The suspension of fighting between the United States and Iran boosts market sentiment, U.S. stock futures rise, and oil prices fall sharply: What to watch tonight
On Monday, affected by the suspension of fighting between the United States and Iran over the weekend, international oil prices fell and U.S. stock index futures rose collectively. Major European indexes were also generally higher. (Source: British Financial Information) U.S. President Trump suspended air strikes against Iran last Friday to gain space for a diplomatic solution. The United States has carried out air strikes against Iran for 13 consecutive days. The move reignited market hopes for a peace deal. The price of Brent crude oil futures, the international oil price benchmark, fell by more than 5% and was trading around US$87 per barrel. However, tensions have escalated elsewhere.
On Monday, affected by the suspension of fighting between the United States and Iran over the weekend, international oil prices fell and U.S. stock index futures rose collectively. Major European indexes were also generally higher. (Source: Yingwei Finance) U.S. President Trump suspended air strikes against Iran on Friday to gain space for a diplomatic solution. The United States has carried out air strikes against Iran for 13 consecutive days. The move reignited market hopes for a peace deal. The price of Brent crude oil futures, the international oil price benchmark, fell by more than 5% and was trading around US$87 per barrel. However, tensions have escalated elsewhere. Ukraine attacked an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea, with Iran accusing Ukraine of "hostile and criminal acts." This week, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft will announce their quarterly results. After Alphabet delivered disappointing earnings last week, the results will determine whether investor concerns about rapid growth in artificial intelligence (AI) capital spending are alleviated or further exacerbated. Earnings performance may also directly affect semiconductor companies, which are the main beneficiaries of the AI investment boom. Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, said: "The biggest risk is that AI spending continues to grow. But if these companies listen to shareholders and start to slow down spending, or reduce the growth rate of spending, the market will not like this outcome either." "It's like a seesaw, there are risks on both sides," he said. [NVIDIA, Microsoft, IBM and dozens of other companies have established a new alliance to jointly ensure AI security] On July 27, Nvidia, Microsoft, Adobe, SpacexAI, IBM, SAP, Dell, Cisco and other companies announced the establishment of the Open and Secure Artificial Intelligence Alliance, which aims to build and share open tools to promote the responsible use of AI. Alliance members also include Cadence, Capital One, Cloudera, Cloudflare, Cognition, CrowdStrike, Databricks, DoorDash, Elastic, HPE, Hugging Face, LangChain, The Linux Foundation, NAVER, NetApp, Nous Research, OpenClaw, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Red Hat, Reflection AI, Salesforce, SK Telecom, ServiceNow, Siemens, Snowflake, Synopsys, Thinking Machines Lab and TrendAI. [Samsung Electronics confirmed that HBM5 will use the 2nm GAA process, which is more than 50% faster than HBM4E] Samsung Electronics released an interview with Koo Ja-hyun, head of the technology development office of the company’s semiconductor division, on July 27. Koo Zi-hyun said that the next-generation HBM5 memory is expected to run more than 50% faster than HBM4E. "The HBM5 basic chip will use a 2-nanometer process with a GAA structure and achieve higher integration through silicon vias (TSV)." Koo Ja-hyun said that Samsung Electronics will introduce the 2-nanometer process into HBM5 in advance based on the experience and technical competitiveness gained on the 4-nanometer HBM4 basic chip, and expand cooperation with customers in mobile, HBM, AI, HPC, automotive electronics, robotics and other fields to lead the further development and growth of the semiconductor ecosystem. [SoftBank’s US$40 billion loan to invest in OpenAI is reported to have added 21 new lenders] According to reports, people familiar with the matter revealed that the US$40 billion bridge loan obtained by SoftBank Group for its investment in OpenAI has attracted the participation of 21 new lending institutions. The new group of lenders joins a group of financial institutions already involved in the deal, with a total of about $7 billion allocated in loan lines, people familiar with the matter said. Among them, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Government Investment Corporation of Singapore and Standard Chartered Bank each assumed a share of nearly US$1 billion, and their balances were allocated to some European and Japanese banks.
[Samsung Lee Jae-yong met with OpenAI Altman, and the two parties may discuss AI infrastructure cooperation] On July 25, local time, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco, USA. OpenAI did not disclose the specific topics of the talks between the two parties, but industry insiders believe that the two parties may discuss expanding cooperation in the field of AI infrastructure, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and advanced wafer foundry manufacturing. [HSBC Holdings will set up a global artificial intelligence center of excellence in Singapore and recruit more than 100 AI experts] HSBC Holdings announced on July 27 that it will establish a global artificial intelligence center of excellence (CoE) in Singapore in the second half of this year, aiming to develop AI capabilities that can be extended to the group’s global network, and plans to recruit more than 100 AI experts. According to the statement, the center of excellence will initially focus on improving customer wealth management experience, introducing intelligent treasury solutions and developing AI-empowered digital payments. Events worthy of attention during the US stock market time period (Beijing time) 22:30 US July Dallas Fed Business Activity Index
[Samsung Lee Jae-yong met with OpenAI Altman, and the two parties may discuss AI infrastructure cooperation] On July 25, local time, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco, USA. OpenAI did not disclose the specific topics of the talks between the two parties, but industry insiders believe that the two parties may discuss expanding cooperation in the field of AI infrastructure, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and advanced wafer foundry manufacturing. [HSBC Holdings will set up a global artificial intelligence center of excellence in Singapore and recruit more than 100 AI experts] HSBC Holdings announced on July 27 that it will establish a global artificial intelligence center of excellence (CoE) in Singapore in the second half of this year, aiming to develop AI capabilities that can be extended to the group’s global network, and plans to recruit more than 100 AI experts. According to the statement, the center of excellence will initially focus on improving customer wealth management experience, introducing intelligent treasury solutions and developing AI-empowered digital payments. Events worthy of attention during the US stock market time period (Beijing time) 22:30 US July Dallas Fed Business Activity Index