China closes 670 banks, oil markets worry over supply, AI concerns rise, Trump to repay DHS-funded ads

Hello, this is Justina Lee writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.

Beijing has moved to close a record 670 of its banks in a bid to shore up its financial system, amid ongoing concerns over an economic slowdown in the country.

Oil traders are concerned about supply disruptions after Saudi Aramco's CEO said that it could take two years to rebuild global oil stockpiles as the Iran-U.S. war drags on.

In tech, former Google DeepMind researcher Alex Turner's warning that "misaligned" artificial intelligence could prove more dangerous than China's aggressive development push also exacerbated growing fears over the development of AI.

China's move to shut down a quarter of its banks is part of an effort to create fewer, larger and better-capitalized institutions, according to Fitch Ratings analysis.

Small and rural commercial banks "remain the weakest part of the system" in China, Fitch said, which flagged their "poor asset quality, low capitalization and governance shortcomings," especially in less developed regions of the country.

Moving over to oil markets, worries over supply disruptions continue to linger after Saudi Aramco's chief executive Amin Nasser said Monday that global oil stockpiles could take two years to rebuild. The squeeze on supplies could yet get worse as the Iran-U.S. conflict drags on, Nasser cautioned.

Meanwhile, investors shrugged off rising U.S. Treasury yields and focused on tech shares, which drove the Nasdaq Composite to a fresh all-time high.

Over in tech, worries over the development of artificial intelligence persist. Former Google DeepMind researcher Alex Turner, during a New York City Council meeting on Monday, warned that "misaligned" AI could prove more dangerous than China's aggressive development push.

"Misaligned AI is everyone's adversary, including our own, and one day may be more powerful than China," Turner said.

Meanwhile, the tech continues to redefine jobs in Wall Street. According to an analysis by enterprise hiring data firm Draup that was provided exclusively to CNBC, posts for AI-related roles at banks including JPMorgan Chase have risen 49% so far this year, compared with 2025.

In markets, U.S. stock futures were little changed, with S&P 500 futures up 0.08%, while Dow futures gained 57 points, or 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.09%. In Asia, markets in mainland China and South Korea are closed for holidays on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 was 2.4% higher on Monday, while Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 ended flat.

—Justina Lee

Trump says he’ll pay for TV ads that praised him and which government funded

President Donald Trump said Monday evening that he and his political action committee will pay for controversial television ads that praised him and had been funded from what reportedly is up to $20 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Trump's announcement came after continued backlash to the ads, which had run in the weeks leading up to November's midterm elections.

Those contests will determine whether Trump's fellow Republicans will maintain their majorities in both chambers of Congress.

"The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

— Dan Mangan