Daily Brief Thematic (Sector/Industry): Ohayo Japan | Regional Banks Spoil Party and more

• US stocks declined with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq falling 0.6% and 0.5% respectively, on US-China trade tensions and regional bank loan losses.
• Shares of Zions Bancorporation (-13%) and Western Alliance (-11%) plunged after both banks disclosed loan problems
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Japan to halt Russian LNG imports

• TSMC numbers not enough to appease markets, while Oracle quells AI profitability concerns.
• HP enterprise margins shrink on growing costs for its servers to house turbo-charged AI chips.
• Essilorluxottica’s Meta AI glasses a hit, but how does Nikon fit into the frame?

• Rob Mullen writes gripping resource investor letters, discussing topics like private credit, private equity, and market impact
• He takes a disciplined approach to investing, focusing on cash flow dynamics and management transparency
• Mullen’s background in quantitative analysis and psychology influences his value-driven investment strategy in the natural resources sector

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• Lithium has re-emerged as a focus due to export controls and its designation as a critical material in the US and Europe.
• Lithium equities have begun to price in higher values but remain well below full recovery levels.
• Given their underperformance, lithium equities offer a lower-risk way to play the critical minerals theme.

• DBS and CGS International keep ‘hold’ rating on Aztech Global.
• DBS reports public transport fare hikes are lower than anticipated.
• JP Morgan notes Keppel’s continued asset monetisation in their update.

• Demand outside gold remains soft; co‑funding costs show early easing; asset quality stress is shifting, with vehicle finance and micro‑LAP emerging as pain points.
• The divergence across NBFC subsegments (gold, affordable housing, vehicle finance, micro-LAP) is widening, making sector-level staging less helpful – selective bets will matter more.
• We remain biased toward affordable HFCs, gold financiers (to ride momentum), and select diversified NBFCs. Vigilance is needed to combat NIM pressure and rising unsecured stress.

• India bans import of roasted arecanut priced below Rs.351 per kg
• Eli Lilly’s Orforglipron shows strong results in late-stage diabetes trials
• CEA drafts plan for investments of Rs.19.3 trillion in nuclear capacity

• Methodology. We reviewed 50 under-covered, AI-involved public companies (~$2.7 billion average market cap; about five analysts each) and their respective one-year market-cap changes.
• We then mapped them to one or more of 11 AI application areas.
• We also assigned each company a subjective “AI Centricity” score (1 to 10 scale) based on each company’s level of focus on AI.