Microsoft (MSFT.US) AI Chief Mustafa Suleyman warned in an interview with the Financial Times that artificial intelligence may replace most white-collar jobs. Whether it is the work of lawyers, accountants, project managers, or marketing personnel, most will be fully automated by AI within the next 12-18 months. Nearly all professionals working in front of computers may face risks, and the future labor market will undergo major changes.
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OpenAI released its first AI model, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, equipped with a chip from semiconductor startup Cerebras Systems, according to Bloomberg. This model is a lightweight accelerated version of its latest automatic coding software, Codex.

The model can assist software engineers in quickly completing tasks such as editing specific chunks of code and running tests, the report added. Users can also interrupt the execution process or instruct the model to perform other coding-related tasks without waiting for it to finish lengthy computing process.

Last month, OpenAI signed an agreement worth over US$10 billion to adopt Cerebras hardware to accelerate the response speed of its AI models.
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The US stock market cascaded on Thursday since investors once again sold off tech stocks. The DJIA erased an earlier gain of up to 325 points, closing down 669 points or 1.3% at 49,451. The Nasdaq plunged 469 points or 2%, ending at 22,597. The S&P 500 finished down 108 points or 1.6% at 6,832.

Cisco (CSCO.US) logged quarterly results that beat expectations, but its gross margin target was lackluster. This prompted a slump of 12.3% in the stock at close, rendering it the top loser among the DJIA constituents.

Heavyweight techs faced hefty selling pressure, with Apple (AAPL.US) down 5%, Meta (META.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) down over 2%, Nvidia (NVDA.US) down 1.6%, and Microsoft (MSFT.US) down less than 1%.

Meanwhile, defensive stocks advanced against the market trend, with Walmart (WMT.US) and Costco (COST.US) gaining 3.8% and 2.1%, respectively.
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The US stock market cascaded on Thursday since investors once again sold off tech stocks and precious metals. The DJIA erased its early gains of up to 325 points and recently plunged 500 points or 1%, to 49,620. The Nasdaq tumbled 425 points or 1.8%, to 22,641. The S&P 500 dropped 78 points or 1.1%, to 6,862.

Blockbuster selling pressure was observed in major tech stocks, with Apple (AAPL.US) slipping over 3%, Meta (META.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) diving nearly 3%, and Microsoft (MSFT.US) and NVIDIA (NVDA.US) declining about 1%.

The spot gold price once plummeted by USD205 or 4% to bottom at USD4,878, with the latest decline narrowing to 2.9%, at USD4,939.
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To rectify "involution" competition, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued the "Compliance Guidelines for Pricing Behavior in the Automotive Industry" to further regulate pricing behavior in the automotive sector.

Regulating automotive industry pricing will promote high-quality development in the industry, meaningfully aiding in brand cultivation and shifting the focus from "price competition" to "quality competition", according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) Secretary-General Cui Dongshu, cited by The Paper.

Cui believed that consumers are highly sensitive to car prices in the short term, and "price competition" creates a mindset of "waiting for price cuts". Regulating prices will create a reassuring shopping environment for consumers, helping to alleviate hesitation in car purchases.
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The Chinese internet sector has had a ho-hum start in 2026, with the KWEB remaining flat year-to-date, Bernstein said in a report. AI progress continued to drive relative preferences within the sector, with BABA-W (09988.HK) outperforming due to the launch of AI agent service by its Tongyi Qianwen, while TENCENT (00700.HK) lagged behind.

The broker pointed out that the chatbot battle is pivotal, with China's top-notch internet platforms resorting to “red packet” subsidies to foster robot adoption. This supports the broker’s view that in the consumer-facing AI domain, model capability is only part of the success formula. Compared to the promotion of mobile payment wallets in 2015, the broker viewed that distributing cash to drive “search behavior” is a rather indirect method. It is best to reserve judgment until high-frequency data in the coming weeks reveals user reactions during and after the Spring Festival.

The regulatory temperature in the Chinese industry remains higher than the broker would like, with the broker previously mentioning a “yellow flag warning” in the regulatory cycle of the industry. Since then, Pinduoduo (PDD.US) and TRIP.COM-S (09961.HK) were investigated, and rumors of a VAT increase (though debunked) contributed to shaky sentiment.

On TENCENT, the broker opined that its AI investment returns support growth, but the chatbot business still needs improvement. TENCENT's year-to-date stock performance showed investor concern over AI model and chatbot development. The broker believed the recent “Yuanbao” red packet snafu reflects its internal dual-track AI development model. On the other hand, TENCENT continued to provide robust AI ROI through its advertising and gaming businesses.

In a nutshell, TENCENT's recent valuation downgrade is not without reason. However, the broker also recalled the case of Apple (AAPL.US), of which market cap returns to USD4 trillion, may be like Meta (META.US) that switches between “AI leader” and “AI laggard”. When the broker asked TENCENT's management for clues on resolving narrative headwinds, they stated that Hunyuan 2.0 was the first model launched after the AI development team restructuring, and the model iteration speed should accelerate thereafter.

But if the market's argument is that TENCENT's multiple will remain under pressure until AI model development remains a show-me story, 14-15x FY+1 PE on the broker’s estimates now stands near the lower end of the company’s historical range, and not far from trough levels in 2022-2023 when the sector faced, the broker viewed that top-down headwinds that were much more severe are difficult to ring-fence.
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South Korea's Samsung Electronics started the commercial delivery of the latest version of HBM4 memory chips to an unnamed customer, marking a strategic lead for Samsung in the highly competitive AI memory market.

Prior to this, SK Hynix had been technically leading and monopolizing Nvidia's (NVDA.US) high-bandwidth memory orders. However, in recent months, Samsung has narrowed the gap with SK Hynix.
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This year, February has only 16 working days, and the Spring Festival has a historically long 9-day holiday, meaning there will be three fewer working days compared to the 19 working days in February 2025, said the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Due to the weaker car consumption before and after the Spring Festival holiday, the CPCA pointed out that most car makers will take additional days off around the Spring Festival. As a result, the effective production and sales time in February is very short, and it is likely that February's car market sales will be at the absolute trough of the year, which may help alleviate inventory pressure at the retail end.
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In January 2026, China's passenger vehicle market recorded retail sales of 1.544 million units, representing a YoY decrease of 13.9%, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

During the period, the production and retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles (NEV-PVs) dropped by 0.6% and 20% YoY to 938,000 and 596,000 units, while the retail sales of conventional fuel passenger vehicles slipped by 10% YoY to 948,000 units.
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China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released the "Compliance Guidelines for Pricing Behavior in the Automotive Industry" to address "involution" competition and further regulate pricing behavior in the automotive sector, promoting healthy and orderly development of the automotive market.

The guidelines primarily include clear compliance requirements for pricing from entire vehicle to component production and from pricing strategies to sales behavior. It implements comprehensive pricing management, strengthens fair pricing constraints, and regulates promotional and pricing behavior, legally combating unfair pricing practices.

Meanwhile, the guidelines focus on the new car sales segment, aiming to regulate prominent issues such as non-compliance with clearly marked prices and false promotions. A risk warning mechanism is established, encouraging platforms to provide dual warnings on business and consumer risks for significantly low pricing behavior.

Furthermore, automotive production and sales companies are encouraged to establish internal price compliance management mechanisms, including six mechanisms: price decision-making, sales contract management, internal supervision, price emergency handling, risk prevention and control, and price compliance training, to achieve comprehensive control over pricing behavior.
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