Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.
In today's newsletter:
🚀 Bitcoin nears $80K in best week since 2023
📉 Alibaba profit drops 75% on AI spending
📡 Charter buys Cox for $34.5B
🧠 Micron pours $10B into AI memory lab
🪙 SEC proposes first dedicated crypto offering rules
Plus: 🌍 12 macro news, 🏢 6 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.
| 🚀 Bitcoin nears $80K in best week since 2023 LINK |
- Bitcoin was on track for roughly a 20% weekly gain, trading at $75,343.01 early Friday, up from $62,836.88 at the start of the week, as optimism returned to the world's largest cryptocurrency.
- The rally started Wednesday when Treasury yields fell sharply after the US Treasury intervened in the bond market, easing pressure on riskier assets and pushing investors into crypto, before a roughly $2.7 billion short squeeze amplified the move.
- Crypto-linked stocks followed, with Coinbase and Circle closing up 7.5% and 6.45% respectively and Strategy rising 7.8% on Thursday, while the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF gained 5.5% in premarket trading.
| 📉 Alibaba profit drops 75% on AI spending LINK |
- Alibaba's June-quarter profit dropped 75% as heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure eroded earnings, even as the Chinese tech giant kept expanding its computing and cloud capacity to compete in the AI race.
- The squeeze came from capital expenditure jumping 75% to 67.7 billion yuan ($10 billion), driven by uneven customer purchase timing, more CPU-compute capacity, and higher prices across a range of chip components.
- Revenue rose 9% to 268.95 billion yuan, just ahead of an LSEG estimate of 268.88 billion yuan, while Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares fell as much as 4% premarket before recovering to trade 1.6% lower.
| 📡 Charter buys Cox for $34.5B LINK |
- Charter Communications closed its $34.5-billion takeover of Cox Communications early Thursday, absorbing millions of internet and TV customers across Southern California and expanding its Spectrum service to a 45-state footprint.
- Cox subscribers will shift to Spectrum by mid-September, keeping existing prices or moving to bundles with Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Paramount+, while new customers in areas like Orange County and San Diego finally gain Dodgers channel SportsNet LA after a decade-long blackout.
- To win California approval, Charter pledged at least $275 million to upgrade its network and $30 million on outreach programs, and plans to rename itself Cox next year, with Cox Enterprises chief Alex Taylor becoming Charter board chairman.
| 🧠 Micron pours $10B into AI memory lab LINK |
- Micron will commit $10 billion over the next decade to a new AI-focused memory research facility in Boise, Idaho, sending its shares up 3.97% on Thursday to close at $974.33.
- The project drew public endorsements from Apple's Tim Cook and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, whose backing matters because Nvidia's chips rely on steady supply of the high-bandwidth memory Micron produces.
- Supporting sentiment, S&P Global lifted Micron's credit rating to BBB+ on AI memory demand it sees running through 2028, while BMO Capital began coverage with a Buy rating and a $1,300 price target.
| 🪙 SEC proposes first dedicated crypto offering rules LINK |
- The SEC unveiled its first dedicated framework for crypto, a proposal called Regulation Crypto Assets that would let digital-asset firms raise money under federal securities laws without automatically being treated as issuing regulated securities.
- The rules offer a conditional "safe harbor" shielding qualifying token sales from being deemed investment contracts, a shift from the prior era when firms faced enforcement and often launched projects offshore because US capital-raising was legally blocked.
- The move responds to stalled crypto legislation in Congress, where a vote on the Clarity Act is now set for September 15; the SEC will accept public comments on its proposal for 60 days.
🌍 Macro News
- Australia now requires tech platforms to pay publishers or share ad revenue. LINK
- Brazil unveils $444 million AI investment split between US and Chinese suppliers. LINK
- CFTC will write its own crypto rules if Congress stalls the CLARITY Act. LINK
- South Korea plans a new fund channeling chip windfalls into AI and youth support. LINK
- Japan's inflation rose to 1.9% in July on higher energy costs. LINK
- Bessent doubts US will resume major combat with Iran, favoring sanctions and blockade. LINK
- Gold surged past $4,500 an ounce on dollar weakness and falling yields. LINK
- South Korean lawmakers propose giving regulators direct power to probe unregistered crypto firms. LINK
- US jobless claims fell to 206,000, showing continued labor market resilience. LINK
- UK government debt nears £3 trillion after unexpected July borrowing increase. LINK
- Panama Canal will cut daily crossings due to El Niño-driven drought. LINK
- Trump again urged the Fed to cut interest rates further. LINK
🏢 Corporate News
- Binance launched Agent OS, letting AI agents trade for users automatically. LINK
- OpenAI's CFO says the company now targets a 2027 IPO. LINK
- Meta is spending hundreds of millions yearly on Microsoft's Azure AI models. LINK
- Supermicro's probe found no top-executive knowledge of an alleged China smuggling scheme. LINK
- Klarna is hiring its next finance chief based in New York. LINK
- Webull shares jumped 13.8% after record quarterly results and regulatory tailwinds. LINK
📈 Stocks
| ▲ Biggest winners |
| Tempus AI rose 9% after Moderna and Merck reported positive Phase 3 results for their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine that uses Personalis technology Tempus is acquiring. LINK |
| Hut 8 rose 8% after Clear Street analyst Brian Dobson raised the price target on Hut 8 to $170 from $148 and maintained a 'Buy' rating. LINK |
| Strategy rose 8% after Bitcoin broke above $71,000 following the White House crypto summit. LINK |
| ▼ Biggest losers |
| Moderna fell 24% after its norovirus vaccine failed Phase 3 interim analysis. LINK |
| Walmart fell 9% after its second-quarter U.S. comparable sales rose just 2.6%, missing Wall Street's 3.7% estimate and marking the slowest growth in more than six years. LINK |
| INNIO fell 9% after GAAP net loss of $16.9 million driven by $81.2 million in one-off IPO-related costs and adjusted EBITDA margin slowing to 18.4% from 21.8%. LINK |
📑 Research & Reports
- Hedge funds' favorite stocks trailed the S&P 500 by a record margin in July. LINK
- Morgan Stanley issued a warning in an August report. LINK
- Most financial firms rate their identity-check systems highly despite frequent inconsistencies. LINK
- Euro-area consumers' inflation expectations eased slightly in July, ECB survey shows. LINK
- Vanguard unveiled a new asset allocation framework in August. LINK
- UK businesses in severe financial distress rose 9% amid hospitality sector strain. LINK