Morning Report: China-US AI arms race heating up

Overnight, US markets were closed due to the fourth of July holiday, however will return on Wednesday and traders will have access to the minutes from the Federal Reserve's recent monetary policy meeting, during which the decision to maintain interest rates at their current level was made.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq-100 lost 0.1 per cent, while contracts tied to the S&P 500 were flat.

The US stock market has kicked off the second half of 2023 on a muted note after barreling higher in the first six months, with many investors citing concerns about the direction of the economy and interest rates. Many investors think a recession could begin this year or next.

Looking across to Europe and Asia, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.1 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.6 per cent and the Shanghai Composite ticked up less than 0.1 per cent.

Oil prices continued to climb Tuesday, with international benchmark Brent crude up 2 per cent at $76.17 a barrel. This followed Monday’s news that both Russia and Saudi Arabia will restrict oil supplies to the global market through August.

And the AI arms race is heating up between between China and the US.

Initially, China put export restrictions on key chip and EV-making materials geranium and gallium.

In response, the Biden administration is preparing to restrict Chinese companies' access to U.S. cloud-computing services.

As per the WSJ, the new rule, if adopted, would likely require U.S. cloud-service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft to seek U.S. government permission before they provide cloud-computing services that use advanced A.I chips to Chinese customers.

In EV-related news, Toyota plans to significantly reduce the size, cost, and weight of batteries for its electric vehicles by utilising its solid-state battery technology, aiming to revolutionise current battery limitations and halve these factors in both liquid and solid-state batteries.

Futures

The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent rise.

Currency

One Australian dollar at 7:30 AM was buying 66.91 US cents.

Commodities

Gold has gained 0.21 cent. Silver has gained 0.27 per cent. Copper has lost 0.18 per cent. Oil has gained 1.73 per cent.

Figures around the globe

European markets closed lower yesterday. London’s FTSE lost 0.1 per cent, Frankfurt lost 0.26 per cent, and Paris closed 0.23 per cent lower.

Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.98 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.56 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.04 per cent higher.

The Australian sharemarket closed 0.45 per cent higher at 7279.04.

Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.

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