Barclays: 85% of S&P 500 constituent companies beat second-quarter earnings expectations.

Zurich, Switzerland-based robotics startup Exclaim Robotics has officially emerged from stealth mode, closing a $4.95 million seed funding round that will be used to develop robotic products for routine repair and maintenance operations at hyperscale data centers. The firm is led by veteran robotics expert Helen Oleynikova, with backers including prominent European early-stage investment firms.

Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, reports that the Trump administration is drafting a ban on imports of new Chinese data center components. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to impose import restrictions on Chinese optical transceivers—used for high-speed data transmission over data center fibers—and aims to announce and implement the measures within this year. The White House and FCC have not yet responded to requests for comment. Affected by this, according to market data from BIT (bit.com), pre-market trading in the U.S. optical communications sector has widened its gains, with: Pure Photonics ETF FOTO up 8.08%; Corning (GLW) up 8.10%; Marvell Technology (MRVL) up 7.64%; AAOI (Applied Optoelectronics) up 18.1% — the company manufactures high-speed optical modules (800G/1.6T) and focuses on AI data center transceivers; LITE (Lumentum Holdings) up 11.57% — a core supplier of optical communications lasers and optical modules, and a key player in AI data centers; COHR (Coherent Corp) up 14.01% — a leader in lasers, optical components, and photonics solutions, covering data center and industrial sectors; CIEN (Ciena Corporation) up 8.96% — which produces high-speed SerDes and connectivity chips, focusing on low-power interconnection for AI data centers.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), US-listed optical communication concept stocks rallied sharply in pre-market trading, with the following gains: Pure Photonics ETF (FOTO) rose 7.85%; Corning (GLW) climbed 8.5%; Marvell Technology (MRVL) advanced 7.3%; AAOI (Applied Optoelectronics) jumped 14.12%; LITE (Lumentum Holdings) gained 10.7%; COHR (Coherent Corp) rose 14.2%; and CIEN (Ciena Corporation) added 8.5%.

Elon Musk's net worth shrank by $363 billion in July alone — a drop larger than the entire net worth of any of the world's 2nd to 10th richest billionaires. The massive volatility stemmed mainly from SpaceX's sharp stock correction of nearly 50% from its peak following its successful IPO in June, paired with Tesla's underwhelming earnings that triggered a sharp decline in its share price, causing a rapid evaporation of the value of Musk's stakes in both companies. Musk briefly became the first person in history to hit a $1 trillion net worth in mid-June when SpaceX went public, peaking at nearly $1.45 trillion. His wealth then quickly retreated amid a broader tech stock correction, Starship launch setbacks, and market jitters over high valuations. Still, he retains his position as the world's richest person.

South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb will list the SQUID (QUID) KRW trading pair.

According to the official X account of self-custody stablecoin digital bank AllScale, the platform has launched the Claim Link feature. Users can generate a claim link from their account balance and send it to any recipient. Recipients have two claim options: input a 0x address for direct on-chain transfer, or create an AllScale wallet via email verification code to receive funds. The entire process requires no app installation and incurs no gas fees—gas is prepaid by the sender. The feature supports USDT and USDC, covering six EVM chains: BNB Chain, Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum. Per-transaction amounts range from $0.1 to $10,000. The links adopt a self-custody architecture, and unclaimed funds will be automatically fully refunded to the sender within 14 days. Besides the web version, merchants can create links in bulk via API calls.