U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

US President Donald Trump criticized ExxonMobil and Chevron for reaping massive profits amid the Iran war-driven surge in energy prices, saying the two firms "made too much money" and should return a portion of their earnings to the public and lower retail gasoline prices. ExxonMobil and Chevron posted combined second-quarter profits of $29 billion, averaging roughly $318 million per day—more than triple their year-ago results. The Strait of Hormuz crisis lifted oil prices, while refining margins for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel expanded. US retail gasoline currently averages around $4.10 per gallon, up over 30% from earlier this year before US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Trump said he supports the free enterprise system but cannot accept the oil industry’s current profit levels. He argued that if a company earns 12 times more than the prior year, it should return some profits to the public, and demanded oil companies voluntarily cut consumer costs until the Iran war ends and energy prices retreat. On Monday, Chevron’s stock fell approximately 2%, while ExxonMobil dropped 0.6%. Analysts noted that the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has hit its lowest level since the early 1980s, and commercial crude inventories are also shrinking. Neither the government nor oil firms have tools to quickly lower oil prices, with reopening the Strait of Hormuz cited as the key to restoring global supply and driving prices down.

According to DigiTimes, the full-year 2027 production capacity of DRAM and HBM has been fully pre-sold. While NAND flash supply is less tight than DRAM, its 2027 capacity bookings are also expected to be fully completed by the end of this month. Industry chain sources said some companies have not publicly acknowledged the need to lock in storage supplies within this month, fearing that as more manufacturers join the capacity competition, their own allocated quotas will further decrease. Currently, storage manufacturers typically only deliver 60% to 70% of the initial quantity requested by customers, prioritizing the needs of cloud service providers and large AI enterprises. As a result, the amount of DRAM that smartphone and PC manufacturers will be able to obtain in 2027 is expected to drop significantly compared to 2026. DigiTimes noted that with capacity almost fully sold out, companies that have not yet finalized their procurement volumes may face a more severe "can't buy even if they want to" situation next year. The report also stated that high storage prices will become the norm. As capacity competition eases, the price increase in 2027 may be lower than the sharp rises seen previously, but the overall supply gap and the cost pressure borne by end-product industries will remain difficult to alleviate in the short term.

Independent semiconductor and AI research firm SemiAnalysis reported that AMD reached agreements with Meta and OpenAI respectively in late last year and early this year, offering performance-linked warrants to both companies. The warrants will vest based on the procurement and deployment progress of up to 6GW of AMD Instinct GPUs, and are also subject to AMD’s stock price crossing multiple thresholds, with the highest threshold set at $600. AMD’s stock price has risen from around $200 at the start of 2026 to roughly $500–$600 currently. Assuming the stock price-related warrant vesting follows a roughly linear pattern and the full 6GW capacity is deployed, Meta and OpenAI’s hourly capital cost per GPU will drop from approximately $2.15 and $2.50 respectively to around $1.60 and $1.75. SemiAnalysis noted that if AMD’s stock price rises to the $600–$700 range, the two firms’ GPU-only capital costs could effectively fall to zero. If AMD continues to improve its software stack, secures more large client orders, and drives its stock price above $1,000, the capital cost of entire clusters—including server hardware, networking, and CPUs—could theoretically drop to near zero.

Castle Securities said that after a cool-down in speculative trading by retail investors, the forces driving U.S. stocks to record highs this year remain "firmly in place". Scott Rubner, head of equity and equity derivatives strategy at Castle Securities, noted: "The market is shifting from an environment driven by capital flows to one increasingly determined by earnings, corporate demand and macroeconomic fundamentals." According to Castle Securities data, the retreat of retail investors has caused the asset size of leveraged ETFs to drop by 28% to $154 billion. Meanwhile, lower financing costs for stock positions signal easing pressure on Wall Street trading desks and reduced demand for leveraged funds. A string of strong recent earnings results remains supportive of U.S. stocks, as companies have exceeded already elevated market expectations. "Earnings continue to deliver upside surprises, valuations have grown more attractive, and with the end of the earnings blackout period, demand for corporate buybacks is set to accelerate."

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), U.S. stocks closed on Monday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% to a new closing high; the S&P 500 gained 1.48%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.1%. In individual stocks, Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) rose nearly 5%, Tesla (TSLA) and NVIDIA (NVDA) gained around 3%, Meta (META) jumped 6%. SanDisk (SNDK) rose 6%, while SK Hynix (SKHY) fell 0.7%.

According to a report by U.S. broadcaster CBS, Iran appears to be growing increasingly skeptical of former President Donald Trump’s “carrot and stick” diplomatic strategy. In April this year, Trump warned Tehran it must agree to a ceasefire or “the entire civilization will perish,” but later extended the deadline. He repeated similar tactics in May and June. Internal Iranian sources stated this approach has instead reinforced the country’s leadership’s view that Trump is not seeking to escalate the conflict, but rather bargaining chips in negotiations. They believe Iran can withstand pressure and raise the costs for the U.S. via proxies such as Yemen’s Houthi movement and threats to global shipping, until Washington concludes there is no military solution to the conflict. Tehran’s current assessment is that time is on its side.