Buckle up! The most significant US-China talks, the monetary policy decisions of the US, Japan, and Europe, the AI conference, and the earnings reports of tech giants are all happening this week

March 16 - March 22 Weekly Major Financial Events Overview, all times are in Beijing time:

This week's core themes are as follows:

First, the Sino-U.S. economic and trade game and macro data verification. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that He Lifeng, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, will lead a delegation to France for economic and trade consultations with the U.S. from March 14 to 17. Meanwhile, domestic industrial, retail, and investment data for January-February will be released, and the market urgently needs to verify the economic performance at the beginning of the year and holiday consumption.

Second, "Super Central Bank Week" sets the tone for global liquidity. The Federal Reserve, European, British, and Japanese central banks will intensively announce interest rate decisions, with the market closely watching the convergence of the Federal Reserve's interest rate dot plot and the suspense of a potential rate hike by the Bank of Japan. At the same time, the central banks of Australia, Indonesia, and Brazil will also make statements, putting the foreign exchange and bond markets to a significant test.

Third, the tech conference and "Super Earnings Week" resonate. NVIDIA's GTC and the global optical communication conference (OFC) will be held simultaneously, with the next-generation GPU architecture and CPO industrialization being the biggest highlights. In terms of earnings reports, Alibaba and Tencent will focus on overseas expansion and cloud business, Micron Technology will guide the global semiconductor cycle, and leading companies such as China Unicom, China Mobile, Zijin Mining, and XPeng will intensively disclose their performance.

Finally, "Geopolitical Week" and energy competition. Japan has taken the lead in launching an epic oil reserve release plan of 400 million barrels to hedge against supply risks; geopolitically, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with Trump in the U.S., and Venezuelan President Maduro will appear in court in the U.S. again. Coupled with the EU Council's key discussions on the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine situation, global geopolitical complexity is further increasing. Adding to this is the U.S. stock market's "Quadruple Witching Day," which will inevitably lead to significant fluctuations in asset prices this week.

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Economic Indicators

• Interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, European, Japanese, British, Australian, and Canadian central banks

On March 19, the Federal Reserve and the European and Japanese central banks will announce their interest rate decisions. The market expects the Federal Reserve to keep rates unchanged, but the updated dot plot may indicate only one rate cut this year, significantly converging from previous market expectations.

The European and Japanese central banks may also remain on hold this time, but the price risks brought by energy prices could bring the option of a rate hike in Japan back to the table in April. Economists at Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have adjusted their forecasts for the Reserve Bank of Australia, expecting a rate hike next week At the same time, next week, central banks in Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, and Russia will successively announce their interest rate decisions, putting the foreign exchange and bond markets to a significant test.

• China's January-February industrial, consumption, and investment data

The National Bureau of Statistics of China will release the industrial, consumption, and investment data for January-February 2026 on March 16.

According to estimates from China Merchants Macro and Huatai Macro, supported by the travel enthusiasm during the Spring Festival holiday, the growth rate of retail sales in January-February may rebound to a range of 1.6%-2.5%. In terms of industrial production, high-frequency data shows a year-on-year increase in blast furnace operating rates, and it is expected that the industrial added value will maintain around 5.2% year-on-year.

In addition, China's one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) will be announced on March 20.

Financial Events

• Ministry of Commerce: Sino-U.S. economic and trade consultations will be held from March 14 to 17

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce stated that, as agreed by both sides, He Lifeng, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, will lead a delegation to France for economic and trade consultations with the U.S. side from March 14 to 17. The two sides will conduct consultations on economic and trade issues of mutual concern, guided by the important consensus reached during the meetings and calls between the two heads of state in Busan.

Regarding the U.S. so-called "overcapacity theory," the Chinese side stated that the U.S. has no right to unilaterally determine whether there is "overcapacity" among trade partners through Section 301 investigations and to take unilateral restrictive measures.

• NVIDIA GTC Conference will be held from March 16 to 19

Next week, two major industry events in the AI data center field, the NVIDIA GTC Conference and the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), will be held simultaneously. The focus of both significant conferences will be on the upgrades in optical interconnect driven by AI computing power.

The NVIDIA GTC Conference will take place from March 16 to 19 in San Jose, California, and CEO Jensen Huang's keynote speech is highly anticipated. The GTC Conference is the top global conference hosted by NVIDIA in the field of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. NVIDIA typically announces the next-generation GPU architecture and super chips at this event.

There are several important expectations for this GTC Conference: first, the mass production era of the Rubin chip may be advanced. Second, NVIDIA may further shift its chip focus to the next-generation Feynman of Rubin.

• Global Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) will be held from March 15 to 19

This year's Global Optical Fiber Communication Conference will be held from March 15 to 19 in Los Angeles, California. With the explosive demand for AI computing power, traditional copper cables are approaching their physical limits at speeds of 800G and above, making optical interconnect a core variable determining the performance of AI clusters.

The core highlights of the conference include the progress of mass production of 1.6T optical modules and the industrialization of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), with giants like NVIDIA, Google, and Broadcom gathering together. Bank of America expects that 2026 will be the year for mass production verification of CPO, while the market for 800G optical modules is expected to surge nearly tenfold

• 2026 Huawei China Partner Conference and Commercial Aerospace Industry Development Conference

The 2026 Huawei China Partner Conference will be held from March 19 to March 20.

The 2026 Second Commercial Aerospace Industry Development Conference will take place in Shenzhen on March 17-18.

• U.S. "Quadruple Witching Day": Expiration of Stock Index Futures, Options, and Individual Stock Options

On the "Quadruple Witching Day" in the U.S. market, stock index futures and options, as well as individual stock options and futures, will all expire. "Quadruple Witching Day" typically sees significant volatility.

• Report: Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobuo to Visit the U.S. and Meet Trump

According to reports, Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobuo is expected to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, marking Kishi's first official visit to the U.S. since taking office.

• EU Heads of State Hold European Council and Foreign Affairs Council Meetings

EU heads of state are holding a European Council meeting in Brussels. The meeting will continue from March 19 to March 20.

Additionally, the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting is taking place in Brussels to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Russia's war against Ukraine.

• U.S. Judge Orders Maduro to Appear Again on March 17

According to Xinhua News Agency, Venezuelan President Maduro, who is under U.S. control, was ordered by a judge to appear again for a hearing on March 17 after his first appearance in the U.S. Southern District Court of New York on January 5. During his first court appearance, facing charges of "drug terrorism," Maduro insisted on his "innocence" and claimed he was "kidnapped."

• Japan Announces Release of Part of Oil Reserves Starting March 16

Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobuo announced that approximately 80 million barrels of strategic oil reserves will be released as early as March 16 to hedge against supply risks and stabilize oil prices. Germany has also confirmed the release of 2.4 million tons of reserves. The International Energy Agency has announced a joint release plan of up to 400 million barrels, marking its largest intervention in history.

• AMD CEO Lisa Su Plans to Visit South Korea to Meet Samsung Executives

According to the Korea Economic Daily, AMD CEO Lisa Su plans to visit South Korea on March 18 to meet with key partners, including Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-Yong and Naver CEO Choi Soo-Young, to discuss cooperation in areas such as data centers. Reports suggest that due to a shortage of memory chips, AMD may seek to obtain more HBM chips from Samsung.

• Huawei to Release New Data Storage Products on March 20

Huawei Data Storage announced that the Huawei China Partner Conference 2026 Data Storage Summit will be held on March 20 at the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center. At this summit, Huawei Data Storage will release innovative data storage products and solutions focusing on the three key stages of "AI Data Preparation - AI Training - AI Inference."

Financial Reports

• Financial Reports from Tencent, Alibaba, Micron, Zijin Mining, Sinopec, and Others

Next week, Tencent, Alibaba, China Unicom, China Mobile, Sinopec, COSCO Shipping Holdings, Baiwei Storage, Zijin Mining, Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining, Zhouliufu, XPeng, Geely Automobile, Hon Hai Precision Industry, Dongfang Caifu, CITIC Bank, as well as U.S. companies Micron Technology, Lululemon, FedEx, and Accenture will all announce their latest quarterly results The market's focus on Tencent and Alibaba is concentrated on overseas expansion in gaming and growth in cloud services; Micron Technology, as a barometer for memory chips, will provide clues for the semiconductor cycle.

• Alibaba Conference Call: Q4 2025 Results

Alibaba Group will announce its Q4 2025 results on March 19, 2026. Conference call time: 7:30 AM Eastern Time on March 19 (7:30 PM Hong Kong Time on March 19, 2026).

• Tencent Conference Call: Q4 2025 and Full Year Results

Tencent will announce its Q4 2025 and full year results, with the webinar scheduled for: March 18, 2026, 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM HKT.

Overview of AH company earnings report disclosure dates: