Highlights for the morning: gold at record highs, Alibaba invests in robots, exports from China

The gold price is holding near historic highs amid weak US employment data and expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Exports from China fell to a six-month low, reflecting the effect of reciprocal trade duties with the United States. In the crypto market, Hong Kong's HashKey Group is launching a $500 million Digital Asset Treasury fund to invest in projects related to cryptocurrency accumulation. About these and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of September 8.

The price of gold is holding near an all-time high of about $3582 per ounce, gaining support after a weak U.S. jobs report, Bloomberg writes. The data strengthened hopes for three rate cuts by the Fed this year, which increases the attractiveness of precious metal as an asset that does not yield interest. An additional driver is the demand for a safe haven amid US President Donald Trump's attacks on the independence of the Fed.

Goldman Sachs allows the price of gold to rise to $5000 per ounce in case of pressure on the Fed and the flow of investors' funds from Treasury bonds. At the same time, the Trump administration has exempted gold bars from import duties, and the People's Bank of China for the tenth month in a row increases the metal's reserves in an effort to diversify reserves from the dollar, thus providing demand for gold.

Investors are awaiting the release of updated employment data as well as inflation figures in the US this week. Meanwhile, gold and silver have doubled in price over the past three years due to geopolitical and economic risks, while palladium and platinum are showing weak dynamics.

Shenzhen-based startup X Square Robot has raised about $100 million in its eighth round of investment, led by Alibaba Cloud, CNBC reports. The total investment in the company, founded in December 2023, reached about $280 million, with HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Meituan, Legend Star and Legend Capital also among the investors. The company is preparing for an IPO in 2026 and already generates proceeds from robot sales to schools, hotels and nursing homes.

Along with Round X, Square unveiled Quanta X2, a humanoid robot with "sensitive" arms capable of cleaning. The startup also launched Wall-OSS, the industry's first "open source" AI model for robotics. According to the company's COO Yang Qian, a mass market for such devices will become a reality when the price drops to $10,000 within 3-5 years.

The company uses Nvidia chips, but some of the features also work on cheaper Chinese processors. X Square believes that "robot butlers" could appear in as little as five years, although embodied AI (AI that interacts with the environment through a physical "body") technologies are still lagging behind generative AI and have no clear metrics for progress.

In August, China's exports grew by 4.4% year-on-year, showing the weakest pace since February and below the forecast of 5%, Reuters reports. Imports added only 1.3% against an expected 3%. The slowdown was due to the fading effect of the temporary trade truce with the U.S., where shipments from China fell 33%, while exports to Southeast Asia rose 22.5%.

Trump's policy of threatening new duties is putting pressure on the Chinese economy, which is trying to shift exports to Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, no market is comparable to the U.S. in terms of consumption.

China's trade surplus totaled $102.3 billion, down from June's $114.7 billion. Economists said authorities may be forced to expand support measures in the fourth quarter given weak domestic demand and uncertainty with the U.S.

Hong Kong's largest licensed cryptocurrency exchange, HashKey Group, announced the launch of its first $500 million Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) fund, Reuters reports. Its strategy focuses on companies accumulating cryptocurrency assets to capitalize on rising prices and relaxed regulation - an approach that has grown in popularity following the success of U.S.-based Strategy, which holds more than $63 billion in crypto assets.

According to Standard Chartered, Strategy's "copies" have already accumulated nearly 100,000 bitcoins. HashKey intends to invest in leading DAT projects around the world to help standardize the crypto market and develop a sustainable Web3 ecosystem.

The fund plans a diversified portfolio with a focus on projects in the Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems, which should accelerate the integration of digital assets into corporate finance.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 1.1 percent.

- The benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 1.5 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 0.44% momentarily, but then slowed to around 0.12%. The Kosdaq index of small companies rose 0.7%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was falling 0.4 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.1%, the Nasdaq 100 was adding 0.23% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.07%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor