A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is expected to meet to discuss outstanding issues related to the Clarity Act.
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The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association met with regulators to discuss issues related to the operating costs of virtual asset platforms.
According to Foresight News , the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association (HKSFPA) held a meeting on July 3 with Mr. Chan Ho-lim, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, the secretaries-general, Mr. Yip Chi-hang, Executive Director of the Intermediaries Division of the Securities and Futures Commission, Ms. To Yee-wah, Senior Director, and Ms. Wong Lok-yan, Director and Head of the Fintech Group, to discuss issues such as new policies on virtual assets, licensing system and operating costs. At the meeting, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association highlighted the high operating cost pressures currently faced by Virtual Asset Platforms (VATP), including the monopoly of Hardware Security Module (HSM) supply, restrictions on the ratio of cold and hot wallets, excessively high insurance coverage requirements, and on-chain transaction miner fees. They urged regulators to flexibly adjust relevant requirements while ensuring risk control. Furthermore, both sides exchanged views on issues such as the delineation of regulatory boundaries, license approval efficiency, timelines for approving innovative products, and the division of regulatory responsibilities for VA Payments.
Citigroup: The case for raising interest rates has disappeared; the Fed is expected to resume rate cuts in October.
According to BlockBeats, on July 5th, Citigroup Research stated in its weekly US economic report released on July 2nd that the significantly weaker-than-expected US non-farm payroll data in June strongly refuted the necessity of raising interest rates. Citigroup believes that several factors previously supporting a hawkish stance, including rising oil prices, accelerating wage growth, and core PCE exceeding the target, have faded, and "the rationale for raising rates has disappeared." Data shows that US non-farm payrolls increased by only 57,000 in June, far below expectations, and the data for the previous two months was revised downward by a combined 74,000. After the revision, the average monthly increase in non-farm payrolls over the past three months fell to approximately 111,000, a significant drop from the pre-revision level of over 180,000. The unemployment rate fell from 4.296% to 4.189% in June, but Citigroup believes this was mainly due to the labor force participation rate falling from 61.8% to 61.5%. If the participation rate had remained unchanged, the actual unemployment rate would have risen to over 4.5%. Regarding inflation, Citigroup stated that multiple factors are collectively suppressing price pressures. Oil prices have fallen back to pre-conflict levels, and July CPI and PCE data are expected to show a month-on-month decline; further slowdown in housing rents will also drag down core CPI and core PCE. Furthermore, the revised core PCE methodology will adopt a more reasonable price adjustment method for AI-related goods. Citigroup estimates that the revised core PCE year-on-year growth rate may be lowered by 20 to 30 basis points, and will be officially reflected in September. Citigroup maintains its baseline forecast, expecting the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady at the July and September FOMC meetings, cut rates by 25 basis points for the first time at the October 28 meeting, and then cut rates by another 25 basis points in December, bringing the federal funds rate range down to 3.0% to 3.25% by the end of the year. Citigroup also expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates three more times in 2027, with a terminal interest rate range of 2.75% to 3.0%.
SoftBank Group has restarted negotiations for a $10 billion equity-backed loan to OpenAI, with Goldman Sachs and others expected to participate.
Odaily that SoftBank Group has restarted negotiations with a lending syndicate for a $10 billion loan secured by its OpenAI stake. In response to lenders' concerns about the difficulty of valuing private companies, SoftBank Group has proposed providing a guarantee for loan repayment; if the OpenAI shares used as collateral depreciate, the banks can seek recourse from SoftBank Group. The lending syndicate is expected to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Mizuho Group.
Samsung and SK Group are expected to announce an investment plan of up to 2,000 trillion won.
According to ChainCatcher, citing South Korea's Economic Daily, Samsung Group and SK Group are preparing to announce a plan to invest a total of 2,000 trillion won (approximately US$1.3 trillion) over the next ten years as part of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's flagship industry strategy. The report states that Samsung and SK Hynix are expected to each build four to five semiconductor factories in the Gwangju area. The report adds that Samsung also plans to build a chip packaging plant in South Chungcheong Province, while SK Hynix will expand its NAND flash memory factory in North Chungcheong Province.
Samsung will release its preliminary Q2 financial results tomorrow: profits are expected to surge 18 times, with executives boasting that "one year's profits are equivalent to 40 years' worth."
According to BlockBeats, Samsung Electronics will release its preliminary Q2 2026 results on July 7th, while SK Hynix will list its ADRs on Nasdaq on July 10th. With these two major events for South Korea's semiconductor giants, the market is highly focused on the industry's health and the impact of AI chip demand on earnings. According to a compilation of forecasts from 30 analysts by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Samsung Electronics' Q2 operating profit is expected to be approximately 86 trillion won (about US$56.3 billion), with some brokerages predicting as high as 90 trillion won, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 17-18 times, potentially marking its best quarterly performance in recent years. Prior to the preliminary earnings release, Samsung Electronics management has already released positive signals. Kim Yong-kwan, President of Business Strategy for Samsung Electronics Device Solutions (DS) division, stated at an internal all-hands meeting on July 3rd that the company's full-year 2026 operating profit is expected to meet market consensus expectations. Currently, the market generally expects Samsung Electronics' full-year operating profit to be approximately 300 trillion won (about US$200 billion), with improvements in AI servers, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and wafer foundry business considered the main drivers of growth. Kim Yong-kwan also stated, "This year's profit will exceed the total cumulative profit of our 40 years in the semiconductor business." Industry insiders believe this is a rare instance of Samsung Electronics management proactively making a positive statement about the full-year profit outlook before officially disclosing the results, reflecting the company's strong confidence in the recovery of its AI-driven semiconductor business and its overall performance growth for the year. With the release of Samsung's financial report and the upcoming listing of SK Hynix's ADRs, the South Korean semiconductor sector will be entering its most important market observation window in the near future.
Shanghai Electric Group: Early participation in the electrical performance verification and reliability testing of next-generation high-end materials shortens the material certification cycle and ensures priority quota guarantees during periods of supply shortage.
According to Mars Finance, Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. (002463.SZ) released an investor relations activity record announcement. Domestically, the company balances short-term benefits with long-term development. On the one hand, it focuses on bottlenecks and key processes in high-end PCBs, implementing iterative upgrades and targeted capacity expansion, continuously tapping the high-value-added output potential of existing plants. On the other hand, it accelerates the construction of high-end capacity expansion projects. The company's planned investment of approximately 4.3 billion RMB in Q4 2024 to build a new high-end printed circuit board expansion project for artificial intelligence chips commenced construction in late June 2025 and is currently progressing smoothly. Trial production is expected to begin in the second half of 2026, gradually increasing capacity. The implementation of this project will further expand the company's high-end product capacity and better meet customers' medium- and long-term demand for high-end printed circuit boards for emerging computing scenarios such as high-speed computing servers and artificial intelligence, enhancing the company's core competitiveness and improving its economic benefits. Based on its forecast of market demand and structure, the company accelerated the launch of a series of capacity expansion plans in the first quarter of 2026. In June 2026, the company acquired 100% equity of Kunshan Pujiang Warehousing Facilities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pujiang Warehousing"), and will use Pujiang Warehousing's factory buildings for capacity expansion. To address potential bottlenecks in the supply chain, the company proactively and strategically deepens cooperation and collaborative innovation mechanisms. With the accelerated evolution of high-end PCBs towards ultra-low loss resins, ultra-low profile copper foil (HVLP), and special high-performance fiberglass cloth, stringent process barriers and yield bottlenecks have led to temporary capacity constraints and tight supply of some high-end raw materials. The company fully intervenes in the very early stages of end-customer product development, participating in the electrical performance verification and reliability testing of next-generation high-end materials in advance, shortening the material certification cycle, and ensuring priority quota guarantees during periods of supply shortage; at the same time, it fully implements strategic safety stockpiles of key materials and accelerates diversified and localized certifications to reduce the risk of raw material supply disruptions and strengthen a resilient supply chain security barrier. (Cailian Press)