Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• China’s cloud companies like Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (3896 HK) and Ming Yuan Cloud Group (909 HK) benefit from the democratization of AI its concurrent increased data needs.
• China’s telecom companies like China Mobile (941 HK) , China Unicom Hong Kong (762 HK) and China Telecom (H) (728 HK) are now major players in the country’s AI ecosystem.
• China’s data center companies like GDS Holdings (9698 HK) , 21Vianet Group (VNET US) , and SUNeVision Holdings (1686 HK) are benefiting from the increased data needs of AI industry.

• U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 up 0.2% to a record close of 6,129
• Intel surged after reports that rivals Broadcom (AVGO) and TSMC (TSM) are considering deals to split Intel into two entities.
• Oasis Management has acquired an 8% stake in Taiyo Holdings, becoming a major shareholder

• GLD remains in an uptrend but faces resistance at $250-$252, with support at $242-$245; momentum indicators suggest a cooling-off phase.
• Investor sentiment remains bullish despite $801.89M in outflows, with 6.3% of top portfolios adding GLD and strong YTD performance.
• CME Gold options market remains bullish, with a 0.63 put-call ratio and strong call open interest at 3000, 3100, and 3250 strike levels, signaling upside expectations.

• Each week, I’ll share five intriguing investment ideas that recently caught my attention. These ideas are meant to spark your research and help you kickstart the week ahead with fresh insights.
• Because these ideas are the result of my first-level idea generation process, they require more in depth research. Therefore, the ideas will often be concise, with occasional references to valuable work from other practitioners that I encourage you to explore.
• If you have something fascinating to share that could benefit me and the wider community, don’t hesitate to send it my way—I’d love to hear from you!

• Discussion on the balance between custom ASICs and GPUs in the tech industry
• Concerns about over-excitement towards custom ASICs and potential loss of market share for GPUs
• Considerations of architectural compatibility, innovation adoption, and economic viability for custom ASICs compared to GPUs.

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

• Reliance Industries (RIL IN) faces a major setback as Delhi High Court rules in favour of GOI in a gas dispute, accusing RIL of fraud and unjust enrichment worth $1.7 billion. 
• SEBI rejects Danny Gaekwad’s bid for a competing offer in Religare Enterprises (RELG IN) , citing lack of financial proof and inadequate due diligence.
• Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US) launches its 10-minute delivery service, Amazon Now, in Bengaluru, focusing on groceries and essentials. 

• Timing the market is considered to be a Myth of the market. The probability of achieving the timing, even with an optimistic 50% success rate per decision, is < 0.0001%.
• The returns are impacted significantly when best performing days of the market are missed. Interestingly, many of the best-performing market days occur during or immediately following a market crash
• The hedged portfolio has significantly smaller drawdowns compared to the unhedged portfolio, demonstrating how hedging can reduce portfolio losses during market downturns.

• Most Western media viewed Xi’s weekend handshake with Ma in the meeting with business leaders over the weekend as historical reconciliation. We believe it dangerously missed the mark; 
• Watch Jiang Fan…His next move to revitalize Taobao/Tmall could mean headwinds to Pinduoduo and JD.com. Taobao/Tmall performed well during CNY;
• Alibaba’s Apple grab shows its unique ecosystem position in the US-China macrocosm. JD’s entry to O2O showed it needed a new growth driver post 2025. 

• INTC +16% on the potential for a breakup should see TEL, Lasertec and Ibiden higher.
• Micron’s new SSD’ offering helping memory plays up, possibly lifting Micronics even more.
• Kokusai Electric’s short interest continues to grow despite the on going squeeze…now >10 dtc.

• The CPI jumped 0.5% in January, the largest increase since August 2023, exceeding expectations and signaling a broad-based rise in the cost of goods and services. 
• The hotter-than-expected inflation has led to a reassessment of monetary policy, diminishing hopes for rate cuts and leading the market to expect higher rates for years to come.
• The significant surge in inflation impacts consumers through higher costs and impacts the Fed’s ability to reach its 2% inflation target.