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0Official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that from January to May, the value-added of industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide rose by 4.5% year-on-year. National fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) reached 17.8512 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 4.1%, among which private investment fell by 7.1% year-on-year. In May, the national surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1%; total retail sales of consumer goods hit 4.1090 trillion yuan, down 0.6% year-on-year.
The World Gold Council (WGC) released its annual Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey, revealing that 89% of reserve managers expect global central banks to continue increasing their gold holdings over the next 12 months. As many as 45% of surveyed reserve administrators stated they plan to boost their institutions’ gold reserves within the coming year. In addition, 83% of respondents believe gold will account for a larger share of total reserves in five years, compared with 76% recorded last year.
Data from the NBS indicates that national real estate development investment totaled 3.0356 trillion yuan from January to May, dropping 16.2% year-on-year. Residential investment amounted to 2.3426 trillion yuan, a 15.6% year-on-year decrease. The floor space of newly built commercial housing sold covered 313.20 million square meters, declining 10.8% year-on-year, with residential sales area down 12.1%. Sales revenue of new commercial housing reached 2.9366 trillion yuan, falling 13.5% year-on-year, including a 14.1% drop in residential sales turnover.
According to Yicai Global, numerous universities have released their major transfer policies for this year, with some students willing to repeat one or even two academic years to switch majors. In terms of transferred disciplines, a considerable number of students are shifting from less popular majors to sought-after ones. Nevertheless, analysts note that while popular majors may deliver sound short-term employment prospects, students should shape their long-term career paths based on personal interests, capabilities and sustained industrial development trends.
The National Supercomputing Internet announced a one-month computing power promotion campaign for the 618 Shopping Festival. Users subscribing to the 9.9-yuan-per-month Token Plan can receive a maximum of 80 million tokens. Meanwhile, the platform rolled out a host of incentives: new registered users receive tens of millions of free tokens, OCR service calls cost as low as 0.01 yuan per use, and users can unlock up to 5,000 computing hours by inviting friends. It also provides a full suite of mature AI R&D toolchains to lower barriers to AI application and innovation.
The Shanghai Securities News reported that over 20 securities firms have concentrated on revising and overhauling their compensation management systems since June. The ongoing industry-wide remuneration rectification targets prominent pain points in short-term incentives, focusing on three core areas: long-cycle performance assessment, deferred payment of performance pay, and full-cycle recovery and deduction of compensation.
An IDC report shows that global smart glasses shipments reached 3.566 million units in the first quarter, surging 130.1% year-on-year. Audio and audio-shooting smart glasses accounted for 2.248 million units, a year-on-year jump of 167.4%, while AR/VR glasses shipments hit 1.318 million units, up 85.9% year-on-year. Ranking third globally, the Chinese market recorded shipments of 610,000 units, growing 23.5% year-on-year. Smart glasses have been newly included in national subsidy catalogues, driving inventory restocking by distributors and releasing end-user demand, which has become a core growth driver for the sector.
Per Securities Times, the 2026 Zhangjiang Embodied Intelligence Supply Chain Conference opened in Shanghai on June 16. At the opening ceremony, a full-lifecycle demonstration and application zone for humanoid robots, jointly built by national and local authorities under the National-Local Joint Innovation Center for Humanoid Robots, was unveiled. Jiang Lei, Chief Scientist of the center, commented that the industry generally regards embodied intelligent robotics as a sector requiring 10 to 20 years of intensive research, and the center aims to shorten this development timeline to 5–8 years.
Xinhua News Agency cited the results of a recent South Korean public opinion poll, showing the approval rating of the People Power Party, South Korea’s largest opposition party, rose to 44.3%, surpassing the ruling Democratic Party’s 38%. This marks the first time the People Power Party has overtaken the Democratic Party in approval ratings since President Lee Jae-myung took office last June. Media analyses point to ballot shortages in local elections as a major factor dragging down the Democratic Party’s public support.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced a 25-basis-point interest rate hike, lifting its policy rate from 0.75% to 1.0% as widely expected, hitting a 31-year high. Starting April 2027, the central bank will suspend tapering its bond purchases and maintain monthly Japanese government bond buying at approximately 2 trillion yen.
