1. The US State Department announced that it had lifted the level IV Global Travel warning for US citizens and said it would resume previous country-specific travel recommendations. The health and safety situation in some countries has improved while others may deteriorate thus resuming the system of country-specific travel advice. However, in view of the “unpredictability” of the epidemic, U. S. citizens are still advised to be cautious when traveling abroad.

2. Australian exports to China reached a record 14.6 billion Australian dollars in June. This is thanks to the reopening of the Australian economy and China’s aggressive stimulus package. These measures have fuelled a surge in Chinese demand for Australian commodities such as iron ore and coal. Australia’s exports to China accounted for 48.8 per cent of all merchandise exports in June, up from about 1/3 in February and equivalent to 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product.

3. Brazil’s central bank announced on the 5th that it would cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, from 2.25% to 2%. This is the ninth consecutive interest rate cut by the Brazilian central bank since July last year, and the interest rate has reached its lowest level since 1999. In May and June this year, Brazil’s central bank cut interest rates by 75 basis points twice, cutting the benchmark interest rate from 3.75% to 2.25%.

4. According to a plan put forward by an expert committee led by the Bank of Japan, new loans linked to the (Libor) interbank lending rate between Japan and London will be phased out around the end of June 2021, six months before the benchmark is abandoned globally.

5. According to data released by Germany’s Federal Bureau of Statistics, exports rose 14.9% in June from the previous month, the biggest increase in nearly 30 years, and rebounded for two consecutive months after a record drop due to an epidemic blockade in April, thanks to strong demand in the Chinese market.

6. According to data released by the World Gold Council, the position of the global gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) increased by about 166tons in July this year, and the total position size of the global gold ETF has risen to 3785 tons.

7. According to Japanese media reports, the latest study by Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases found that the expansion of the epidemic in Japan since March was mainly caused by novel coronavirus, an European-related gene sequence, but since mid-June, novel coronavirus with a new gene sequence appeared in Tokyo as the center, and spread across the country. At present, the large number of confirmed cases in Japan are mostly infected by novel coronavirus after this mutation.

8. Eurostat will release its second assessment of economic growth in the second quarter on August 14. In data released on July 31st, gross domestic product ((GDP)) in the EU and eurozone fell 11.9% and 12.1% respectively in the second quarter of this year, 14.4% and 15% respectively from a year earlier. This is the biggest economic decline since the European Union began to have relevant statistics in 1995.

9. Wall Street Journal: US chip giant Qualcomm is lobbying the Trump administration to lift restrictions on the company’s sale of chips to Huawei. Qualcomm warned that the US ban on Huawei could cede up to US$8 billion worth of the market to Qualcomm’s overseas competitors.

10. Toshiba: officially announced its withdrawal from the laptop business and transferred the remaining minority stake in its PC business to Sharp, ending a 35-year struggle in the PC field.

11. The Lebanese government resigned after angry people demanded that the Lebanese government be held responsible for the worst peacetime disaster in the country’s history. However, even before the explosion, the government had failed to collect garbage or maintain electricity regularly, let alone pull the country out of its worst political and financial crisis since the end of 15 years of civil war in 1990.

12. In 2019, the revenue of the Fortune 500 reached 33.3 trillion US dollars, an all-time high. Wal-Mart became the world’s largest company for the seventh year in a row, Sinopec still ranked second, State Grid rose to third, PetroChina ranked fourth, and Shell fell to fifth. Chinese mainland surpassed 121 in the United States for the first time with 124. However, there is a huge gap in profitability between the Chinese mainland companies on the list and the United States. The average profit of the Chinese mainland companies on the list is about half of that of American companies, and the average return on equity is 9.8%, lower than the 17% of American companies.