Starts

• Asian markets are expected to open lower due to ongoing valuation pressures on technology stocks, coinciding with the start of the FOMC meeting. • Investors are closely monitoring SK Hynix's earnings report, CXMT's second day of trading, and news regarding China's new deep ultraviolet lithography kit. • South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean reported a second-quarter operating profit of 736.1 billion won ($500.6 million), marking a 98% increase from the previous year.

• The KOSPI index is serving as a potential warning signal for the Nasdaq as the long-standing AI-driven market boom faces increasing volatility. • While giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon have accelerated infrastructure spending, investors are now scrutinizing whether the hardware manufacturing sector can sustain this growth. • This shift matters because it suggests the AI cycle may be entering a new phase where underlying fundamentals are tested despite strong business performance.

• Marine Le Pen has announced her intention to run for the French presidency in the upcoming election next year. • This decision follows a ruling by a French court that shortened her previous ban from holding public office. • The election is viewed as a pivotal moment for Europe, carrying significant political weight similar to the impact of Brexit.

• Iran has launched strikes against U.S. military infrastructure in the Middle East following a series of American attacks. • The U.S. military targeted Iranian assets to degrade their capacity to threaten freedom of navigation within the strategic Strait of Hormuz. • This escalation highlights a struggle for political leverage, as Iran seeks to maintain control over the strait to prevent traffic from shifting toward Oman.

• African markets are entering the second half of the year facing increased pressure on bank balance sheets and rising borrowing costs. • Renewed tensions between the United States and Iran have spiked global energy prices, leading households and businesses in South Africa to raise inflation expectations. • These inflationary pressures have weakened the prospects for interest-rate cuts in South Africa, the continent's largest economy.

• The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has launched an unprecedented survey of the southern sky to map the solar system and the broader universe. • The project utilizes the largest camera ever constructed to capture high-resolution data on the Milky Way galaxy and distant celestial objects. • This initiative matters as it provides the most detailed survey of the universe to date, allowing astronomers to peer deeper into space than previously possible.

Avi Loeb’s White House panel has asked the Pentagon for videos and files on unexplained aerial sightingsA controversial Harvard University cosmologist who has suggested alien lifeforms could be sailing into the solar system disguised as meteors is leading the Trump administration’s secretive new scientific advisory panel on security risks posed by UFOs.Avi Loeb and his hand-picked committee have already begun looking into the origins of mysterious flying craft, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and last month asked the Pentagon for dozens of videos, images and documents of reported encounters and incidents, the Associated Press reports. Continue reading...