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Asian bonds followed US Treasuries lower as concerns over government finances mounted, while higher oil prices added to fears that inflation will quicken, Bloomberg reported. Sovereign bonds in Australia and New Zealand dropped, and Japan's 10-year yields extended gains after hitting multi-decade highs on Monday, while the US 30-year yield rose to 5.32%, a level last seen in June 2007. Oil advanced as Middle East peace prospects dimmed, with Brent up 0.3% to $91.10 a barrel after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn't interested in extending the expiring agreement with Iran and fighting flared anew in Lebanon. AT Global Markets analyst Nick Twidale said the mix of elevated oil, higher yields and renewed geopolitical risk is likely to keep markets volatile.The climb in Treasury yields reflected investor angst over surging government spending, heavy long-dated debt sales and inflation that has stayed above the Fed's target for five years, according to Bloomberg. Asked whether he would seek to extend the June memorandum of understanding, which technically expired Monday, Trump told reporters "no." Asian stocks erased earlier gains, with MSCI's regional gauge down 0.1%, though South Korea rose 1.2% as traders returned from a holiday and chipmakers gained on Anthropic's surging sales. Gold extended a two-week advance to around $4,425 an ounce as easing Fed-hike expectations pressured the dollar, and China's 10-year bond futures hit a record after data showed a deepening slowdown. In corporate news, Nvidia agreed to spend as much as $105 billion to support a new Ohio data-center campus to be leased by OpenAI, RTX won a $23 billion US Navy Tomahawk contract, and BHP's profit rose almost a third as copper revenue overtook iron ore for the first time.

According to Yonhap, the Korea Herald and HKET, Asian equities diverged at Tuesday's open as chipmaker strength lifted Seoul while Tokyo and Hong Kong slipped, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51% and the Nasdaq Composite eased 0.32% amid elevated oil prices and fading hopes for an Iran deal.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 opened lower, trading at 68,857.46, down 362.79 points or 0.52% as of 01:40 UTC, weighed by chip-related names as Japan's 10-year government bond yield climbed to a three-decade high. Tokyo Electron fell 2.41%, Advantest dropped 2.04% and Sony declined 1.46%.
Seoul's KOSPI led regional gains, opening 2% higher and extending to 7,144.85, up 166.91 points or 2.39% as of 9:15 a.m. local time, driven by chipmakers. Samsung Electronics rose 3.64% and SK hynix jumped 6.38%, while shipping firm HMM surged 9.41%. Carmaker Hyundai Motor slipped 0.77%.
Hong Kong stocks opened softer, with the Hang Seng Index down 84 points at 25,368 and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 0.3% at 4,768. Baidu firmed 1% ahead of results and Zijin Gold International rose 5%, while Xiaomi fell more than 1%. Chip name SMIC added nearly 2%, and jeweller Chow Sang Sang jumped 11% after flagging a profit surge.
Taiwan's TAIEX opened up 65.13 points at 45,922.40, with Nanya Technology hitting a record NT$553 and TSMC opening NT$15 higher at NT$2,415; the index later pared gains to 45,793.13, down 0.14% as of 01:40 UTC.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite edged up 6.79 points or 0.17% to 3,989.45 and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.20%, as of 01:40 UTC. Newly listed Pinzhun Laser opened more than 488% higher on its debut, the priciest new share of the year to date.

Binance Wallet announced on X that the TermMax Booster Campaign is now live. The campaign offers 2,000,000 TMX in rewards, and Binance users with at least 2 Alpha Points are eligible to participate. Participation will deduct 2 Alpha Points. The announcement says the campaign is available through mobile and web access, but it does not provide additional details in the text. The notice also states that tokens from Booster Campaigns are subject to a lock-up period set by the project team. Users are advised to understand the risks before participating. No further terms, timing details, or distribution information were included in the announcement.

Crypto liquidations across the market totaled about $186 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinAnk data. According to Foresight News, long positions accounted for about $78.6313 million, while short positions made up about $107 million.
Bitcoin liquidations reached about $37.6174 million, and Ethereum liquidations totaled about $35.1261 million.

According to Jin10, the dollar fell to a 10-week low against a basket of currencies as markets scaled back expectations for U.S. rate hikes, while U.S. Treasury yields also declined. Recent weak U.S. employment and retail sales data, along with subdued inflation data, prompted investors to reduce their bets on rate increases. BankPro CEO Paul Brokado said in a report that the dollar's decline may be limited if uncertainty in the Middle East and the resulting inflation concerns persist.

The UK government has launched a review that could cut the electric vehicle sales target from 80% of new car sales by 2030 to as low as 50%, according to BBC. The consultation runs until late October and follows pressure from car makers, who say the current ZEV mandate is too costly and could threaten jobs.
Under the existing policy, the share of new car sales that must be EVs rises each year from 33% in 2026 to 80% in 2030. The government said the petrol and diesel car ban after 2030 will remain, while one option under review would keep the 80% target but give manufacturers flexibility until 2034. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government wants targets that are practical and support British industry.

According to Jin10, Iran's Revolutionary Guards political adviser said the war must end according to a memorandum of understanding.

According to Jin10, U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran should "raise the white flag of surrender," Fox News reported.

The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol DevOps team has launched Platåberget, an early testnet for the Glamsterdam upgrade, and opened it to community testing. According to Foresight News, the testnet is expected to run for several months and will provide a stable environment, with the Glamsterdam fork scheduled for August 20 on the network.
Platåberget offers one-click network configuration and a faucet for test ETH through its resource page. After feedback is incorporated into client software, the team plans to launch a non-finality devnet within one month to test abnormal consensus scenarios. Sepolia, Hoodi and other long-term testnets will later complete the Glamsterdam fork before the upgrade reaches Ethereum mainnet.
The Glamsterdam upgrade includes Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, Block-Level Access Lists, gas fee repricing targeting a lower limit of about 200 million gas, and higher maximum sizes for contracts and initcode, from 24 KiB and 48 KiB to 64 KiB and 128 KiB, respectively. The team said tools that rely on hardcoded maximum gas limits, including wallets, indexers and gas estimators, will be affected and need updates.

On Aug 17, 2026, 10:44 AM(UTC). according to Binance Market Data, NBISB has achieved a new all-time high, trading at 284.25 USDT. The 24-hour increase of 3.32%

According to Jin10, the Kurdistan Regional Government's security statement said two drones struck the regional government's prime minister's office and the residence of the head of its security agency on Monday, with the attack originating from Iranian territory and no casualties reported so far.

Russia is considering additional support measures for grain producers as export restrictions in the Azov-Black Sea basin have slowed grain shipments. According to Sina Finance, citing RBC and three grain market sources, measures discussed at an August 12 meeting at Russia's Agriculture Ministry included extending short-term preferential loans by up to one year in surplus grain regions.
The meeting also discussed subsidies for grain producers, including additional funding for Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. According to Sina Finance, the United Grain Company confirmed to RBC that it has begun selecting additional storage capacity for the federal intervention fund.

Galaxy Research said losses related to Coldcard hardware wallets have exceeded $115 million, calculated at the time of the theft. According to Foresight News, the firm has contacted more than 200 victims, offered support, and collected intelligence on the attackers.

Foreign borrowers are flooding Asia-Pacific bond markets, with kangaroo, panda and dim sum sales all hitting records in 2026. According to BeInCrypto, kangaroo bonds reached about $42 billion this year, Hong Kong dollar issuance hit a record, and Commerzbank, Engie and Singapore Airlines sold Australian dollar or yuan bonds for the first time. Panda bond sales reached about 160 billion yuan and dim sum sales 350 billion yuan in the first half of 2026.

According to Axios, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million on electric shock gloves and issue them to Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents, according to a Department of Homeland Security notice published Monday. The CTG-5 Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or G.L.O.V.E., is made by Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies and is designed to stop detainees or subjects from performing coordinated muscle movement through direct skin contact that causes pain. The device's user guide says it should not be used against verbal defiance or as punishment, and the manufacturer advises against using it on elderly people, children, pregnant women, and those with serious disabilities. ICE is also expanding its use of body cameras after fatal shootings and other use-of-force incidents.

Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategies at RBC, said US consumer resilience is starting to show cracks ahead of retail earnings this week, according to Bloomberg.
She also said she does not see any impediments to the buy America trade.

According to Jin10, European stocks mostly rose on Monday, after most major indexes fell last week, with only Germany's DAX index hitting a record high. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2%, led by technology and pharmaceutical shares. SpaceX supplier STMicroelectronics gained 3%, while ASML and its smaller rival ASM International rose 2.35% and 2.7%, respectively. Dutch drugmaker Argenx led gains with a rise of about 7.7% after it reported positive clinical trial results. Germany's DAX and the FTSE 100 rose 0.02% and 0.3%, respectively, while France's CAC 40 fell 0.1%.

According to Axios, President Trump said Wednesday in a Truth Social post that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of the month and become one of his top outside advisers. Trump said Leavitt is leaving to spend more time with her family and will be an influential voice within the Republican Party heading into the midterm elections. Leavitt, 28, said in a post that serving as press secretary while being a mother to two young children has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of her life, and the White House pointed to statements from Leavitt and Trump when asked for comment.

Asian stocks traded sideways Monday as investors weighed a renewed rise in oil prices against a global equity rally that hit records last week. According to BeInCrypto, Japan’s Nikkei briefly rose 0.4% before easing back, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan was flat and Australia’s resources-heavy shares fell 0.3%.
Brent crude held near $89 a barrel after rising 6% last week, with US crude at $82.12, as stalled Iran diplomacy kept energy markets on edge.

Goldman Sachs said in a latest report that only 2% of S&P 500 companies quantified the impact of artificial intelligence on earnings during the second-quarter earnings season. According to Odaily, only 11% of companies said AI delivered measurable productivity gains in specific areas such as software coding or customer support.
Goldman Sachs also said companies that reported AI-related productivity gains did not show significantly stronger earnings growth than other firms. Their median earnings rose 17% from a year earlier, compared with 14% for companies that did not quantify AI productivity gains, and Goldman said the difference was not statistically significant.

According to Jin10, Hong Kong exchange filings showed that UBS Group's long position in WuXi AppTec's H shares (02359.HK) rose from 6.95% on August 11 to 7.67%.

According to Jin10, Haitong International said Bilibili's content value advantage is becoming more evident and raised its target price to $26 from $21, while maintaining an outperform rating on the U.S.-listed shares. The firm also forecast that Bilibili's adjusted operating profit for fiscal 2026 will be 3.086 billion yuan, up 26% year on year, and said second-quarter adjusted operating profit is expected to grow 20%.

Trading in Unitree Technology's new-share subscription rights has reportedly begun before the company has officially listed. According to ChainCatcher, multiple listings on secondhand trading platforms such as Xianyu have appeared offering to buy or sell rights tied to the stock's allotment.
According to ChainCatcher, several intermediaries are buying the new-share rights through different channels, with quoted prices varying widely. Some intermediaries are offering 520 yuan per share, above the 150.8 yuan issue price, while others are quoting 410 yuan per share. Among some investors and intermediaries, the practice is also being referred to as an off-market trade.
The report said the activity remains limited to a very small circle. Several brokerage and public fund market participants said they had not previously heard of an off-market market for STAR Market IPO allocations, and suggested its sudden appearance may be linked to Unitree Technology's very low allotment rate and expectations for strong listing gains. The report also said such private purchases of new shares in the A-share market are based on verbal agreements and are not legally protected.

According to Jin10, Iran's Agriculture Minister said that despite many problems and difficulties over the past few months, food security faces no risks and enemies have become desperate in this area.

According to Yonhap, Madison Huang, a senior director at Nvidia Corp. and daughter of CEO Jensen Huang, is scheduled to visit LG Electronics Inc.'s robotics hub in South Korea later this week for closed-door talks on partnerships with senior LG Electronics officials. The meeting, set for Tuesday at LG Electronics' data factory under construction in southern Seoul, is expected to center on robotics as the two companies deepen cooperation in AI infrastructure and robotics. LG Electronics last week said it plans to unveil a next-generation humanoid robot capable of bipedal walking in the first quarter of 2027, based on Nvidia's robotics platform. The company also said it signed a memorandum of understanding at Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, with LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Jensen Huang in attendance.

Gongjin Shares said its stock rose by the daily limit again on August 17 after closing-price moves on August 13 and August 14 deviated by more than 20% cumulatively over two trading days. The company said market attention has recently increased around 800G high-speed data center switch concepts, but its 800G high-speed switch products are mainly sold to domestic brand-name customers and account for only a small share of operating revenue, so the short-term impact on its financial statements is limited, according to Jiemian News. The company urged investors to invest rationally, make prudent decisions and guard against investment risks.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) is emerging as the standout copper stock as an AI-fueled supply squeeze lifts prices and traders rotate into miners. The largest US copper miner trades near $66.50, and a bullish continuation pattern points toward $87, according to BeInCrypto, while Wall Street still rates it a Strong Buy. Copper hit an all-time high on COMEX on August 12, and the LME front-month spread widened to a $370-a-ton premium, the widest since 2021.

According to CNBC, Alibaba launched a new AI model designed to run on consumer hardware such as laptops and released the weights of its most powerful model, Qwen3.8 Max, as it seeks to maintain its lead in open-source technology. The company said Qwen3.8-27B has strong capabilities in coding, professional work, research and long-horizon agentic tasks, and said it matches the performance of another model that is 10 times larger. Alibaba said the weights of Qwen3.8 Max can be freely downloaded and run, although the data and methods used to train it may not be disclosed.
The move comes after Meta announced plans last week to open-source its most powerful AI model and launch new laptop-ready models. Hugging Face said last week that Qwen-based models now account for 151,448 derivatives, or downloads and uses of open-weight models, which it said is 2.6 times Meta's total footprint. Analysts said the competition in open-weight AI is increasingly centered on which company can offer the most capable models and on-device performance.

Chervon Holdings (2285) reported first-half revenue of $1.029 billion for the six months ended June, up 12.8% year on year, with net profit rising 11.6% to $106 million, according to Ming Pao.
The company said both revenue and net profit hit record highs for a half-year period. Earnings per share were $0.21, and it declared an interim dividend of HK$0.3258 per share, compared with no dividend in the same period last year.

South Africa’s financial regulators plan to finalize rules requiring over-the-counter derivatives to be centrally cleared within the next two years, according to Bloomberg. The measures are intended to improve transparency and reduce risk in the $9.3 trillion market.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and other artificial intelligence-focused companies have rapidly expanded, creating a wave of millionaires and billionaires who are now spending heavily on top-tier collectible assets. According to Sina Finance, UBS data showed that the global billionaire population rose 13% year over year to 3,302 in the 12 months through April this year, with more than 1,000 living in the United States.
Real estate remains the first collectible asset, and San Francisco home prices have surged. According to Sina Finance, Compass data showed the median price of a single-family home in the city jumped to $2.1 million in June, up nearly 25% from the same period in 2025.
After buying homes, the people who became wealthy on the AI boom are spending large sums on highly customized, high-performance yachts, business jets, and luxury cars. They are no longer drawn to the champagne and concierge-style service that typically define luxury travel, and instead want practical products with stronger privacy and features that fit their health-focused lifestyles.
They do not want long waits and are willing to pay with cryptocurrency. Luxury travel adviser Paul Charles said the rise of the AI-rich has created a new wave of demand for private jets, yachts, and supercar-related services, and that companies must adapt to the preferences of this new generation of high-end consumers.

Indian financial institutions have sold a record $8 billion of dollar bonds so far this year, according to Bloomberg.
Lenders are moving to use a central bank facility that lowers hedging costs on overseas borrowings.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a key choice over fossil fuel policy and climate commitments. According to Sina Finance, his cabinet is expected to decide as soon as next month whether to approve the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
The two projects must reapply for development consent under a landmark UK Supreme Court ruling on fossil fuel emissions two years ago. Shell and Norway's Equinor are advancing the projects through their joint venture, Adura; their production licenses remain in place, but development consent is still required before work can begin.
Public concern over climate change has intensified after record summer heat and frequent wildfires in Britain. The government issued a rare wildfire risk emergency alert for England and Wales last Friday. Senior officials said Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is inclined to approve the projects, suggesting a more pragmatic approach to North Sea oil and gas than under the previous government.
Starmer has pledged to honor Labour's 2024 election manifesto not to issue new North Sea oil exploration licenses, but the government has signaled a more practical stance toward existing licensed projects. A senior official said the government's position on North Sea issues is no longer "rigid" since former Energy Secretary Ed Miliband became foreign secretary.
Supporters say domestic production has advantages over imports in meeting UK energy demand, reducing transport emissions, contributing tax revenue, and protecting jobs. Oil and gas still account for about 75% of Britain's primary energy demand.
Opponents say international buyers will compete for the output and that most North Sea crude is exported to European refineries because of limited domestic refining capacity. Nearly 50 climate scientists have written to the energy secretary warning that continued reliance on fossil fuels will worsen extreme weather disasters and urging a shift toward renewable energy.

According to CNBC, media executives surveyed for its Future of TV project said cable TV subscribers are likely to keep falling, while streaming bundles, personalization, commerce features and AI-powered language tools become more common across the industry by 2029. Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said cable is likely to decline sharply, Jeff Zucker said he does not expect a subscriber floor, and several executives pointed to broader use of bundling, global releases, ad personalization and native-language viewing.
The survey also highlighted major industry shifts already underway, including Paramount Skydance's agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox's planned $22 billion purchase of Roku, Comcast's plan to separate NBCUniversal in 2027, Charter's $34.5 billion merger with Cox Communications and NBCUniversal's partnership between Peacock and YouTube. Executives also said live sports should remain strong, while some expect more scrutiny of Big Tech's role in entertainment and continued growth for services such as Roku Channel, Tubi and Pluto.

According to the BBC, security forces in Zambia seized weapons and arrested 11 people, including senior opposition figures, over an alleged insurrection plot after last Thursday's presidential election. The government said opposition candidate Brian Mundubile was found at the scene of the raid in Lusaka, while top civil servant Patrick Kangwa said those detained were linked to military plans involving foreign nationals and illegal training camps. Kangwa said the suspects had high-grade military weapons, ammunition and other materials intended for an armed insurrection, and alleged that shots were fired at law enforcement officers before an exchange of fire. Mundubile called the raid an attempt on his life and said colleagues were shot in his presence. He had earlier claimed victory and alleged voting irregularities, while the authorities denied the claims. Zambia's electoral commission briefly suspended counting and announcing results on Friday, citing violence against polling staff and theft of marked ballot papers, before lifting the suspension later the same day.

Tudor Investment held 688,529 shares of BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), valued at about $22.9 million as of June 30. According to Odaily, the position was up 18.9% from the end of the first quarter, ending a year-long reduction trend.
The firm also cut the number of shares tied to bullish options on IBIT from 998,000 to about 148,000, a decline of roughly 85%, while its put option position was largely unchanged. The 13F filing did not disclose the options' strike prices or expiration dates. Tudor Investment held more than 8 million IBIT shares at one point in late 2024 before continuing to trim the stake.

COCA integrated Aurora Intents into its self-custodial banking app to let users deposit supported stablecoins from more than a dozen networks through reusable addresses, while cross-chain execution runs in the background. According to BeInCrypto, the update also brings $COCA trading into the app, allowing users to buy or sell the token with their existing USD balance.
COCA now supports USDC on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Polygon, Optimism, Avalanche, Sui and Stellar, and USDT on Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Polygon, Optimism, Avalanche and TON, among others.

According to CNBC, Toyota, Honda and Nissan are facing potential pressure from a stronger yen and the Iran war after benefiting in their latest quarterly reports from a historically weak currency. The U.S. Treasury and Japan's Ministry of Finance jointly intervened in early August to buy yen after the currency fell past 163 per dollar, and analysts said a stronger yen would hurt exporters by forcing price increases abroad or by reducing the value of overseas profits. Vincent Sun, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said government action to strengthen the yen would be negative for Japanese automakers. Masahiro Akita, senior analyst at Bernstein, said a 1% move in the yen typically changes Japanese automakers' operating profit by about 2%, though the impact can reach around 4% for some companies. Analysts also said the ongoing Middle East conflict could raise supply chain disruptions and raw material costs, with the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea important shipping routes for aluminum and petrochemicals used in car production.

Asian stocks mostly rose on Monday as investors assessed fresh data that tempered expectations for a US interest rate hike, while also pointing to weakness in the world's top economy, according to RTHK.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended up 336 points, or 1.3 percent, at 25,453 on turnover of HK$210.77 billion. The tech index gained 74 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,782, while the China enterprises index rose 99 points, or 1.2 percent, to 8,439. Hong Kong was lifted by Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 55 points, or 1.41 percent, to 3,982, while the Shenzhen Component Index added almost 350 points, or 2.44 percent, to 14,704 and the ChiNext Index rose 113 points, or 3.14 percent, to 3,740.
Shares linked to semiconductors, agriculture and precious metals led gains, while liquor, gaming, film and television stocks were among the top decliners. In Tokyo, the Nikkei reversed earlier losses to close 506 points, or 0.74 percent, higher at 69,220, while the Topix slipped 13 points, or 0.31 percent, to 4,184. Traders now put the chance of a Fed hike at one in four, compared with 50:50 last week, according to Bloomberg.

According to Jin10, E Fund Nasdaq ETF will suspend trading from the market open on August 18, 2026, resume trading at 10:30 on August 18, 2026, and continue to process redemption requests as usual during the suspension.