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Glonghui, April 16 — PepsiCo reported net revenue of $19.44 billion for the first quarter, compared to an estimated $18.93 billion; core earnings per share for the first quarter were $1.61, compared to an estimated $1.55.

Foresight News reports that the privacy computing network Nillion has announced the launch of its second phase upgrade, introducing a unified developer portal integrating the three core modules: nilDB, nilCC, and nilAI. At the same time, the previous subscription model has been changed to a point-based access system using NIL tokens. Since the first phase went live, the Nillion "blind computer" has accumulated over 112,000 users, 641 million documents, and 1.4 million inference runs. This upgrade aims to lower the barrier for developers, with nilDB and nilCC services allowing the purchase of points by burning NIL tokens, while nilAI additionally supports Stripe payments to enable developers to quickly connect.

The Kuala Lumpur rubber market closed mixed on Thursday. Traders pointed out that the divergence in regional rubber futures was mainly driven by the dual forces of stable oil prices and fluctuating geopolitical expectations.Japanese rubber futures closed higher that day, with the driving logic coming from the improved risk appetite due to rising expectations of US-Iran negotiations, coupled with positive signals released by China's first-quarter economic data, which exceeded expectations from the world's largest consumer.There was a subtle game at the crude oil end, with Brent crude rising slightly by 1.53% to $96.38 per barrel. The market remains deeply skeptical about whether the US and Iran can truly reach a ceasefire agreement. Firm oil prices provide bottom support for the synthetic rubber substitution logic.According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the country's GDP grew 5.0% year-on-year in the first quarter. In March, industrial added value above the designated scale jumped 5.7% year-on-year, better than expected. The resilience of manufacturing effectively offset the negative spillover to global trade chains from Middle East conflicts.Despite China's impressive economic data cushioning downside risks, traders generally maintain high vigilance over the situation in the Hormuz Strait. Anxiety over supply chain restructuring triggered by Trump's tariff remarks and uncertainty from geopolitical conflicts will continue to suppress speculative buying interest.In terms of specific quotations, Standard Malaysian Rubber SMR20 closed down 2.5 sen to 811.5 sen per kilogram, while bulk latex edged up 0.5 sen against the trend to 769.5 sen. The divergence between varieties reflects the market's difficult balance between industrial demand expectations and risk aversion sentiment.