Overnight US stocks | The three major indices closed down, Bitcoin broke through the $65,000 mark, Circle (CRCL.US) rose 8%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Monday, the three major indices opened high and went low, and finally closed down. The US bombed Iran for nine consecutive nights in retaliation for Iran's repeated attacks on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia.

After the US stock market closed, the White House issued an announcement stating that the US will impose an additional 50% ad valorem tariff on some Canadian products to deal with “the discriminatory measures taken by Canada against the US in the automobile and auto parts trade.” Allegedly, the new tariffs will take effect at 00:01 a.m. EST on August 19, and will be levied in addition to existing relevant tariffs, taxes, and other charges.

[US stocks] At the close, the Dow fell 307.16 points, or 0.59%, to 51839.26 points; the NASDAQ fell 12.17 points, or 0.05%, to 25508.07 points; the S&P 500 index fell 14.41 points, or 0.19%, to 7443.28 points. Bitcoin concept stocks rose, Strategy (MSTR.US) rose more than 3%, Circle (CRCL.US) rose 8%, Oracle (ORCL.US) fell nearly 4%, Tesla (TSLA.US) fell nearly 3%, and SK Hynix (SKHY.US) fell 1.8%. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closed up 0.9%, Alibaba (BABA.US) up 4.6%, and JD.US (JD.US) up 3%.

[European stocks] The German DAX30 index rose 16.86 points, or 0.07%, to 24844.98 points; the UK FTSE 100 index fell 79.61 points, or 0.75%, to 10520.76 points; the French CAC40 index rose 1.30 points, or 0.02%, to 8340.11 points; the European Stoxx 50 index fell 4.12 points, or 0.07%, to 6226.75 points; the Spanish IBEX35 index fell 19.45 points, or 0.10%, to report a decrease of 0.10% 19197.45 points; Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 35.28 points, or 0.07%, to 51847.00 points.

[Asian stock market] Korea's composite stock price index fell 4.46%.

[US Dollar Index] The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against six major currencies, rose 0.19% on the same day and closed at 100.957 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the exchange market in New York, 1 euro was worth 1.1415 US dollars, lower than 1.1436 US dollars on the previous trading day; 1 pound was worth 1.3436 US dollars, lower than 1.3454 US dollars on the previous trading day. 1 US dollar was worth 162.50 yen, up from 162.45 yen on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 0.8100 Swiss franc, higher than 0.8075 Swiss franc on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 1.4059 Canadian dollars, higher than 1.4011 Canadian dollars on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 9.6856 SEK, up from 9.6497 on the previous trading day.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin surpassed 65,000 US dollars, and as of the press report, 65,201 yuan; Ethereum broke through the 1,900 US dollar mark.

[Crude oil] Light crude oil futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 74 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $83.23 a barrel; London Brent crude oil futures for September delivery rose $1.12, or 1.27%, to close at $89.22 a barrel.

[Precious Metals] Spot gold returned above the $4,000 mark and reported $4008.7; spot silver was reported at $56.416.

[Macro News]

Short positions in US stocks hit a record high AI risk heightens market concerns. Although US stocks continued to rise, investors' bearish sentiment continued to heat up. Short bets on US stocks have risen to record highs as markets worry about whether this round of AI-driven gains will continue. Since the end of March, the S&P 500 index has accumulated an increase of 18%. According to S3 Partners LLC statistics since 2010, the share of short positions in S&P 500 stocks in free tradable shares has risen to 3.79%, a record high. This share of the Russell 3000 Index's constituent stocks also recently rose to 6.3%, which also set a new record. Although shorting stocks since this year has not been a successful trading strategy as a whole, bears still insist on a bearish position as the market continues to worry about the return on AI investment and related risks continue to disrupt the market. Ihor Dusaniwsky, head of predictive analysis at S3 Partners, said, “There has been an increase in shorting activity, and the coverage of shorted stocks has also expanded.”

Canada's inflation rate fell to 2.8% in June, and core inflation indicators declined. According to data released by Statistics Canada on Monday, driven by falling gasoline prices, Canada's inflation rate fell more than expected in June. One key core inflation indicator fell to 1.85%, the lowest level since September 2020. This is also the first time in nearly six years that this indicator has fallen below 2%. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.8% year on year in June, down from 3.2% in May (the highest level in more than two years), and lower than the 2.9% expected by economists. This lower-than-expected inflation data further shows that the effects of inflation brought about by the Iran war have not spread from the energy sector to other fields. The Bank of Canada has previously warned that if rising energy costs are transmitted to the prices of other goods and services, interest rate hikes may be needed, but the cooling of core inflation indicates that the economy's idle production capacity is offsetting the price pressure brought about by the war.

[Individual Stock News]

BlackRock is leading at least $12 billion in debt financing to support Meta (META.US) large data center project in Texas. According to media quoting people familiar with the matter, BlackRock is leading a debt financing of at least 12 billion US dollars to fund a large-scale data center project in El Paso (El Paso), Texas, which it co-supports with Meta Platforms. According to people familiar with the matter, BlackRock and its infrastructure and private equity business units hold 80% of the shares in the data center project, while Meta Platforms, which will use the data center, holds the remaining 20% of the shares. The park is expected to have approximately 1 gigawatt of computing power capacity. People familiar with the matter said that J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are responsible for underwriting this large-scale debt offering and are in touch with other potential investors. Over the past year, BlackRock continued to partner with AI hyperscale cloud service providers, investing tens of billions of dollars in data centers, including spending $40 billion to acquire Aligned Data Centers. People familiar with the matter said that Meta also recently agreed to rent an Aligned Data Centers large-scale data center project under construction in Shipingport, Pennsylvania.

A US federal judge halted the merger and acquisition deal between Paramount and Warner Bros. On Monday local time, US Federal Judge Aracelli Martinez-Holguin approved a temporary restraining order suspending the merger deal between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.US). During this period, the court will hear antitrust legal challenges previously brought jointly by 12 states to reform mergers and acquisitions transactions. The temporary restraining order prohibited the two companies from completing a deal this month, but it was only valid for two weeks. The judge may choose to extend the restraining order for another two weeks. The judge said that preliminary injunction applications from various states will be processed quickly. If the application is approved, it could cause the merger deal to be frozen for several months and cause a major blow to Paramount. Martinez-Holguin will hold a hearing on August 3 to consider whether to implement an initial ban. Paramount's lawyers said they will submit evidence to refute states' allegations that the deal violates antitrust laws.

Google (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) has developed a new “Frozen” chip to greatly improve the operating efficiency of the Gemini AI model. According to reports, two people familiar with the matter revealed that Google is developing a new server chip that can directly integrate the design blueprint of its Gemini AI model, so that the company can provide AI model services to users more efficiently. People familiar with the matter said that Google hopes to use this new chip, internally codenamed “Frozen v2,” to mitigate the serious shortage of AI computing power. Lack of computing power not only triggered internal competition for resources within the company, but also forced Google Cloud to refuse cooperation from some external customers. According to people familiar with the matter, Google employees involved in the project expect that after the chip is launched, it will be 6 to 10 times more efficient than Google's latest generation of self-developed AI chips based on tokens that can be processed per unit of power consumption. Currently, engineers are still deciding on the key features of the new chip and how the components work together. According to people familiar with the matter, Google plans to deploy the chip as early as 2028.

[Major Bank Ratings]

UBS Group: Lowers Qualcomm's (QCOM.US) target price from $235 to $190.