(1) Stock Market News

- U.S. Market

The U.S. market ended with a tug of war between buyers and sellers, with the Dow Jones rising by 36 points or 0.09% to close at 39,164 points; the S&P 500 slightly rose by 0.09% to 5,482 points; the Nasdaq's gain narrowed to 0.3%, closing at 17,858 points; the Golden Dragon Index, reflecting the performance of Chinese concept stocks, slid by 2.21%.

- Hong Kong Market

Hong Kong's stock market fell further on the futures settlement day, with the Hang Seng Index closing down by 373 points at 17,716 points, reaching a two-month low. The total turnover for the day increased to over 104.2 billion yuan. The technology index fell by more than 2%, closing at 3,588 points.

- Mainland Market

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,945 points, down by 26 points or 0.9%, with a turnover of 266.671 billion yuan. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 8,849 points, down by 137 points or 1.53%, with a turnover of 359.61 billion yuan. The SSE 300 Index reported at 3,454 points, down by 26 points or 0.75%; the ChiNext Index reported at 1,703 points, down by 27 points or 1.59%.

(2) Economic News

- Hang Seng Investment Management will issue the only SFC-recognized ETF tracking the Topix 100 Index next Tuesday (July 2nd) and will be listed on July 10th. Hang Seng Investment stated that Japan's end to its negative interest rate policy has stimulated consumer confidence, and corporate reforms have shown results, which are favorable for the outlook of Japanese stocks, but reminds investors to hedge against exchange rate risks when investing in yen assets.

- The Trade Development Council announced the second-quarter export confidence index, which collected opinions from over 500 traders on sales and new orders, trade value, costs, procurement, and inventory across five categories. The overall current situation confidence index rose by 12 points to 51.6, and the expected confidence index also rose to 54.3, with sales and new orders performing the best. The council believes that the export confidence index has significantly improved and has raised the export growth forecast for Hong Kong this year to between 9% and 11%.

- Latvian Central Bank Governor and ECB Governing Council Member Kazaks stated that if wage growth in the euro area were not so fast, the ECB could relax monetary policy more quickly. Kazaks said that officials still see "quite strong wage growth," especially in the service industry, which is permeating into consumer prices; under such circumstances, the market's bet on two more 25 basis point rate cuts this year is "quite an acceptable situation."

- The U.S. first quarter GDP annualized growth rate was revised to 1.4%, higher than the expected and previous 1.3%; the GDP deflator index was revised to an increase of 3.1%, in line with expectations.

(3) Corporate News

- Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (00388) CEO Chan Yikting said the group is exploring the possibility of making Hong Kong a metal warehouse for the London Metal Exchange (LME) and has commissioned a feasibility study by a third party.

- China Life (02628) said that considering performance and solvency, the group plans to distribute interim dividends, with a payout ratio not exceeding 30%. However, China Life's stock price fell by nearly 3% to a low of 11.06 yuan on the 27th, following the overall market trend, and the stock price is currently fluctuating at a low level.

- Bloomberg cited the Hong Kong judiciary's website showing that Sino-Ocean Group (03377) has received a winding-up petition in the Hong Kong court. The petition was filed by the London branch of The Bank of New York Mellon, with the next hearing date set for September 11 this year.

- Country Garden (02007) said it is working on a comprehensive restructuring plan, and the shares will continue to be suspended. In response to the recent resumption of trading guidelines from the Stock Exchange, Country Garden updated its business status, stating that the group is actively exploring all feasible overseas debt restructuring options with creditor representatives to establish a comprehensive debt restructuring plan, and the shares will continue to be suspended until further notice.