HK, US stocks top stories

US TikTok revamp done: what did ByteDance lose vs. gain?

Amid repeated Congressional hearings and mounting legislative pressure, TikTok's U.S. biz has long been mired in 'national security' disputes. Citing cross-border user-data risks and control of its recommendation algorithm, lawmakers have repeatedly pushed ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. operations.On Dec 18, 2025, CEO Shou Zi Chew announced agreements with Oracle and Silver Lake, among other U.S. investors, to establish a dual-entity structure separating 'commercial operations' and 'data security', offering a provisional answer to a years-long standoff. What could this 'grand compromise' mean going forward?

GOOGL vs. NVDA: Is the comeback thesis credible?

Google’s full-stack AI strategy has been unfolding for over a month, and cracks in OpenAI’s circular financing narrative have prompted a seemingly sudden shift in the AI storyline. For Google, this is a build-and-breakthrough arc: incremental upgrades compounded into a step-change, and more importantly, its business positioning has fundamentally shifted. As Anthropic places another 11bn TPU order and Meta advances a collaboration with Google on foundational language models...

Clocktower Chief Strategist Kevin Wang: The macro focus in 2026 is on inflation, beware of the risk of a shift in monetary policy expectations

Clocktower Chief Strategist Kevin Wang stated at the Alpha Summit that the global macro focus in 2026 is on inflation. Currently, U.S. inflation is above the policy target, and the market expects multiple rate cuts. He warned investors to prepare for the possibility that the Federal Reserve may cut rates fewer times than expected and emphasized that if inflation rises above 3.5%, the Federal Reserve may shift to raising rates

Clocktower Chief Strategist Kevin Wang: Global allocation imbalance is significant, and Chinese assets may become the biggest "short squeeze" opportunity in the next decade

Clocktower Chief Strategist Kevin Wang pointed out at the Alpha Summit that global capital allocation is severely unbalanced, with international institutional investors averaging less than 2% allocation to China, far below China's approximately 20% share of global GDP. He believes that this allocation gap, along with expectations of a long-term weakening of the dollar, could make Chinese assets one of the most promising "short squeeze" opportunities in the next decade

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: Inflation is moving towards the Federal Reserve's 2% target

Federal Reserve: U.S. bank deposits last week were $18.519 trillion, up from $18.484 trillion the previous week

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index preliminarily rose by 0.9%, with a cumulative decline of about 1.3% this week. Pony.ai rose by 11.7%, XPeng rose by 6.7%, Zai Lab rose by 5.1%, Li Auto rose by 5%, and GDS rose by 4.3%. Beike fell by 1%, and Boss Zhipin fell by 2.6%

3 Things to Know About Amazon Stock Before You Buy

Amazon's stock has shown significant growth, outperforming the S&P 500. Key factors include AWS as a profit engine, booming advertising revenue, and an expanding Prime ecosystem. Analysts predict continued growth in revenue and EPS. Despite maturing, Amazon remains a strong investment due to its balanced presence in e-commerce, cloud, AI, and digital advertising markets. Its strategic expansions, including Whole Foods, enhance its market position, making it a solid long-term investment.

White House advisor Hassett: The U.S. government shutdown has slightly reduced the reliability of CPI data

Trump boasts of a "great victory": Nine major pharmaceutical companies reach a price reduction agreement in exchange for a three-year tariff exemption

After Merck, Novartis, GSK, and other nine pharmaceutical companies signed the agreement, Trump stated that 14 out of the 17 pharmaceutical companies targeted by the government this summer have agreed to "significantly" lower prices. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce hinted that the remaining three companies will announce similar agreements after the year-end holidays

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell more than 3 basis points in the week when the U.S. CPI data was released

This Friday (December 19), at the New York close, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury rose by 2.74 basis points to 4.1490%, but fell by 3.50% for the week. The yield on the 2-year Treasury rose by 2.34 basis points to 3.4834%, with a cumulative decline of 3.88 basis points for the week. The yield on the 30-year Treasury rose by 2.43 basis points to 4.8272%, with a cumulative decline of 1.73 basis points for the week. The yield spread between the 2-year and 10-year Treasuries increased by 0.401 basis points to +66.356 basis points, with a cumulative increase of 0.377 basis points for the week. The yield on the 10-year TIPS rose by 3.40 basis points to 1.8902%, with a cumulative increase of 0.45 basis points for the week

The Chairman of the U.S. Congress Financial Committee sent a letter to Federal Reserve Governor Bowman, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regarding the capital system

Nine pharmaceutical companies signed price agreements with Trump to avoid tariffs. These include Roche, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Amgen, Sanofi, AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have not yet announced agreements with Trump

Nine pharmaceutical companies signed price agreements with Trump to avoid tariffs, including Roche, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Amgen, and Sanofi. AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have not yet announced agreements

Federal Reserve: (As President Trump announces the federal government's holiday arrangements for Christmas 2025, the financial system) continues to operate payment and cash services as usual

Google Cloud deepens cooperation with Palo Alto Networks, signing nearly $10 billion AI security deal

Google Cloud has signed a multi-year partnership agreement worth nearly $10 billion with cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, becoming Google Cloud's largest security service order to date. The collaboration will focus on the development of AI-driven security services to address new cyber threats posed by generative AI. This partnership not only strengthens Google Cloud's competitive advantage in AI cloud computing relative to Amazon and Microsoft but also provides crucial support for Palo Alto in the rapidly growing security AI market

Global news you need to know before the U.S. stock market opens on Friday

The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, stated that inflation is showing signs of slowing down, and there are distortions in the CPI data. Waller performed excellently in the interview for the Federal Reserve Chair position, and Trump may focus on the job market. Budget negotiations have broken down, leading to a sell-off of French bonds, with the 30-year yield reaching a sixteen-year high. The Bank of Japan raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected, with Governor Kazuo Ueda emphasizing a cautious approach. The plan to freeze Russian assets has failed, and Europe has agreed to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion loan. UAE capital has invested in OpenAI and Oracle. PDD announced adjustments to its corporate governance structure, appointing Zhao Jiazhen as co-chairman. Xiaomi's automotive division has obtained an L3 level road testing license. ByteDance is advancing AI smartphone cooperation. Nike's revenue grew by 1% in the second fiscal quarter. The Nikkei 225, Shanghai Composite Index, and Hang Seng Index all closed higher

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on the last trading day (December 18, the day the U.S. CPI inflation data was released), the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) was reported at 3.66%, down from 3.69% the previous day