PRE-MARKET CHINESE STOCKS NEWS: China and the US are reportedly discussing cuts to tariffs on agriculture and energy

China Eastern Airlines (670 HK) - Co. August passenger transportation capacity rose 5.2% Y/Y, passenger traffic volume rose 6.7% Y/Y, passenger load factor was 89.61%, up 1.27ppts Y/Y, and freight traffic volume rose 3.61% Y/Y. (Dow Jones Newswires)

China Southern Airlines (1055 HK) - Co. August passenger capacity rose 3.6% Y/Y, with domestic capacity rising 1.8% Y/Y and international capacity rising 9.6% Y/Y, passenger traffic rose 4.8% Y/Y, passenger load factor was 88.01%, and cargo capacity fell 1.65% Y/Y. (Dow Jones Newswires)

MTR Corporation (66 HK) - Co. accepted an HKD 10.5bln land premium for the Tuen Mun sites in Hong Kong. (Newswires)

S.F. Holding (6936 HK) - Co. will raise CNY 10.0bln in a two-tranche bond sale, comprising CNY 5.0bln of notes due 2029 carrying a 1.75% coupon and CNY 5.0bln of notes due 2031 carrying a 1.85% coupon, with proceeds to be used for refinancing and general corporate needs. (Dow Jones Newswires)

ByteDance - Co.'s H1 profit reportedly fell by a single-digit percentage to USD 20bln amid AI spending, while revenue rose around 30% on strong international advertising growth. (The Information)

China and the US are reportedly discussing cuts to tariffs on agriculture and energy, according to sources. (Newswires)

German Chancellor Merz said China distorts trade through subsidised overproduction, while cooperation and trade have been significantly reduced by new US tariff rules; he added that Germany will respond to fuel price gouging, saying the burden on many people has reached the limit of what they can bear. (Newswires)

China's NDRC reportedly pledged to target policies involving subsidised overproduction. (Newswires)

China's State Administration for Market Regulation and Ministry of Culture and Tourism instructed Meituan (3690 HK), JD (9618 HK), Trip.com (9961 HK), Douyin, Tongcheng and Fliggy to strengthen compliance, address competition risks and support orderly tourism. (Newswires)

Hong Kong Chief Executive Lee will unveil Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan. (Newswires)

Sourced reports of tariff discussions of this kind have historically been the early stage of a well-worn sequence: leak, denial or qualifier, then confirmation or collapse, with the substance typically far narrower than the initial framing. Agricultural and energy goods are the customary first items in any US-China trade thaw, since they are low-sensitivity politically and give Beijing visible purchase commitments; past rounds of this kind have been built around exactly those volumes, with high-tech and industrial overcapacity left to later, harder stages. The context cuts both ways: parallel rhetoric from Berlin on subsidised overproduction, and Beijing's own pledge to target it, suggests the structural friction remains even where transactional tariff relief is in play, a distinction that has separated durable de-escalations from truces that later unwound. The established transmission is through soybeans and LNG flows first, then the offshore yuan and China-sensitive equity sectors; commodity and freight desks read the actual cargo bookings rather than the communiques. What separates signal from noise is sourcing and specificity: named products, volumes and a negotiating venue tend to be the tells that distinguish a live track from positioning ahead of a leaders' meeting. Follow-ons worth noting are any reciprocity demands from Washington and whether the agriculture-and-energy scope widens or stays deliberately confined.