action Against Iran “Will End Soon”:

U.S. President Trump stated on March 11 (local time) that there are “hardly any targets left to strike” inside Iran, and that the U.S. military operations against Iran are “about to conclude.” However, U.S. and Israeli officials have said they have not received any internal orders to cease military actions. Israeli Defense Minister Katz said today that the joint military operations with the U.S. against Iran have “no time limit” and will continue until all objectives are achieved.

Iranian Spokesperson’s Statement:

On March 11, the spokesperson for Iran’s Hatam Anbia Central Command emphasized that any ships belonging to the U.S., Israel, or their partners, or their oil cargoes, are considered “legitimate targets” for Iran’s armed forces. The spokesperson stressed that Iran’s previous “tit-for-tat” retaliations are over, and from now on, Iran will implement a “chain reaction” strategy, no longer maintaining a one-to-one retaliation pace. Additionally, the spokesperson warned that Iran is fully capable of blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

International Energy Agency Releases Oil Reserves:

The IEA’s 32 member countries agreed on March 11 to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to address disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict. IEA members hold over 1.2 billion barrels of emergency stockpiles, with an additional 600 million barrels of industrial reserves held by governments. Furthermore, according to CCTV News, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that due to escalating tensions in Iran, the Japanese government plans to release national oil reserves as early as the 16th. Germany’s Economy Minister also confirmed that the country will release 2.4 million tons of national oil reserves.

National Supercomputing Internet Distributes Free Tokens:

The National Supercomputing Internet announced that all OpenClaw platform users will receive free, limited-time distribution of 10 million Tokens per person over two weeks. On the same day, they also announced the renewal price for OpenClaw Tokens: 0.1 yuan per million Tokens, which is somewhat lower than the market average.

Artificial Intelligence Applications in Finance:

The People’s Bank of China held the 2026 Technology Work Conference, emphasizing the importance of planning first, coordinating long-term, medium-term, and short-term goals, and deeply planning the “14th Five-Year” period of technological development. The conference called for strengthening system thinking, steadily advancing key projects, maintaining bottom-line thinking, continuously improving institutional frameworks, and enhancing resilience in cybersecurity and data security. It also urged deepening the integration of industry and technology, safely and steadily promoting AI applications in finance, and releasing the momentum of digital and intelligent development. The conference also highlighted the importance of bilateral empowerment of domestic and international financial standards and improving standard service support capabilities.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Issues “Lobster” Risk Prevention Advice:

The cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information sharing platform of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released “Six Do’s and Six Don’ts” advice on preventing security risks associated with OpenClaw (“Lobster”) open-source intelligent agents. In response to typical security risks in “Lobster” applications, the platform organized providers of intelligent agents, operators of vulnerability collection platforms, cybersecurity firms, and others to research and propose these guidelines.

U.S. February CPI Data:

On March 11, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that in February, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 2.4% year-over-year. After excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI rose by 2.5% YoY. Analysts noted that this data reflects U.S. inflation conditions before the outbreak of military conflict in the Middle East. Considering recent spikes in international oil prices and the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the risk of a rebound in U.S. inflation pressures cannot be ruled out. Despite recent non-farm payroll data significantly below expectations, markets still expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again only around July this year.

G7 Joint Statement:

The G7 energy ministers issued a joint statement expressing general support for proactive measures to address current tensions, including the possible use of strategic petroleum reserves if necessary. The statement said that the G7 energy ministers held a video conference on March 10, attended by IEA Director Fatih Birol. They discussed the impact of Middle East conflicts on global energy markets, including oil and natural gas supply security and energy prices. The G7 members will closely coordinate with the IEA and its member countries, monitor energy market trends, and be prepared to take all necessary measures when needed.

Hot Topics

Power Grid Equipment:

On Tuesday, local time, Google, Tesla, and five other companies in the power equipment and data center supply chain announced the formation of the “Utilize” alliance, aiming to improve U.S. power grid utilization to reduce electricity costs and significantly increase power load capacity. The group advocates that, by fully utilizing existing grids, the U.S. could save over $100 billion in electricity costs for consumers over the next decade and free up substantial new power capacity. According to S&P Global, U.S. data centers’ power demand is projected to reach 75.8 GW by 2026 and increase to 134.4 GW by 2030.

Computing Power:

On March 11, Tencent Cloud’s intelligent agent development platform announced an optimization of billing strategies for some models. According to the announcement, the Mengyuan series models Tencent HY2.0 Instruct and Tencent HY2.0 Think will see price increases. Both input and output prices will generally increase by more than four times. For example, the input price for Tencent HY2.0 Instruct will rise from 0.0008 yuan per thousand tokens to 0.004505 yuan, a 463.13% increase.

Energy Storage:

Recently, the energy storage industry has experienced “urgent safety needs + overseas orders surge + policy dividends” driven by three factors. Geopolitical tensions strengthen countries’ demands for energy independence and control; distributed solar-plus-storage becomes a key infrastructure; overseas household storage projects are exploding, with orders surging in emerging markets; at the policy level, “new energy storage” has been included in government work reports for three consecutive years and is explicitly designated as a “new pillar industry.” Nine provinces nationwide have implemented independent energy storage capacity pricing policies, providing stable revenue expectations for the industry.

AI Intelligent Agents:

On Tuesday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang published a rare long blog post on artificial intelligence, his seventh since 2016. He predicts that in the coming years, traditional software and app forms may disappear, and a new software paradigm—AI Agents—could become mainstream.

Chemical Industry:

Reports indicate that escalating Middle East conflicts have driven up international oil prices, opening cost arbitrage opportunities for domestic coal chemical routes and pushing up prices of products like MDI and TDI. Data from Business Society shows that chemical prices are generally rising, with 74 commodities including phthalic anhydride and acrylonitrile increasing in price, and companies like Longbai Group issuing price hike notices for titanium dioxide. Additionally, policies continue to promote measures against “involution,” with the government explicitly implementing dual controls on carbon emissions, helping optimize industry competitive landscape.

Solid-State Batteries:

Industry media report that Samsung SDI is developing all-solid-state batteries suitable for high safety and high output requirements in AI applications, using soft-pack formats for lightweight design. The company aims to achieve mass production by the second half of next year. Previously, Samsung SDI has been developing square-shaped solid-state batteries for electric vehicles; now, it plans to diversify battery formats for applications in humanoid robots, aerospace systems, and next-generation wearables.

Numerical Control Machine Tools:

Since the beginning of 2026, domestic machine tool companies have seen significant order growth. Many are actively expanding capacity and working at full throttle to meet orders. Some company leaders report that since early this year, orders from humanoid robots, new energy vehicles, and other fields have surged, with production scheduled through September.

Company News

Oracle: The company expects revenue of $90 billion in fiscal year 2027, an increase of $1 billion from previous estimates, surpassing market expectations of $86.6 billion.

San’an Optoelectronics: The company has deep collaborations with Tsinghua University, China Mobile, and others in Micro LED optoelectronic devices and high-speed optical communications, advancing related R&D and application validation. Its Micro LED light sources have been sent to leading domestic and international companies for module assembly testing. The company has filed over 400 patents related to Micro LED materials and devices.

Runtu Co.: The company’s dye product prices follow market trends, adopting a follow-the-market pricing strategy. Recently, due to rising raw material prices, the price of disperse black dye has increased by about 24,000 yuan per ton. Currently, the price of disperse black dye is around 40,000 yuan per ton.

Zhejiang Rontai: To meet business expansion and regulatory requirements, the company plans to change the original project “Annual production of 14,000 tons of mica paper, 4,500 tons of mica products, and 7 million sets of robot components” to “Annual production of 14,000 tons of insulating fireproof materials, 4,500 tons of deep-processing products,” and “7 million sets of industrial screw production.” Investment amounts, paths, and main entities will also change, while other aspects remain unchanged.

Dingxin Communications: Focused on power line carrier communication, smart grid equipment R&D, manufacturing, and sales, with core businesses in “smart meter data transmission, power security protection,” and firefighting. Core business remains stable.

Putailai: The company plans to build a lithium-ion battery anode material plant in Malaysia through its wholly owned overseas subsidiary Zichen Malaysia Limited, with a planned investment of $297 million to produce 50,000 tons annually. This will further enhance the company’s overseas capacity layout and meet downstream customer supply chain and order needs.

Shiyun Circuit: The company’s humanoid robot PCB products are in small-batch supply, and its aerospace-related PCB products are in R&D and prototyping stages, not yet mass-produced, and are not expected to significantly impact 2026 revenue.

Donghua Software: The company has assembled a specialized team to implement autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration projects in Tianjin Xiqing and Liuzhou, Guangxi, achieving commercialization in specific scenarios. It has established the “V2X Innovation Center Laboratory” to explore autonomous driving and low-altitude logistics and mobility applications.

Huicheng Environmental Protection: The company’s 200,000-ton/year hybrid waste plastics chemical recycling pilot plant began full-load testing on February 7, 2026. After 80 hours of continuous testing, the plant operated smoothly at full capacity, further verifying process feasibility. The plant resumed production on March 9. The company will proceed with the best plan to achieve its goals.

Jinrui Mining: The company’s wholly owned subsidiaries Chongqing Qinglong Fine Strontium Salt Chemical Co., Ltd. (“Qinglong Strontium”) and Chongqing Qinglong New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (“Qinglong New Materials”) have been undergoing comprehensive shutdown and maintenance since January 5, 2026, with an expected duration of no more than 60 days.

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Global Markets

Trump Says U.S. Will “Slightly” Draw Down Strategic Petroleum Reserves: On March 11, local time, CCTV reported that President Trump announced he would use the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ease the surge in oil prices caused by the Iran conflict. During an interview in Cincinnati, Trump said: “We will do that, then refill it. Now, we will make a slight reduction to lower oil prices.”

UN Security Council Resolution Calls on Iran to Cease Attacks on Gulf Countries: On March 11 (local time) early morning Beijing time (March 12), the UN Security Council adopted a draft resolution with 13 votes in favor and 2 abstentions, submitted by Bahrain and Jordan, supported by 135 UN member states, becoming Security Council Resolution 2817. Russia and China abstained. The resolution condemns Iran’s attacks on multiple Gulf countries, considers these actions a violation of international law, and a threat to international peace and security; it regrets the attacks on civilian targets and casualties; it demands Iran immediately cease these attacks and fully comply with its obligations under international law; it also condemns any actions or threats by Iran to block or hinder the international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Elon Musk’s AI Agent Ambitions: Latest reports on Wednesday evening indicate that Tesla, under Elon Musk, is advancing its AI agent project. Meanwhile, the world’s richest man’s plan to replace Microsoft’s “Big M” project with AI has stalled. Of course, Tesla’s AI agent will not be called “Lobster,” but “Digital Optimus.”

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Bond Market Overview

Shibor: On March 11, the overnight Shibor was 1.3670%, up 4.90 basis points; 7-day Shibor was 1.4600%, up 2.80 basis points; 14-day Shibor was 1.5000%, up 0.80 basis points; 1-month Shibor was 1.5350%, down 0.09 basis points; 3-month Shibor was 1.5470%, down 0.22 basis points.

European Bonds: At the close, UK 10-year government bond yield rose 13.7 basis points to 4.690%. Germany 10-year yield increased 9.8 basis points to 2.934%. France 10-year yield up 12.1 basis points to 3.566%. Spain 10-year yield up 11.2 basis points to 3.405%. Greece 10-year yield up 14.3 basis points to 3.662%.

U.S. Bonds: In New York, the 10-year Treasury yield rose 5.25 basis points to 4.2082%, then slightly declined to 4.1363% at 11:23 Beijing time, after which it continued to rise, reaching 4.2238% at 1:37 AM, approaching the February 9 high of 4.2479%, the January 20 high of 4.3065%, and the August 18, 2025 high of 4.3511%. The 2-year Treasury yield increased 4.60 basis points to 3.6360%, after the CPI data release, it fell back to 3.59%. The 30-year yield rose 7.00 basis points to 4.8603%. The 2/10-year yield spread increased 1.243 basis points to +57.189 basis points, briefly dropping to +55.060 before the CPI release. TIPS yields: 10-year increased 2.51 basis points to 1.8270%; 2-year decreased 4.08 basis points to 0.5206%; 30-year increased 4.26 basis points to 2.6103%.

Commodity Futures

Domestic Futures: On March 11, most commodities closed higher. Baltic Dry Index and caustic soda rose over 7%. PET bottles increased nearly 7%. PVC, rubber, and para-xylene rose over 5%. PTA up over 4%. Soybean meal, rapeseed meal up over 3%. Glass, methanol, red dates, plastics, and Shanghai aluminum up over 2%. Notably, crude oil fell over 9%, lithium carbonate dropped over 5%, fuel oil down over 4%, and pure benzene down over 2%.

Gold Prices: COMEX gold futures for the current month fell $58.20, a 1.11% decline, to $5,183.9 per ounce. COMEX silver futures fell $3.68, a 4.11% decline, to $85.91 per ounce. Spot gold declined $16.72, a 0.32% decrease, to $5,176.2 per ounce. Spot silver fell $2.54, a 2.88% drop, to $85.74 per ounce.

Oil Prices: International oil prices rose on March 11. NYMEX WTI crude oil futures increased $4.96 to close at $88.41 per barrel, up 5.94%.

Base Metals: LME copper fell $98 to $13,042 per ton. Aluminum rose $51 to $3,457 per ton. Zinc fell $36 to $3,309 per ton. Lead declined $8 to $1,936 per ton. Nickel rose $205 to $17,693 per ton. Tin fell $792 to $49,647 per ton. Cobalt remained flat at $56,290 per ton.

Agricultural Commodities: NY Bloomberg grains index rose 1.17% to 31.9054 points, continuing upward since Asia market open, with a V-shaped movement after U.S. stock market opened. CBOT corn futures up 1.82% to $4.6050 per bushel. CBOT wheat futures up 0.89% to $5.9625. CBOT soybeans up 1.04% to $12.1425. Soybean meal up 0.57%, soybean oil up 2.38%. CBOT lean hogs down 0.91%, live cattle down 0.94%, feeder cattle down 1.83%. ICE raw sugar down 1.11%, white sugar down 1.34%. Arabica coffee futures down 0.48%, “C” coffee futures down 3.18%. Robusta coffee futures down 3.98%. NY cocoa futures down 0.52% to $3,429 per ton. London cocoa steady. Chicago WCE canola futures up 1.62%. ICE cotton futures down 0.09%.

Forex Market

Renminbi: On March 11, onshore RMB closed at 6.87000 at 16:30 Beijing time, up 18 points. Offshore RMB at 18:00 was 6.87526, up 6.4 points. Onshore/offshore RMB spread at 18:00 was -32.6.

RMB FX Swaps: As of 16:30 Beijing time on March 11, USD/CNY 6-month swap was -743 points, 1-year swap was -1380 points.

U.S. Dollar: The dollar index rose on March 11, up 0.41%, closing at 99.231. At the New York close, EUR/USD was 1.1569 (below previous 1.1644), GBP/USD was 1.3407 (below 1.3460). USD/JPY was 158.89 (above 157.63). USD/CHF was 0.7799 (above 0.7770). USD/CAD was 1.3587 (above 1.3570). USD/SEK was 9.2301 (above 9.1371).