Key economic events for the week of September 21–27, all times in Beijing Time.

Author: Long Yue

Source: Wall Street Journal

Key focus for next week:

First, focus on major diplomatic developments and geopolitics. According to CCTV News, Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead a delegation to the United States from September 19 to 23 to hold economic and trade consultations with U.S. officials. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that China and the U.S. are maintaining communication regarding high-level leadership interactions this year. This timing coincides with the United Nations General Assembly: the High-Level Week of the 81st UNGA opens in New York on September 22, and the U.S. government has approved the attendance of Iran’s leader, with President Pezeshkian expected to speak on the 23rd; Zelenskyy plans to meet with Trump in New York from September 21 to 23 to discuss a ceasefire in the energy sector. Conflicts in the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and major power interactions are concentrated within a single week, causing significant volatility in oil prices, gold, and other risk-averse assets in response to statements.

Next is the "Industry Week" for AI and semiconductors. Next week, Alibaba’s 2026 Cloud Summit will be held in Hangzhou, dissecting its "five-layer full-stack" technology around models, agents, and agentic cloud; the GMIF 2026 Global Memory Industry Innovation Summit will take place in Shenzhen under the theme “AI Storage, Driving the Future”; Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit may unveil the first 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen6; and Meta Connect 2026 could introduce new XR and smart glasses products. Combined with the AICC Artificial Intelligence Computing Conference, the Global AI Chip Summit (GACS), and the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, next week will be a pivotal window where models, agents, computing power, and storage all come to the forefront simultaneously.

Finally, it’s a “market holiday week” for data and trading rhythm. China’s September LPR was announced on the 21st, remaining unchanged for the 15th consecutive month; South Korea’s September export data for the first 20 days will confirm whether the strong growth in semiconductor exports continues; the preliminary September manufacturing PMI for the eurozone and the initial jobless claims data for the U.S. will be released sequentially. A-shares will be closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival from the 25th to the 27th and reopen on the 28th, resulting in only three trading days this week; the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange has increased margin requirements and daily price limits for PTA, methanol, and PX contracts effective from settlement on the 21st—be mindful of leverage and liquidity ahead of the holiday.

Economic indicators

On September 21, China's September LPR was announced. Previously, the LPR had remained unchanged for 15 consecutive months, with the 5-year term rate at 3.5% and the 1-year term rate at 3%.

Additionally, on September 21, the Korea Customs Service reported that exports for the first 20 days of September increased year-over-year, compared to a prior increase of 56%. According to the Korea Customs Service, exports for the first 10 days of September rose 82.6% year-over-year to $34.97 billion, with semiconductor exports surging 270.1% and accounting for 47.1% of total exports—the highest share for this period on record. The eurozone’s preliminary September manufacturing PMI and U.S. initial jobless claims will also be released next week.

Economic events

Next week may witness the most significant diplomatic event of the year. According to CCTV, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated that China and the United States are maintaining communication regarding arrangements for leader-level interactions this year.

According to CCTV News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that, following mutual agreement between China and the United States, He Lifeng, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, will lead a delegation to the United States from September 19 to 23 to hold economic and trade consultations with U.S. officials. Both sides will conduct consultations on economic and trade issues of mutual concern, guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.

According to Xinhua, citing multiple U.S. media outlets on the 17th, despite ongoing hostilities between the United States and Iran, the U.S. government has agreed to allow Iranian leaders to attend the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly next week in New York. The 81st session of the UN General Assembly’s general debate will commence on the 22nd, and Iranian President Pezeshkian is expected to speak at the UN General Assembly on the 23rd.

Given the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East—with Trump even publicly acknowledging a major decision regarding potential military action against Iran—oil prices, gold, and overseas "tightening/defensive" assets are expected to experience significant volatility next week due to statements made during the UN General Assembly.

Additionally, according to NHK, Japanese Prime Minister Kashiwagi Sanae is arranging a meeting with U.S. President Trump during next week’s United Nations General Assembly; Kyodo News reports that the meeting is scheduled for September 22.

According to CCTV News, on September 14 local time, Ukrainian President Zelensky expressed openness to a ceasefire in the energy sector and plans to discuss this during his meeting with U.S. President Trump in New York from September 21 to 23. On the 13th, Trump requested that Zelensky halt attacks on Russian diesel fuel facilities, stating that such strikes are causing diesel fuel shortages in Russia.

The 5th GMIF 2026 Global Memory Industry Innovation Summit will be held on September 22–23, 2026, at the Renaissance Shenzhen Bay Hotel in Shenzhen, China. This year’s summit, themed “AI Storage, Driving the Future,” will focus on the evolution and industrial collaboration of storage technologies across cloud, edge, and endpoint scenarios in the AI era.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit is Qualcomm's annual flagship processor launch event, scheduled for September 22–24, 2026 (September 23–25, Beijing Time) in Hawaii. At this summit, Qualcomm will unveil its first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen6 chip built on TSMC’s 2nm process, available in standard (SM8950) and Pro (SM8975) variants, offering an 18% performance increase and 36% power reduction. The Xiaomi 18 series will be the first to feature this chip, followed by Samsung, OPPO, and other brands.

Meta Connect 2026 is officially scheduled for September 23–24, with multiple XR hardware devices, VR headsets, and new smart glasses set to launch.

From September 22 to 24, 2026, the Cloud Summit will be held in Hangzhou under the theme "Intelligence in Action." The highlight of the event will be the unveiling of the "Five-Layer Full Stack" technology, which will break down the five layers—Model, Agent, and Agentic Cloud—to showcase Alibaba Cloud’s core technologies and annual product releases.

The Nasdaq-100 Index’s quarterly rebalance will take effect prior to the opening of U.S. markets on September 21, at which point SpaceX’s weight in the index will rise to 2.82%, up significantly from its current weight of approximately 1.28%. This weight increase is significant because passive funds tracking this benchmark must adjust their holdings accordingly. This includes the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, or QQQ, a $482 billion ETF and one of the largest in the world.

On the same day, the quarterly rebalancing by S&P Dow Jones Indices took effect, with Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks, SanDisk, and Dell added to the S&P 100, and Bloom Energy and Illumina added to the S&P 500. These adjustments are part of routine portfolio rebalancing; passive fund repositioning on the effective date may cause price and volume fluctuations in related technology stocks, with Arista and Palo Alto among those receiving passive inflows.

Several Federal Reserve policymakers will speak next week. Given that Fed Chair Walsh has already indicated a desire to avoid providing forward guidance on the interest rate path, any clues regarding the central bank’s plans for this tightening cycle will become even more significant. Fed Vice Chair Jefferson will speak at the 2026 U.S. Treasury Market Conference. FOMC voting members, including Cleveland Fed President Hama and New York Fed President Williams, an FOMC permanent voter, will also deliver remarks.

The AICC 2026 Artificial Intelligence Computing Conference will be officially held on September 21, 2026, at the Beijing Zhongguancun International Innovation Center. This year’s conference focuses on the AI computing foundation and systemic transformation in the era of agents.

The 2nd Shanghai AI Application Ecosystem Conference will be held on September 21–22, 2026. It will primarily focus on practical applications of enterprise agents, collaborative ecosystem building for use cases, and scalable replication of industrial outcomes, aiming to achieve deep integration between AI technology and enterprise operations.

On September 17, Starry Sky Dynamics announced that it will soon conduct the commercial launch mission of the "Gan De-1 Sea-Launched (Flight 8)" launch vehicle, codenamed "Sea to Yangcheng." The company primarily provides space launch services to clients in the aerospace industry, with core products including the Zhi Shen Xing series of medium-to-large reusable liquid launch vehicles and the Gan De series of small-to-light solid launch vehicles.

According to Politico, Trump will deliver a keynote speech at a Republican fundraising event in New York City on September 21.

On August 25, Apple launched its first updated Mac mini in two years, introducing new models powered by the M6 or M5 Pro chip, as well as upgraded Mac Studio models featuring the M5 Ultra or M5 Max chip. Both products became available for pre-order on August 27 at 9:00 AM and will be officially released on September 22.

The three major exchanges in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing have announced their holiday schedules for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in 2026: trading will be suspended from Friday, September 25 to Sunday, September 27, and will resume as usual on Monday, September 28. Trading will again be suspended from Thursday, October 1 to Wednesday, October 7, and will resume as usual on Thursday, October 8.



Advance warning

September 29 (Tuesday): OpenAI DevDay 2026 (San Francisco) — According to the OpenAI official website, this year’s event focuses on technical depth and the developer ecosystem; as a key milestone in AI commercialization, pay attention to new API and model releases.

October 1 (Thursday) at 4:30 AM: Micron's Q4 FY2026 Earnings Report—Earnings call at 4:30 PM ET on September 30, a key validation point for storage chain sentiment and HBM demand.