Stock market corporate news, US industrial inflation, oil and cryptocurrencies, Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska

The remaining stock news

• A jump in industrial inflation in the US initially caused a sell-off in stocks, but the stock market session was neutral. Only interest-rate-sensitive sectors of the market fell in price — from real estate to IWM.
AMZN and LLY were among the growth leaders.
Bitcoin rolled back to $119,000.
Everything is calm in the morning.

• Did you really think the mighty U.S. stock market would grind to a halt on a measly PPI release, even if it was a landslide? Despite a jump in wholesale prices, S&P 500 futures held on to gains of 0.2% in Asian trading, even as Nasdaq futures fell for a third straight day. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell 2 basis points to 4.2732%.

One consequence of the sharp rise in the PPI is that the market has lost hope for a substantial 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. However, traders are still pricing in a 92.1% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut at the September meeting, down from a 100% chance yesterday.

• In Asia, data from the region’s two biggest economies showed Japan’s economy rebounded last quarter, keeping shelves stocked ahead of Donald Trump’s tariff deadline, while China showed renewed signs of slowdown. Hong Kong shares fell 1.2% after weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data for July, including retail sales and industrial production. But the CSI 300 large-cap index rose 0.5% as traders speculated the data could justify more stimulus. Markets in India and South Korea are closed for holidays.

The Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% after snapping a six-day winning streak on Thursday, posting its biggest one-day selloff since April 11, as Japan's GDP data showed the economy expanded 1.0% year-on-year in the April-June quarter, beating analysts' expectations and giving more cues to the Bank of Japan, which next meets on Sept. 19. The dollar weakened 0.3% against the yen to 147.64.

 • A look at Alaska. In commodity markets, Brent crude fell 0.1% to $66.79 a barrel, not far from a two-month low hit on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. “The first meeting doesn’t look like a market-moving event. It’s more about setting the stage for the second meeting, which is likely to be more important,” said Mark Whelan, head of investment at Lucerne Asset Management in Singapore. “If there’s a truce, you’d expect a positive reaction from the euro and a weaker dollar; if there’s no truce, you’d expect the opposite.”

 • Global container shipping prices fell for a ninth week in a row, with the Drewry Composite Index down 34% to $2,350 per 40-foot container.
Rates fell the most last week on the Shanghai-New York route.

 • Indian state-owned Bharat Petroleum has signed a five-month contract for 10 million barrels of US crude with European trader Glencore.
That's 1 VLCC per month of WTI.

 • Citadel's Rubner points out that the market could repeat the 2010 money market fund spillover.
Back then, a decline in yields led to a 27% decline in funds and a massive flow of money into equities.
He estimates that even the current 10% rebalancing (~$700 billion) could significantly fuel the broader market, particularly dividend stocks and high-quality credit./ That's a fantasy for now, since U.S. Treasury yields fell to near zero back then.

 • 96% of S&P SmallCap 600 companies rose on Tuesday, and 90% on Wednesday.
Small Cap is on track for its best 2-day performance since November on a locally positive NFIB SBET report.

 • Foxconn made more revenue from servers than from iPhones for the first time — FT.
Cloud and networking devices accounted for 41% of revenue versus 35% for consumer electronics.
Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics maker and supplies components to Nvidia, Apple and others.

 • Nvidia (NVDA) said its next generation of AI chips after the current Blackwell generation, called "Rubin GPUs," are on track.

 • Cisco (CSCO): Targets $59-60B in FY26 revenue on demand for AI infrastructure.
Record bookings from webscale customers — $800+M in Q4 and $2+B in FY25. Partnerships (including NVDA) support growth.

 • Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): Repairing oil leak at Houston terminal; Seaway pipeline (JV with ENB) temporarily shut down. No casualties, cause under investigation.

 • Centrica & Energy Capital Partners: acquire Grain LNG for ~$2bn – Europe’s largest LNG import terminal
Contributing to £1.6bn EBITDA target by 2028.

 • Halliburton (HAL): 5-year contract with ConocoPhillips (COP) in the North Sea for well stimulation; vessel upgrade to stimulation platform.

 • StandardAero (SARO): Raises 2025 revenue guidance to $6.025 billion; expands LEAP/CFM56 platforms, opens new facility in Augusta, Ga.

 • JD.com (JD): Q2 revenue $49.8 billion (above expectations by $3.11 billion), Non-GAAP EPADS $0.69; JD Retail +20.6% y/y.

 • Deere (DE): Q3 EPS $4.75 (up $0.16) on revenue $12.02B (-8.6% YoY).
FY25 net income guidance of $4.75B-$5.25B.

 • TORM (TRMD): Raised 2025 guidance: TCE $800-950 million; Q2 EPS $0.60, Adj. EBITDA $129 million; support from fleet sales and earn-out days hedging.

 • Equinox Gold (EQX): Q2 revenue of $478.6 million (+77.7%), Non-GAAP EPS of $0.11; production of 219,122 ounces, significant contribution from Nicaragua; confirmed full-year guidance.

 • Galiano Gold (GAU): Q2 revenue $97.3 million (+52.1%), Non-GAAP EPS $0.08, Adj. EBITDA $39.9 million; strong operating cash flow, no debt.

 • Strategy reported that its BTC reserves reached a new high of $77.2 billion.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund increased its "indirect" long position in BTC by 200% in Q2 2025,
thanks to investments in stocks such as MicroStrategy, Metaplanet and Coinbase.

 • Block (XYZ) unveiled Proto, the first US ASIC for BTC mining.

 • Foxconn reports 27% Q2 2025 profit growth amid strong AI demand

 • Launch of new AI model DeepSeek delayed due to problems with Huawei chips, — FT.

 • The number of Google searches for “altcoins” has risen to a 4-year high.

 • Binance "accelerates" the Trump family's crypto project - WSJ.
The volume of USD1 cryptocurrency, owned by the Trump family, has grown in price to $4.5 billion since November 2024. According to The Wall Street Journal, the growth in value was provided by the PancakeSwap platform, created by Binance employees: it encouraged traders to trade USD1 through contests with prizes of up to $1 million, which increased the coin's turnover.

 • CIO Bitwise named four hidden drivers of BTC and ETH growth that he believes the markets have not yet priced in.
1) More governments will start buying BTC.
2) The Fed will start cutting rates more aggressively than many expected.
3) BTC is maturing as an asset, meaning its volatility is decreasing — which is increasingly attractive to institutional investors.
4) ICOs are back.

 • The rich from Silicon Valley pay up to $45,000 to have children with a known high IQ – this is how they form the future elite for the IT sector, – WSJ.
Diagnostics help in this, with the help of which it is possible to select embryos by the level of intelligence and the risks of genetic diseases.

 • Intel (INTC) shares rose 7% yesterday and are up another 5% this morning.
The Trump administration is discussing the possibility of acquiring a stake in Intel.

 • According to a new quarterly report from BRK, Warren Buffett's company bought $1.5 billion worth of UNH shares.
The news sent UNH shares up 11% in postmarket trading.
Buffett also bought DHI (+4% premarket), LEN (+6%), POOL (+2%), STZ (0%), NUE (+6%).
And he sold his stake in TMUS (-0.5%) and AAPL (-0.2%).

 • Soros Fund Management and Appaloosa Management bought significantly more Nvidia shares.
Both companies also bought additional shares of embattled health insurance giant UNH.

Key events that could impact markets on Friday:
- EU data: Eurozone reserve assets for July
- UK government debt auctions: Resumption of auctions of 1, 3 and 6 month government debt

Current fundamental views

 • The US Treasury Secretary reiterated that the US will not purchase cryptocurrency for the reserve, but will use confiscated assets.
This means that the government will stop selling BTC, as other countries do.
The US crypto reserve is currently estimated at around $15-20 billion.
Bessent:
Maybe start with a 25bp cut and accelerate.
I did not call for the Fed to cut rates by 1.5%.
I did not tell the Fed what to do.
To get to neutral, it would be around a 1.5% rate cut.

 • US Manufacturing Inflation Data:
Core PPI m/m = 0.9% (expected 0.2% / pop. 0.1%).
y/y = 3.7% (expected 2.9% / pop. 2.6%).
PPI m/m = 0.9% (expected 0.2% / pop. 0.1%).
y/y = 3.3% (expected 2.5% / pop. 2.4%).
Initial Jobless Claims
224K (expected 225K / pop. 227K)
After the inflation report, traders are actively cutting bets on a Fed rate cut in September - BBG.

 • Trump: "We're way ahead of China in chips. China has batteries, we have oil and gas."
Trump on Chinese electric cars: "I don't like losing business to China. Chinese electric cars aren't coming to the U.S. because of tariffs."

 • UNITED KINGDOM – GDP (Q2 2025).
q/q = +0.3% (expected +0.1% / previously +0.7%).
y/y = +1.2% (expected +1% / previously +1.3%).
Eurozone GDP Q2.
q/q = 0.1% (expected 0.1% / pop. 0.6%).
y/y= 1.4% (expected 1.4% / pop. 1.5%).

 • Japan GDP (YoY):
+1.0% (expected +0.4%, pop: +0.6%, previous revised from -0.2% to +0.6%).

 • China Unemployment Rate:
5.2% (expected 5.1%, actual: 5.0%)
China Industrial Production (YoY):
+5.7% (expected +6.0%, actual: +6.8%)
China Retail Sales (YoY):
+3.7% (expected +4.6%, previous: +4.8%)

• US Treasury Secretary Bessent:
Europe buying refined Russian oil from India
Bessent: More coordination with Europe needed on secondary sanctions
Bessent has called on European countries to be prepared to agree to higher tariffs on China and other countries that buy Russian energy,
after complaining that he received a cool response when he put the idea forward at a G7 meeting earlier this year - BBG.
It's time for European leaders calling on the US to tighten sanctions on Russia to either do something themselves or "shut up," Bessent said.

 • In 2025, Kazakhstan overtook the Russian Federation in GDP per capita among the post-Soviet countries.
$14.77 thousand against $14.26 thousand, in third place is Turkmenistan ($13.34 thousand). For comparison, in China - $13.69 thousand.
Next in the ranking are Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - data from the International Monetary Fund.

 • Trump wins appeal. Judges refuse to renew funding for USAID projects, despite it being included in the budget — Reuters

 • In Serbia, clashes between Vucic's opponents and the police.
During protests against Serbian President Vucic on the evening of August 13, clashes with his supporters and security forces occurred in a number of cities. According to Vucic himself, 64 local residents and 15 police officers were injured in Novi Sad alone, according to preliminary data.

 • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is actively using artificial intelligence to identify signs of tax evasion among taxpayers - The Telegraph.
For example, the service monitors social networks where users may publish reports of luxury purchases or holidays. This information is compared with financial data and tax returns of individuals to identify possible fraudulent activity.

• China is considering a plan for central government-controlled companies to buy back unsold homes from developers
to help stabilize the struggling property market - BBG
The property sector accounts for more than 25% of China's GDP.
More economists are calling on China to strengthen the yuan
, warning that a prolonged undervaluation of the currency could exacerbate trade tensions and distort China's growth model - Bloomberg.
North Korea's constitution to enshrine reluctance to improve ties with South Korea, Kim Jong-un's sister says.