By Jane Foley, senior FX strategist

The Nasdaq ended Friday at a fresh all-time high, lifted by big tech and a very good week for Apple. The week brought the start of new tariff rates on exports from dozens of countries to the US, but sentiment found support on news of concessions, particularly the exemption on semiconductor tariffs for companies that produce in the US. Over the weekend news emerged that Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of revenues received from chip sales in China in exchange for export licences. The news highlights the controversy over the sales of H20 chips to China. Some US security commentators have warned that the chips will enhance China’s military and undermine the US’ relative strength in AI. 

Looking ahead, some countries are still hoping for a reduction in their specific tariff rate, Switzerland and India amongst them. The Swiss government said on Friday that it was still in discussions with the US after the shock announcement of a 39% tariff on August 1 and last week’s warning that the country’s exports of gold bars to the US could also be impacted by the tariff. While Swiss negotiators have been keen to offer a better deal to the US, India has pushed back against pressure from Washington triggered by its purchases of Russian oil. That said, on Friday Reuters reported that India’s biggest state refiners had bought at least 22 mln barrel of non-Russian crude for delivery in September and October. Indian state refiners had been largely absent from the spot market since the start of the Russia/Ukraine war, instead sourcing supplies from Putin. Brent oil futures were on the back foot this morning on hope that this week’s meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin will increase the likelihood of an end to the war in Ukraine.

On Friday, Trump announced an August 15 summit with Putin in Alaska. At a meeting of security officials hosted by US Vice-President Vance and UK Foreign Secretary Lammy in the UK over the weekend, Ukraine President Zelensky won support from European leaders and NATO over his concerns that Russia and the US could try and dictate the terms for the end of the war. European leaders are urging Trump to increase sanction pressure on Moscow. Vance described Friday’s forthcoming meeting as a “major breakthrough for American diplomacy” but suggested that a peace deal is unlikely to satisfy either side. Fearful of a land grab by Russia, Zelensky has said that any decisions taken without Ukraine would be ‘stillborn’. The White House has indicated that Trump was open to Zelensky attending the meeting, but that preparations were being made for a bi-lateral meeting. The Kremlin last week ruled out a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Russia currently holds around 20% of Ukrainian land. 

The Fed’s Bowman made it clear over the weekend that US labor market fragility had strengthened confidence in her call for three Fed rate cuts before the end of this year. The FOMC is due to meet in September, October and December. Bowman, along with Waller, dissented at the July Fed policy meeting, favouring an immediate rate cut. Towards the end of last week reports suggested that Waller had emerged as the favourite for the new Fed Chair. Over the weekend, former Fed governor Bullard and Sumerlin, former economic advisor to Bush, reportedly joined the list of candidates. 

Very weak Canadian labor data on Friday have strongly underpinned market expectations for another BoC rate cut. Employment plunged by 40.8K in July, the biggest fall since the pandemic. 

In France, a new development on the government’s efforts to tackle the budget deficit emerged last month with PM Bayrou’s proposal to cut two bank holidays. On Friday, he proposed that negotiations on the topic should be concluded by the end of next month

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

COVID-19 levels are rising in the United States, with the highest numbers occurring along the West Coast, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On Aug. 8, the CDC stated that the national wastewater viral activity for COVID-19 increased from “low” to “moderate” from the previous week, according to an Epoch Times review. The region with the highest number of cases is the western United States, it stated.

“Wastewater monitoring can detect viruses spreading from one person to another within a community earlier than clinical testing and before people who are sick go to their doctor or hospital,” the CDC says on its website. “If you see increased wastewater viral activity levels, it might indicate that there is a higher risk of infection.”

Louisiana and Hawaii reported a very high number of cases, according to the CDC’s map. States reporting a high number of cases were California, Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina.

In contrast to the CDC’s wastewater-based estimates, a separate update based on laboratory results and released on Aug. 8 shows that COVID-19 is currently at “low” levels in the United States but is “increasing.”

“COVID-19 laboratory percent positivity is increasing nationally,” the CDC stated. “Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are increasing among all ages. COVID-19 wastewater activity levels and model-based epidemic trends indicate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in most states.”

However, overall respiratory illness levels can be considered “very low” across the United States, according to the CDC. That includes influenza, considered “low,” and RSV, which is “very low,” according to the agency.

The CDC has not updated its COVID-19 variant estimates since mid-June. The CDC stated on its website that because of “low numbers of sequences being reported,” the agency is now moving to “longer reporting periods” for the various variants.

But in the last update, it noted that there were growing proportions of variants such as NB.1.8.1 and XFG, which were both declared “variants under monitoring” by the World Health Organization (WHO) in May and June, respectively.

“The available evidence on NB.1.8.1 does not suggest additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages,” the WHO stated about the NB.1.8.1 strain.

The United Nations health body issued a similar statement about the XFG variant in June.

The NB.1.8.1 appears to have been driving a rise in cases across mainland China since earlier this year. However, because of the Chinese Communist Party’s history of blocking access to information and publishing inaccurate data, including underreporting COVID-19 infections and related deaths since 2020, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the current outbreak.

The updates come as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed the COVID-19 vaccine policy since the Trump administration took over earlier this year.

Last month, the HHS dismissed all 17 members of the CDC vaccine advisory panel, ordered the removal of mercury from influenza vaccines, and ended the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration is seeking to launch an initial public offering of shares in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac later this year, a senior administration official said on Friday.

The IPOs could give the two government-backed entities a combined valuation of nearly $500 billion, according to the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Details of the share sale have not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the companies would go public as a single entity or separately. The official said that President Donald Trump is weighing all options.

The Epoch Times has sought comments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates the entities, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide liquidity and stability to the U.S. housing mortgage market, which have been placed under government conservatorship since 2008 following a substantial downturn in housing markets at the time, according to the FHFA.

The two entities buy mortgages from lenders and either hold the mortgages in their portfolios or sell them as mortgage-backed securities.

It is uncertain whether the entities would remain under government conservatorship if the IPOs move forward. The Treasury Department holds preferred shares in the companies and warrants to purchase about 80 percent of their common stock, according to a 2021 statement.

Trump initially announced in May his plan to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, saying he would discuss with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and FHFA Director William Pulte before making a decision.

The president later emphasized that the government would retain its oversight of the two entities, even as it relinquishes control by taking them public.

“I am working on taking these amazing companies public, but I want to be clear, the U.S. Government will keep its implicit guarantees, and I will stay strong in my position on overseeing them as President,” he wrote on social media.

Bessent told Bloomberg in February that the release of the two entities from government conservatorship would depend on the implications of mortgage rate trends.

“The priority for a Fannie and Freddie release, the most important metric that I’m looking at, is any study or hint that mortgage rates would go up,” he said.

A primary mortgage market survey by Freddie Mac showed that U.S. mortgage rates have continued to decline, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.63 percent as of Aug. 7, down from 6.72 percent the week before.

Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac, stated that the market research indicates that homebuyers could potentially save thousands of dollars by getting quotes from a few different lenders.

At 10:20 a.m. ET, Ford Motor Company will unveil its “Next Model T Moment,” which it describes on its website as “plans to design and assemble breakthrough electric vehicles in America.”

Today’s unveiling follows Ford’s July 30 earnings report that showed its electric vehicle unit lost $1.33 billion in the second quarter, even as its EV revenue rose to $2.4 billion. 

“This is a Model T moment for us at Ford,” CEO Jim Farley told analysts on the most recent earnings call, referring to the founder Henry Ford’s introduction of mass production for the 1908 Model T, a revolutionary innovation at the time that reduced the price of each vehicle significantly. 

Ahead of today’s event in Kentucky, UBS analysts told clients:

UBS analyst Patrick Hummel doesn’t expect any meaningful announcement at Ford’s Aug. 11 Kentucky event, despite the company having billed it as a “Model T moment”. While a low-cost EV line (including the mid-size pickup) may be confirmed, Patrick does not expect to see product, rather just an update on Ford’s plan to design and assemble EVs in the US. Meanwhile, Ford has delayed its EV pickup/van to focus on affordable EVs.

Automotive News reported the EV pickup (originally 2027) and van (originally 2026) are delayed to 2028. This is not surprising. CEO Jim Farley has been talking about more affordable (and smaller) EVs and, for larger vehicles, a push into hybrids, PHEVs and EREVs. The question for the focus on smaller EVs, including potentially a Ranger sized EV, is whether there is true consumer pull for these products amid removal of the $7.5k consumer EV credit and a competitive landscape filled with more compelling non-EV alternatives.

Watch live here… 

. . . 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could attend the forthcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

During an interview with CNN that was published on Sunday, Whitaker was asked about whether Zelenskyy would be invited to the summit.

“I certainly think it’s possible,” Whitaker told the outlet.

“You know, certainly, there can’t be a deal that everybody that’s involved in it doesn’t agree to.”

Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet on Aug. 15 to hold talks on ending the three-year-long war in Ukraine, White House officials and Trump confirmed. Trump has for weeks been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to put an end to the war.

In response to the meeting, Zelenskyy issued a statement on X saying that the Kyiv government should be involved.

“Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything,” Zelenskyy said in his post.

“These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace. Peace that people will respect.”

Trump said a potential deal would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides, compounding Ukrainian fears that it may face pressure to surrender land. Russia holds nearly a fifth of the country.

But the Ukrainian leader rejected suggestions that his country could concede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal.

“The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in the constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram Saturday. “No one will and no one can deviate from it. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”

Earlier Sunday, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with Fox News that a negotiated settlement is unlikely to make either side happy.

“It’s not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it,” he said on Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

In the Fox interview recorded on Friday, Vance said the United States was working to schedule talks between Putin, Zelenskyy, and Trump, but he did not think it would be productive for Putin to meet with Zelenskyy before speaking with Trump.

“We’re at a point now where we’re trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that, around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,” he said.

In a post issued on X this weekend, Vance said that the Putin–Trump conversation was “to discuss a route to peace in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.” He provided no further details.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump said he could end the Ukraine–Russia war within 24 hours, but so far, a peace deal between the two nations has been elusive. Before the meeting in Alaska was announced, the president warned Russia that he would impose more sanctions on Russia and economic penalties on large trading partners with Moscow.

He also ordered U.S. nuclear-capable submarines to be deployed closer to Russia in response to remarks made by a former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, regarding the Kremlin’s nuclear capabilities.

Regarding the Trump–Putin meeting, Whitaker said that he believes “direct engagement by President Trump is obviously leading us closer to a peace.”

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz appears to be living through a remake of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode. However, Dershowitz is facing a new culinary menace in Martha’s Vineyard. Chef Krem Miskevich has barred the famed lawyer from buying pierogis because of his political views . . . and liberals are applauding him for it. Welcome to Pierogi Politics, it is the same distasteful politics that is tearing apart this country . . . only with an added carbo load.

Dershowitz has previously described how his liberal neighbors, who were friendly when he was advancing liberal causes, have blacklisted him in the elite community due to his defense of Donald Trump.

He is treated as a persona non grata and shunned by the wealthy community.

Now the blacklisting has extended to food. Dershowitz would regularly go to the West Tisbury Farmers Market and buy food from the Good Pierogi.  Then Miskevich decided to join the mob and bar him from eating.

Miskevich (who goes by pronouns “they” and “them”) also accused Dershowitz of misgendering by referring to “him” in passing (Dershowitz said that he would happily use his preferred pronouns). However, Miskevich admits it is his political and legal views that led him to blacklist the professor.

Dershowitz is now pursuing legal action against the West Tisbury Farmers Market and posted a statement on his YouTube channel last week, stating “He didn’t approve of my politics so he wouldn’t serve me.”

Dershowitz suggested that the initial rejection may have been due to his wearing a pro-Jewish T-shirt.  In his initial encounter, he had reminded the vendor that Massachusetts law prohibits refusing service based on race, religion or sexual orientation: “You couldn’t say I don’t serve black people, you couldn’t say I don’t serve gay people, you couldn’t say I don’t serve Jews.”

The police were called in the incident and led Dershowitz away.

Miskevich has thrilled the left by venting his hate for Dershowitz and anyone who holds his political or legal views:

“When he came to our booth, I experienced a surge of emotion. As a chef, I love to share what I cook with the public, regardless of who they are. In this case, what was in the forefront of my mind was the fact that this was the high-profile attorney who represented several sexual predators and abusers including Jeffrey Epstein.”

Dershowitz is entirely in the right here, and the treatment that he received was outrageous. What is chilling is how hate is now celebrated on the left as a perverse type of virtue signaling.

We have seen how the left has embraced blacklisting, an abuse that was once associated with the McCarthy period. In 1950, columnist and civil libertarian Max Lerner penned a chilling prediction in the New York Post about the Red Scare: “There is a hate layer of opinion and emotion in America. There will be other McCarthys to come who will be hailed as its heroes.”

It turns out it would come from the left.  From the start of the first Trump Administration, restaurants refused to serve well-known Republicans and their families.

Calls for blacklisting have come from city councils to public interest groups. Others called for banning those “complicit” from college campuses, while still others demanded a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to “hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the crimes they have committed.” Daily Beast editor-at-large Rick Wilson added his own call for “humiliation,” “incarceration,” and even ritualistic suicides for Trump supporters in an unhinged, vulgar column.

Writers and editors have joined blacklisting efforts targeting Trump supporters, conservative justices, and authors like JK Rowling for their political views. It is all part of the Orwellian logic of the left, intolerance in the name of tolerance, blacklisting in the name of free speech.

We have also seen lawyers increasingly targeted by the left for their clients, a tactic once used against liberal lawyers representing unpopular criminal or civil clients. That includes the successful targeting of a Harvard professor for representing Weinstein. Many leading lawyers helped fund the Lincoln Project in its national effort to harass and abuse any lawyers representing the Republican party or President Trump.

This week, President Trump even had to sign an executive order to deter “debanking” where financial institutions discriminate on the basis of political or religious views.

Now, back to Dershowitz. Liberals are applauding the denial of food to people who do not share their political views. Indeed, Miskevich is parading and posturing like the MLK of Martha’s Vineyard for joining the mob against a single, unpopular neighbor. Instead of treating food as a basis for shared dialogue and exchange, Miskevich wants to weaponize it to use against those who dare to hold opposing views.

What is particularly striking is how these are many of the same people who insisted that a Colorado baker should be required to make cakes that violate the owner’s religious and free speech rights. In Masterpiece Cakeshop and later cases like 303 Creative, the left hounded business owners for refusing to sell products that celebrated same-sex marriages. They were outraged that such denials are hateful and intolerant.

However, in Masterpiece Cakeshop, the owner insisted that he would sell cakes to same-sex couples and anyone else coming into his store. He only drew the line at preparing cakes expressly celebrating same-sex marriages as an expressive act that violated his core beliefs.

In this case, Miskevich is refusing to sell pre-made pierogi based on a political litmus test. It is not clear that this violates the law, but it is wrong. If Dershowitz asked Miskevich to cater a pierogi-based party in celebration of Trump, I would support his right to decline as a matter of free speech given his dislike for conservatives. However, this is the denial of service for pre-made pierogis based on viewpoint discrimination.

There is little doubt that Miskevich will haul in customers by pandering to the mob. The only thing that is more enticing today than the love for good food is the hate for opposing views. The problem is that feeding on hate will never satiate people; they simply want more servings. That insatiable appetite is destroying this country and now Miskevich is contributing to it one pierogi at a time.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of the best-selling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,”

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is headed to the White House today, just days after President Trump publicly demanded his resignation over alleged ties to China. Sources close to The Wall Street Journal say Tan will discuss his personal and professional background with the president, emphasize his allegiance to America, and advocate for closer government and Intel cooperation. 

Tan is a Malaysian-born/American citizen and has worked in the tech industry for years. He recently took over as CEO of the struggling chip company to revive it and position it for a turnaround. 

But his tenure has already seen turmoil and political scrutiny.

Concerns stem from Cadence Design Systems, where Tan was CEO until 2021. Last month, Cadence agreed to pay $140 million to settle DOJ charges for selling chip-design tools to a Chinese military university.

Optics so far are unfavorable for Tan, especially against the backdrop of the “America First” movement.

Here’s more from the sources about Tan’s upcoming meeting with Trump:

Tan is expected to have a wide-ranging conversation with Trump, with the intent of explaining his personal and professional background, the people said. He could also propose ways that the government and Intel could work together, they said.

Tan hopes to win Trump’s approval by showing his commitment to the country and pledging the importance of keeping Intel’s manufacturing capabilities as a national security issue, one of the people said.

The controversy surrounding Tan began last Thursday after President Trump read U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton’s letter sent one day earlier to Intel’s Board about the CEO’s ties to Chinese firms.

This led to Trump firing off a Truth Social post: “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately.”

After today’s meeting, it’s likely only a matter of time before the White House announces “golden shares” in Intel – just as it did in the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal.

maybe today? https://t.co/xaVe4iqoxO

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025

High teens appear to be the floor. 

. . .

The government of Haiti announced Saturday that it will implement a three-month state of emergency in the country’s central region due to gang violence. 

The measure will cover Haiti’s West, Artibonite, and Center departments “to continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis,” the government said in a statement.

We’re sure the Clintons and pal Laura Silsby could help by ‘rescuing’ 33 more Hatian children (children only) from said state of emergency. 

The affected region is known as Haiti’s “rice basket,” which has seen gangs killing farmers or forcing them to abandon their fields as they raze nearby communities. 

From October 2024 until the end of June 2025, over 1,000 people have been killed, over 200 injured, and 620 kidnapped in the Artibonite and Central departments and nearby areas, the Associated Press reports.

Gang violence also has displaced more than 239,000 people in Haiti’s central region, according to the U.N. In late April, dozens of people waded and swam across the country’s largest river in a desperate attempt to flee gangs.

On Friday, the government appointed a new interim director general to oversee Haiti’s National Police, which is working with Kenyan police officers leading a U.N.-backed mission to help quell gang violence.

André Jonas Vladimir Paraison replaces former police director general Normil Rameau, who was criticized for his struggle to contain violence perpetrated by gangs that control up to 90 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Rameau had repeatedly warned about the department’s severe underfunding.-AP

Paraison was previously the head of security for Haiti’s National Palace – and was on duty as a police officer when former President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021. 

Shares of Danish company Orsted A/S crashed the most on record after the wind developer announced a rights offering of up to 60 billion kroner ($9.4 billion). The offering aims to stabilize its finances, which have been hit hard by soaring costs, supply chain disruptions, and President Trump’s rollback of “green” energy projects. 

Orsted shares plunged 29%, falling below their 2016 IPO price after the company announced the largest share offering in the European energy sector since Enel SpA in 2009. The capital raise is an attempt by the CEO to shore up finances as the entire green energy sector comes under severe pressure in the era of Trump and common-sense energy policies. 

With wind farm construction as its core business, Orsted has been exposed to more canceled projects than any of its industry peers, including ones in the US and the UK. The funding gap swelled after scrapping a stake sale in the Sunrise Wind project off New York. 

Orsted also announced the sale of its European onshore wind unit, targeting 35 billion kroner from divestments by next year, and plans to invest 145 billion kroner from 2025-27 while maintaining an investment-grade rating and resuming dividends in 2026. Full-year EBITDA guidance remains at 25 to 28 billion kroner, though offshore wind targets were cut due to weaker wind speeds.

“Orsted and our industry are in an extraordinary situation with the adverse market development in the US on top of the past years’ macroeconomic and supply chain challenges,” CEO Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.

Commenting on the rights offer, Goldman analysts led by Alberto Gandolfi told clients that Orsted’s offering was “largely unexpected, with clarity expected by mid-September… but also a clean-up move.”

Gandolfi explained more:

Orsted has just announced the intention to carry out a DKK 60 bn rights issue (c.€8 bn), equivalent to around 45% of its market capitalisation. Although not totally unexpected to us – in our recent report (here), we flagged execution risks on disposals and FCF headwinds from rolling incentives – we believe this would come as a surprise to most of the Sell Side. Given the size, the rights issue would be highly dilutive, and hence we believe could lead to a swift drop in the share price. We also note that we have not seen the terms of the rights issue, and the terms (based on the H1 investor presentation available on Orsted website) would be disclosed in the first half of September, thus implying 3-4 weeks of market uncertainty. On the other hand, we highlight that once completed, this would most likely represent a “clean up move” as we would expect the resulting B/S (post rights issue) to be solid. As a reference, consensus YE Net Debt currently stands at DKK 75 bn on Bloomberg, and we project 2025 EBITDA at DKK c.28 bn. A restored B/S strength would put less pressure on Orsted to divest assets (current plan implies DKK 40 bn pending disposals). Lastly, we also flag that, pre raise, Bloomberg consensus P/E for 2026 is a mere 12x; the stock would therefore not be on an overly high P/E even post rights. We remain Neutral rated.

The analysts maintained a “Neutral” rating on the stock with a 300-kroner 12-month price target. 

Orsted shares in Copenhagen are down 27% – the largest daily decline on record. Shares are now below the IPO level. 

Here’s what other research desks are telling their clients (courtsey of Bloomberg):

Jefferies (hold)

• Analyst Ahmed Farman says in note also published before Orsted’s confirmation any rights issue is likely “clearly negative” due to dilution concerns

• Says “risk-reward post any such raise will depend on the medium-term growth outlook Orsted sets out,” while any raise “would enhance confidence regarding the balance sheet, reducing dependency on execution of farmdowns”

• In note published after the company announcement that near- term dilution “seems substantial given size of the raise (much bigger than the figure reported by BBG last Friday) and seemingly no new growth angle”

Bloomberg Intelligence (no rating)

• Analysts Patricio Alvarez and Joao Martins say issue “reflects exposure to structural policy headwinds in the US, where inability to farm down Sunrise Wind (0.9 GW) could widen its funding gap by more than 40 billion kroner, including capex overruns”

• Add that Orsted’s planned 8.1 GW buildout in 2025-2027 now appears “well capitalized, yet execution and growth risks in its Europe portfolio are mounting”

RBC Capital Markets (sector perform)

• Analyst Alexander Wheeler notes company is flagging headwinds in US wind farm market will stop a planned partial divestment of the Sunrise Wind project, leading to additional funding needs of DKK40 billion

• Says that while company’s balance sheet and selling assets have been a main focus, “we think more of the focus was on assets such as Hornsea 3 and Changhua 2, with most of the rights issue being consumed by the additional requirements for Sunrise Wind, a project which is already materially squeezed on returns

. . . 

China has developed a breakthrough material, CHSN01 (China high-strength low-temperature steel No 1), capable of withstanding extreme cold and massive magnetic forces, and deployed it this year in the world’s first fusion nuclear power generation reactor, according to SCMP.

The steel puts China at the forefront of materials science and could have applications beyond fusion.

The ultra-strong cryogenic steel meets the demands of superconducting magnets operating near absolute zero and in magnetic fields of up to 20 Tesla. It can endure stresses of 1,300MPa and has superior fatigue resistance to traditional alloys. “In addition to its applications in superconductivity, this steel can also be used in other related areas,” said Zhao Zhongxian, a top Chinese physicist.

Development began after a 2011 setback at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, where cryogenic steel turned brittle under testing.

China’s team, led by Li Laifeng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spent over a decade refining the material—starting with nitrogen-enhanced stainless steel, then incorporating vanadium and controlling carbon/nitrogen ratios.

Foreign experts had called the new approach “absolutely impossible,” but Zhao encouraged persistence: “Do not blindly trust foreign authorities. This matter is worth pursuing.”

In 2021, China set strict specifications—1,500MPa yield strength and over 25% elongation at cryogenic temperatures—described by fusion expert Li Jiangang as essential for the country’s compact fusion devices.

SCMP writes that the High-Strength Steel Research Alliance, uniting institutes, companies, and welding specialists, fast-tracked progress through biweekly technical forums and independent testing.

By August 2023, CHSN01 met all targets and entered production for the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST), now under construction and due for completion in 2027. Of its 6,000 tonnes of components, 500 tonnes of conductor jackets are made from CHSN01.