The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in June is currently reported to be 97.4%.

U.S. stocks closed on Tuesday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially rose 1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. Storage-related concept stocks plunged again, with SK Hynix (SKHY.O) down 8.98%, Micron Technology (MU.O) falling 8.85%, and SanDisk (SNDK.O) dropping 14%. SanDisk’s share price is now more than 50% lower than the all-time high it hit a month ago.

According to official announcements, AI voice company Fish Audio has closed a $52 million seed round, with investors undisclosed at this time. The firm also officially launched its next-generation voice generation model, S2.1 Pro. Fish Audio stated that S2.1 Pro can clone voices using just a 5-second audio sample, generates audio roughly twice as fast as Cartesia, and costs approximately one-sixth of ElevenLabs’ pricing. The model supports fine-grained control over word-level emotion, intonation, and speech rate, and is hailed as one of the most expressive voice models currently available. Multiple AI companies including HeyGen, LiveKit, Retell, Sanas, and OpenArt are already deploying Fish Audio’s models in production environments. The company offers a cost guarantee: if enterprises adopt its voice AI services and fail to reduce their costs by at least 50%, they will receive one full year of free Fish Audio services. To celebrate its first anniversary, Fish Audio also announced that it is granting users one month of free access to experience S2.1 Pro.

Ethereum's Layer 2 ecosystem total value locked (TVL) has dropped to around $5 billion, hitting its lowest level since 2023 and nearly erasing the capital accumulated during the L2 ecosystem's rapid growth in 2024. Data shows that the combined TVL of the three major networks—Optimism, Base, and Arbitrum—stands at around $4.8 billion, accounting for 96% of the entire L2 ecosystem. Reports note that the L2 ecosystem's cooling is occurring in tandem with broader challenges facing Ethereum as a whole. Since the start of this year, several senior executives at the Ethereum Foundation have stepped down, with personnel adjustments made. Meanwhile, traditional financial institutions, when exploring blockchain infrastructure, are increasingly turning to alternatives beyond Ethereum. For instance, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is advancing Treasury tokenization based on a multi-chain environment, while JPMorgan Chase has expanded its JPM Coin to multiple public blockchains. However, stablecoins remain a key pillar of the Ethereum ecosystem; currently, USDC and USDT are still primarily settled via Ethereum and its L2 networks, allowing Ethereum to continue serving as a critical bridge for traditional finance to enter the crypto market.

Israeli and Emirati officials have held multiple rounds of secret meetings recently in an unnamed third country, discussing aligning their stances on Iran and coordinating joint actions in international settings. According to reports, the UAE has strongly opposed the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), arguing that the deal may give Iran time to improve its economic situation without securing substantive concessions. The two sides also discussed coordinating measures targeting Iran within international organizations, agreeing that any actions must be communicated with the Trump administration in advance. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated he held an "excellent meeting" with U.S. President Donald Trump on the 28th local time. Netanyahu added that the two sides are aligned on the shared goal of "ensuring Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons," describing the talks as one of the "most profound and best dialogues" he has had with a U.S. president.

According to a New York Times report, since the outbreak of the Iran war triggered energy supply tensions and pushed up oil and gas prices, executives at several major U.S. oil and gas companies have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars by selling their company stocks. Environmental group Friends of the Earth analyzed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and found that insiders at U.S. fossil fuel companies have sold nearly $400 million worth of stocks since the start of the conflict. Among them, ConocoPhillips executives led the sell-off with around $96 million in stock sales, followed by executives at natural gas exporters Cheniere Energy and Venture Global. The report noted that the recent stock sales by executives at all three firms have exceeded their full-year 2025 totals. Specifically, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance sold stocks in two transactions in March this year, totaling nearly $80 million; Cheniere Energy executives also offloaded shares around the time the company’s stock hit a recent high. Analysts pointed out that the surge in oil and gas companies’ stock prices is directly tied to the skyrocketing energy prices, and executives cashing out at high stock prices aligns with market incentive logic. However, critics argue that part of the companies’ profit growth stems from rising energy costs driven by the geopolitical conflict, with the related gains ultimately borne by consumers, hence calling for a "windfall tax" on energy companies. To date, the proposal to impose a windfall tax on the U.S. energy sector has not received support from the Republican Party.

Foreign media reports indicate that employees of OpenAI and Anthropic are circulating a petition calling on the U.S. government to support establishing a mechanism to "consciously regulate" the pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development, preventing the technology from advancing too rapidly. According to insiders and a copy of the petition, staff at multiple leading AI labs have sent an open letter to their peers, urging the U.S. to back an international initiative to advance the development of more advanced AI systems. The document warns that the pace of AI development may outpace humanity’s ability to "understand or control" it, posing "tangible risks", and notes progress in the field of AI research automation. The petition states: "The U.S. government should support international cooperation to develop the necessary technologies and governance tools to purposefully regulate the cutting-edge process of automated AI development." (Jinshi)