South Korea Uncovers First Terrorist-Linked Money Chain Involving Crypto-to-Physical Goods Exchanges; Four Uzbek Nationals Arrested

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), U.S. stocks opened with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.64%, the S&P 500 down 0.71%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.31%. Leading tech stocks were broadly lower: Intel (INTC.O) and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) fell nearly 3%, AMD (AMD.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O) dropped over 2%, while Tesla (TSLA.O), Alibaba (BABA.N), and NVIDIA (NVDA.O) declined nearly 2%.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote that BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (VOO) since its launch, though the gap between the two is narrow. Balchunas added that given recent shifts in overall market sentiment and narratives around Bitcoin, the outcome remains quite surprising. He also noted that IBIT’s performance journey has been far more volatile than VOO’s, with its price trend resembling a “roller coaster”, while VOO’s upward trajectory has been relatively stable.

Beating AI News Flash: OpenAI has formally countered Apple’s trade secret lawsuit, calling the entire dispute "a mess Apple created itself". OpenAI claims Apple’s real purpose in filing the suit is to slow down its hardware rivals and deter more employees from leaving Apple. Apple submitted new evidence just one day earlier. Apple alleges that former senior systems electrical engineer Chang Liu, after joining OpenAI, still accessed an Apple power conversion circuit diagram and used Apple’s proprietary information to train an AI agent. The evidence comes from a MacBook that OpenAI provided to Apple during the litigation. OpenAI, in turn, states that Liu’s access to Apple files after leaving was due to former colleagues repeatedly reaching out to him to locate documents and answer work questions. Hardware head Tang Tan also denied taking confidential materials, noting he had returned all prototype devices before leaving and only left non-confidential data. OpenAI also used talent mobility to counter Apple: around 400 former Apple employees have already joined its hardware division. OpenAI argues Apple cannot use litigation to stop "the next batch of 400 people" from leaving. It also revealed that its first hardware product will be a new consumer device that is "substantially different" from existing Apple products.

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said the U.S. Federal Reserve should prepare to raise interest rates if inflation fails to cool. He warned that inflation has remained above the Fed’s 2% target for over five years, posing a risk of entrenched price pressures. Barr noted that if upcoming data shows inflation is cooling, policymakers can exercise patience. In a speech delivered at an event in Washington on Tuesday, Barr stated: "If the data trend gives me confidence that inflation is moderating and moving toward the 2% target, then I think we can take more time to assess the policy stance. But if inflation does not appear to be cooling by a sufficient margin, then I think we should act decisively to raise interest rates." (Jinshi)

Pre-market key news for US stocks on Tuesday: 1. Morgan Stanley upgrades Robinhood, noting the market has undervalued the monetization potential of Robinhood’s existing user base. 2. Hut 8’s Texas data center is reportedly included in Anthropic’s $35 billion AI computing power deal. 3. Meta Platforms (META.O)’ acquisition of Manus has been called off, with the founding team regaining full control, according to reports. 4. Apple (AAPL.O)’ official website updated that John Ternus has officially assumed the role of Apple CEO. 5. Anthropic and Lambda, a cloud service provider backed by NVIDIA, have struck a $35 billion cloud computing deal, with data center leasing rights held by NVIDIA. 6. OpenAI’s advertising business is growing rapidly, with annualized revenue exceeding $1 billion. 7. Per relevant legal documents: Apple (AAPL.O) alleges in its trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI that the defendant used Apple’s proprietary information to train AI agents. 8. U.S. Department of Commerce: Meta Platforms (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg will attend the tech-focused G20 meeting via video conference.

Against the backdrop of escalating US-Canada trade tensions and rising energy prices, markets widely expect the Bank of Canada (BoC) to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at 2.25% this Wednesday, marking the central bank’s seventh consecutive hold. The US has already imposed a 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Canada plans to levy retaliatory tariffs on certain US products starting September 8. Meanwhile, driven by rising oil prices, Canada’s overall inflation rate has climbed to 3%, hitting its highest level since 2023, leaving the BoC facing a stagflation dilemma: tariffs weighing on economic growth while energy costs fuel inflation. While Canada’s annualized second-quarter GDP growth rebounded to 3.3% and over 180,000 jobs were added between May and July, roughly two-thirds of surveyed economists have cut their corporate investment forecasts due to the trade war. Markets now widely anticipate that the BoC’s next rate hike may not come until the first half of 2027.