A Tectonic Shift.

Modern finance.

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“I can’t do my job without News Items.” — Jim Cramer.

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1. The biotechnology industry is experiencing a tectonic shift, driven by Chinese drugmakers who have come a long way from their copycat days to challenge Western dominance on innovation. The number of novel drugs in China — for cancer, weight-loss and more — entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union and nearly catching up to the US’s count of about 1,440, an exclusive Bloomberg News analysis showed. And the drug candidates from the land once notorious for cheap knock-offs and quality issues are increasingly clearing high bars to win recognition from both drug regulators and Western pharmaceutical giants. The findings, gleaned from an analysis of a database maintained by pharma intelligence solutions provider Norstella, show a fundamental shift in medical innovation’s center of gravity. With President Donald Trump already threatening tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector, China's biotech advances — the scale of which is slowly coming into view — risk becoming another realm of superpower rivalry like artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. (Source: bloomberg.com)

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2. The slump in Japan’s long-term bonds intensified (earlier today), pushing yields sharply higher in a move that puts global debt markets on alert. Amid signs of thin liquidity and increasing worries about higher government spending in Japan, yields on bonds from the 10-year to the 40-year spiked in moves reminiscent of the surge that rippled through global markets in May. While the pressure in Japan is being heightened by the looming election on July 20, concerns over governments spending beyond their means also apply to the UK, Europe and US. (Source: bloomberg.com)

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