Another 'time bomb' emerges in US stocks: Traders position early ahead of November midterm elections, with VIX futures already showing unusual movements.

Iran and Oman’s joint statement reveals: Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi held constructive talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during his working visit to Iran. The discussions centered on a high-priority issue for both nations: upholding full sovereignty and sovereign rights while restoring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Given recent wars and their catastrophic outcomes have shifted the strait’s current situation, the two foreign ministers mapped out a phased implementation framework that could serve as a practical, actionable foundation to move the situation forward. The proposed framework includes establishing a temporary joint maritime corridor in the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to carry out a joint mine-clearing project in the strait. The two sides will continue technical-level discussions to reach consensus on establishing a permanent maritime corridor, future governance of the strait, exchange of traffic management information, and relevant maritime and security service mechanisms. In this context, both sides underscored the need for joint dialogue with all Persian Gulf littoral states. They also stressed the importance of complying with applicable international law and respecting the sovereign rights of littoral states. Against this backdrop, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell $0.8 in the short term, down 3.88% to $81.27 per barrel; Brent crude oil dropped below $87 per barrel, with an intraday decline of 3.88%.

Bitcoin surged to $81,265 on Tuesday before pulling back, dropping as low as $78,111 and falling back below the $80,000 threshold. Gold weakened in tandem: spot gold fell nearly 2% to $4,605 per ounce, after hitting $4,697, its highest level since mid-May. Market trends show that the decline in U.S. Treasury yields no longer continued to drive gains for Bitcoin and gold, instead leading to a divergent pattern: U.S. stocks rose, while cryptocurrencies and gold weakened. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq advanced 0.5%; meanwhile, the yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury bond fell below 5.2%, approaching its lowest level since August 7. Analysts note that recent moves in U.S. Treasury yields remain a key driver of the crypto market. The U.S. Treasury Department earlier expanded its long-term Treasury repurchase program to ease upward pressure on long-dated yields, but amid the current inflation environment, the Federal Reserve’s room for interest rate cuts remains limited. Markets currently price in a roughly 61.9% probability that the Fed will hold interest rates steady in September. In the short term, market focus is shifting from Treasuries to the U.S. July PCE inflation data and the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Nvidia’s post-market earnings report on Wednesday could also act as a new catalyst for volatility in risk assets.

According to regulatory filings, quantitative trading giant Jane Street has significantly increased its holdings in AI storage chip manufacturer SanDisk (SNDK), raising its stake to 7.41 million shares with a position value of approximately $9 billion. This represents an increase of 6.25 million shares from its prior holding, a rise of around 540%, making SanDisk Jane Street’s second-largest single-stock position, second only to SPY. The filings show Jane Street currently holds roughly 5.47% of SanDisk’s outstanding shares, a position size even larger than its holdings in Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft. SanDisk’s stock has surged over 3,000% in the past 12 months, though it remains about 36% below its all-time high with notable price volatility. SanDisk’s recent performance has been driven by demand from AI data centers. For its 2026 fiscal year, the company’s data center business revenue jumped 437% year-over-year to $5.15 billion, while data center shipments as a share of total output rose from 12% a year earlier to 38%. The company has now signed long-term supply agreements with 8 clients, including 3 U.S. hyperscale cloud service providers, with total contracted revenue projected at no less than $93.9 billion and remaining performance obligations standing at $91.1 billion. SanDisk expects AI inference demand to continue driving growth in the NAND flash market, and is developing high-bandwidth flash (HBF) products tailored for AI inference workloads, with plans to deliver samples to clients next year. While Jane Street has not publicly disclosed a target price, its move to boost its stake by over 500% in a single quarter has become a key signal for the market to focus on the AI storage sector.

According to local Iranian reports on the 25th, a source close to Iran’s negotiation team stated that Iran intends to clearly convey its position and negotiation terms regarding the Strait of Hormuz to the U.S. through Pakistan. The source added that during Iran’s meeting with visiting Pakistan Army Chief of Staff Munir on the 24th, Iran had already clearly outlined its stance to the Pakistani side. Iran’s proposed conditions include the U.S. abiding by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and fulfilling its relevant clauses, with the fifth clause covering Iran’s arrangements for managing the Strait of Hormuz. The source noted that Pakistan is seeking to relay these conditions to the United States.

According to BIT (Bit.com) market data, U.S. stocks edged higher during Tuesday’s intraday session, with U.S. Treasury yields declining for the second consecutive day and chip stocks lifting the Nasdaq index. The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was roughly flat. U.S. Treasury yields continued to pull back, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 4.658%. Earlier market reports noted that the U.S. Treasury may deploy around $1 trillion in Treasury General Account funds for bond repurchases, driving long-dated U.S. Treasury yields lower. Chip stocks were the session’s highlights: Nvidia rose over 1%, AMD and Micron both gained around 3%, and Intel climbed more than 2%. Markets are awaiting Nvidia’s post-market earnings report on Wednesday, with the AI and semiconductor sectors drawing significant attention. Consumer stocks faced pressure meanwhile: Dick’s Sporting Goods plummeted over 27% due to disappointing earnings, a move that makes it highly likely to post its largest single-day percentage drop in history; Walmart fell around 1%, and Target dropped roughly 3%. Additionally, investors are waiting for the U.S. July Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, scheduled for release on Wednesday. Recent oil price declines have eased some inflation concerns, with international crude oil prices falling more than 3% on Tuesday. Another key market variable this week is Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday, as markets will closely watch his latest remarks on monetary policy and interest rate outlooks.

Insight Beating AI News Flash: IBM unveiled a new dual-architecture mainframe processor at the Hot Chips conference, marking the first time a single chip natively runs both IBM mainframe instruction sets and Arm instruction sets, with nanosecond-scale switching speed between the two architectures—no emulation or conversion required. Built on 2nm process technology, the chip features 11 cores, a base frequency exceeding 5.7GHz, and an integrated AI inference accelerator capable of directly executing AI tasks like fraud detection during financial transaction processing. This development means institutions such as banks can integrate modern AI software ecosystems into their mainframe systems without rewriting decades-old mainframe code or deploying separate dedicated AI servers. IBM noted that this processor is the first major achievement of its partnership with Arm launched in April 2026. By supporting the Arm architecture, IBM mainframes will gain direct access to the vast Arm software ecosystem and AI development frameworks. A large number of global large financial institutions still rely heavily on mainframe systems; IBM’s core strategy in this move is not to replace traditional mainframes, but to extend their lifecycle by integrating Arm and AI capabilities. However, the chip’s specific launch timeline has not been disclosed, and its commercial rollout awaits further developments.