Focus will be on Chinese data, trade tensions this week. The most important of that will be Q2 gross domestic product (GDP), an important barometer for measuring the effects of rekindled trade tensions between the US and China in May. According to a Bloomberg consensus forecast, growth in China is expected to slow slightly to 6.2 per cent year-on-year (yoy) from 6.4 per cent in Q1. China's June retail sales, industrial production, unemployment data and home prices will also be out on Monday.

US proposes barring big tech companies from offering financial services, digital currencies. In a sign of widening scrutiny after Facebook Inc's proposed Libra digital coin aroused widespread objection, the bill proposes a fine of US$1 million per day for violation of such rules. Such a sweeping proposal would likely spark opposition from Republican members of the house who are keen on innovation, and would likely struggle to gather enough votes to pass the lower chamber.

Huawei planning major job cuts in US: WSJ. The layoffs are expected at Huawei's US-based research and development arm, Futurewei Technologies, the paper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation. The unit currently employs 850 people at several labs in the United States, but hundreds of them could be laid off, the report said. Some of the company's Chinese employees were given the option of keeping their jobs and returning home to work.

Hong Kong turmoil has millionaires eyeing other wealth havens like Singapore. Private bankers are being flooded with inquiries from investors in Hong Kong who are worried about the long-term effects of the political crisis in the Chinese city. While the Hong Kong government has shelved the controversial law that sparked the latest round of unrest - one that would have allowed criminal suspects to be transferred to the mainland for trial - a new tier of wealthy investors are setting up ways to move their money out of the former British colony more quickly, bankers and wealth managers said.

Junior miner, bullion-linked ETF on SGX rally on gold rush. Catalist-listed CNMC Goldmine Holdings - the first gold miner to snag a seat on the local bourse and also the largest - hit a year's high three weeks ago and has been flirting around that level since. As well, volumes in the SGX-listed SPDR Gold Shares ETF doubled in June from the previous month. Spot gold prices have been rising and remained elevated above the critical breakout level of US$1,400 an ounce as at Friday.

Source: SGX Masnet, The Business Times, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, PSR