Goldman Sachs: South Korean equities are expected to see a broad-based rally in the second half of the year, and the bank maintains its 12,000-point target for the KOSPI.

Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, after meeting with Strategy’s Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, stated that restoring preferred stock STRC to its $100 par value is the company’s top priority and key to restarting its bitcoin purchase engine and improving its capital structure. Cantor believes Strategy will continue to build cash reserves for STRC dividends to drive the stock’s price back to par, and may take measures such as share repurchases if necessary. A recovery in STRC is expected to benefit the company’s common stock (MSTR), paving the way for subsequent stock offerings to raise funds and continue increasing its bitcoin holdings. Earlier, Strategy announced it had sold approximately $216 million worth of bitcoin to fund STRC dividend payments. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase warned last week that the practice of selling bitcoin to pay preferred stock dividends could increase the company’s risk exposure and market volatility.

Blockchain security firm CertiK released a report stating that crypto security incidents caused roughly $1.32 billion in losses in the first half of 2026, a 46.8% year-over-year decline. However, CertiK noted that this decline is misleading and does not reflect an improvement in the industry’s security posture. The report revealed that crypto attack losses rose 59% quarter-over-quarter to $807.5 million in the second quarter, with over 70% of the total stemming from two attacks on KelpDAO and Drift Protocol, both believed to have been carried out by North Korea-backed hacking groups. Separately, data from TRM Labs shows that the number of security incidents in H1 2026 jumped to 207 from 83 in the same period last year, marking an all-time high for the first half of any year. CertiK pointed out that private key management and multi-signature wallets remain the most critical security risk vectors, and advised protocols and institutions to strengthen hardware security, optimize multi-sig governance, and diversify the locations of signatories to reduce their risk of being targeted by attacks.

Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Levin published an article stating that US President Donald Trump and his allies are pushing personnel changes to influence Federal Reserve decisions, including attempts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and interfere in the selection of the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, in a bid to expand the influence of White House supporters on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Levin argues that Kevin Warsh, a leading contender for the next Federal Reserve chair, should publicly oppose the White House’s interference, back Jerome Powell and Cook to serve out their terms, and demand the White House withdraw from the selection process for regional Fed bank presidents. Failure to do so would erode Warsh’s credibility and internal influence within the Fed should he lead the central bank in the future. Fed independence is key to maintaining stable inflation expectations and upholding monetary policy credibility, and ongoing political interference could harm US macroeconomic stability.

Saudi Aramco has cut the official selling price (OSP) of its flagship Arab Light crude oil for August shipments to Asia by $11 per barrel, to a discount of $1.50 per barrel against the regional benchmark. The cut, the largest in at least 26 years and exceeding market consensus, underscores its intention to compete for market share in Asia. The steep price cut comes as the Strait of Hormuz resumes navigation and crude oil supplies from the Middle East rebound. Meanwhile, OPEC+ announced it will continue increasing production in August, stoking market concerns over a global crude oil supply glut. Institutions including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have recently warned that with supply continuing to recover and demand growth remaining weak, the global crude oil market may face a renewed supply glut next year. Citigroup, meanwhile, forecasts that Brent crude oil prices could fall back to $60 per barrel by the end of the year.

Key pre-market news for US stocks: 1. SK Hynix’s US ADR offering has been oversubscribed, with subscriptions closing at 4 PM New York time on July 8. The company plans to issue 17.9 million ordinary shares, from which 7.9 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) will be issued, and the US IPO is expected to raise approximately $280 billion net. 2. A research firm reported that NVIDIA’s next flagship product—the Kyber rack-scale architecture powered by the 2027 Rubin Ultra chip—has been delayed to mass production in 2028. 3. Broadcom and Apple have reached an agreement to extend their chip partnership through 2031. 4. Micron Technology has launched an expansion project at its Hiroshima plant to boost production capacity for 1γ DRAM and HBM. 5. Tesla’s new car sales in the UK rose 42.02% year-on-year in June, totaling 12,403 units. 6. Kioxia and SanDisk have started producing 10th-generation 3D flash memory products at their joint Fab2 plant in Beishang. 7. Micron Technology and Ford Motor have signed a strategic agreement to strengthen long-term storage supply and industrial chain resilience. 8. Semiconductor equipment and storage sectors rallied sharply in pre-market trading: KLAC jumped over 6%, while SanDisk and Western Digital both gained more than 5%. 9. Spot gold, silver and crude oil markets edged lower: spot gold traded at $4,139, down 0.85% on the day; US crude fell 0.62%, and Brent crude dropped 0.26%.

According to Bit.com market data, the US semiconductor equipment sector rallied sharply in pre-market trading, with individual stocks rising as follows: Applied Materials (AMAT) up 5.05%; Onto Innovation (ONTO) up 4.15%; Lam Research (LRCX) up 5.03%; KLA Corporation (KLAC) up 5.41%; Teradyne (TER) up 4.85%; Entegris (ENTG) up 3.78%.