Germany and euro-area August ZEW economic sentiment indices due in 10 minutes.

China's National Financial Regulatory Administration data show commercial banks' net interest margin rose to 1.41% in Q2, up 0.01 percentage point QoQ — the first quarterly increase since 2022. Margin moves were mixed by bank type: state-owned big banks, city commercial banks, rural commercial banks and private banks reported QoQ increases; joint-stock banks were flat; foreign banks fell. Regulators and market participants attribute the stabilization to the liability side — maturing high-yield deposits repriced lower and banks actively optimized funding mixes to reduce interest cost — while regulatory guidance and an interest-rate self-discipline mechanism helped curb irrational loan-rate cuts and supported asset-side pricing, propping up NIMs.

Alibaba launched an AI music model, Happy Shrimp 1.0, which it says converts natural‑language prompts — including mood, story, lyrics, genre, era and vocal requirements — into complete songs. The model is built to lower the creative threshold by understanding ordinary language rather than requiring music theory or arrangement expertise, can plan long‑form structure and generate full tracks, and is available on PC in China and internationally. New users are offered large free credit packages.