At morning close, China’s main futures contracts were mixed but skewed lower. Biggest declines: container-shipping (Europe route) down over 7%, lithium carbonate down about 6%, Shanghai silver down about 5%, palladium down over 3%, polysilicon down nearly 3%; platinum, cotton and stainless steel fell over 2%. Gains: low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) rose over 6%, SC crude rose about 6%, fuel oil rose over 5%; plastics, plastics monthly average, LPG, methanol and benzene gained over 2%.

China’s National Healthcare Security Administration says 2025 maternity insurance enrollment reached 260 million, with 4.8064 million instances of maternity allowances paid and insured female employees receiving an average maternity allowance of nearly 30,000 yuan. Authorities are expanding coverage, pushing employers to enroll staff and fully implementing a policy for the unemployment insurance fund to pay employers’ maternity insurance contributions. The rollout targets flexible workers, migrant workers and new-employment forms, removing the prior restriction that only unit employees could receive maternity benefits and urging locales to encourage simultaneous enrollment in employee medical insurance and maternity insurance so mothers can access maternity medical reimbursements and paid maternity leave. Implementation is already underway in 20 provinces across 156 pooling regions.

Citigroup economist Jin-Wook Kim says the Bank of Korea will raise the policy rate from 2.50% to 2.75% at next week’s meeting and is likely to signal a gradual hiking path. He expects the governor to indicate 25bp hikes each quarter in H2 2026 while remaining data-dependent and offering no specific guidance for H1 2027. Citigroup forecasts further hikes in July and October this year and in January and April next year. Kim adds the Bank may flag upside risks to its 2026 growth forecast after an upward revision to Q1 growth and resilient Q2 activity.