On July 8 LCH, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, began accepting offshore renminbi-denominated Chinese government bonds as eligible non-cash collateral. LCH said including these bonds will allow firms to pledge high-quality local-currency assets and use balance sheets and liquidity more efficiently. The move is presented as supporting regional market participation and easing central clearing for institutions operating across multiple jurisdictions.

JPMorgan says competitive AI models that publish open-source weights broaden adoption and monetise via official APIs, partnerships, enterprise deployments and workflow products, while weaker models face faster price comparison and traffic diversion. JPMorgan raised Zhipu’s 2026–30 revenue forecasts by 3–9%, narrowed adjusted net losses for 2026 and 2027 to RMB3.71bn and RMB3.14bn respectively, and revised a prior 2028 adjusted loss of RMB1.29bn to an adjusted profit of RMB2.37bn; PT raised to HK$2,000, rating maintained Overweight. JPMorgan flags GLM‑5.5/6, KimiK3 and DeepSeekV4.1 performance as critical to Zhipu’s ability to sustain a lead. For MINIMAX‑W (00100.HK), JPMorgan cut 2027–30 revenue forecasts by 2–8%, lowered PT to HK$300 and kept Neutral, noting the M3 model carries a permanent 50% discount that signals no clear capability premium versus domestic peers; JPMorgan says the view would turn positive if MiniMax narrows the capability gap, the discount normalises, API volumes hold and MiniMaxCode increases workflow stickiness.

Iranian state TV reported President Pezeshkian left Iraq and returned to Iran after US airstrikes on southern Iran.