Russia's President Putin said cuts to the benchmark interest rate should be a natural process.

CMBI lowered its FY2026 Non‑IFRS net profit forecast for Tencent Holdings (00700.HK) by ~1% and cut its price target to HK$735 from HK$750, while maintaining a Buy rating. The downgrade reflects continued AI investment; CMBI still regards Tencent’s AI investment ROI as favorable and cites H2 2026 catalysts—WeChat AI agent Xiaowei rollout, continued upgrades to the Hunyuan large model and rising compute-driven cloud growth—that could support fundamentals and valuation recovery.

Bank of England Governor Bailey said the UK's principal problem is economic growth.