The following are some of the news items mentioned in the last few days:

  • US bookings for standard 20-feet containers from China are down by 45 percent as compared to last year
  • Companies are using softwares that help AI agents and Gen AI LLM bots to suggest a certain brand. This can become a massive threat to Google’s search business
    • Perplexity is piloting sponsored after question queries
  • Parties are wooing Chinese nationals in Australia to firm up their voter share
  • It is heartening to read the way 2.2 million people in the Gaza strip are being forced to flee or die. No cease fire is in place. Hamas militants have not given up or yielded to any demands. With Israel cutting food supplies, Palestinians are seeing the worst nightmare of their lives
  • Chinese American retailers are facing tough time as tariff war might take them out of their business
  • MSCI USA Index is down by 11 percent since the start of the year
  • Vanguard who manages 10t assets pulled out of China in 2023 and has no plans of reentering it