The initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending on June 13th were 226,000, slightly higher than expected.

June 18: Per Bitget data, SPCX dipped briefly below $180 and is now trading at $181.11, with its intraday loss widening to 5.98%.

June 18: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) sued U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over Kalshi’s entry into perpetual futures trading.

June 18: According to Bitget market data, WTI crude oil fell below $73 per barrel, dropping 3.66% intraday and hitting its lowest point since March 5th.

On June 18, the U.S. stock market opened higher, driven by positive news including the remote signing of a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.77%, the S&P 500 gained 1.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.56% at the open. Per Bitget market data, semiconductor stocks surged early: Intel jumped 8% following remarks from Trump about potential sector-specific stimulus. Marvell Technology added 4.7%, and Micron Technology climbed 6%. Optical communication stocks also posted solid gains, with AAOI up 3.43%, GLW advancing 5.18%, and COHR notching a 4.27% increase. Storage sector stocks led the upside, opening sharply higher: WDC surged 10.55%, STX climbed 7.22%, and SNDK added 6.28%. In contrast, SpaceX shares extended their recent downward trajectory, falling 2% in early trading.

June 18, Intellisense Chief Scientist Dr. Tang Jie responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s remarks on X that a Chinese large language model could catch up to Anthropic’s Fable in the first quarter, stating it would not take that long for the Chinese model to surpass Fable. Earlier today, a social media user asked when a Chinese large model would reach Fable’s performance level, noting that Intellisense’s GLM-5.2 had narrowed the gap significantly. Musk replied that this could happen “possibly in Q1 2027.” Click the original link below to join BlockBeats’ Feishu AI News Channel, which monitors global AI hotspots and news 24/7.

June 18: DeFi (Decentralized Finance) lending protocol Ionic Protocol announced on the X platform that a security vulnerability dating back to 2025 has caused the project’s impact to escalate steadily. As a result, the team has been forced to immediately cease all operations, and all users are being advised to withdraw their assets from all of its deployments as quickly as possible. Ionic Protocol further noted that this decision to shut down the project is “inevitable,” and all related services are now entering the formal termination process.