Federal Reserve's Harker: May Temporarily Hold Rates Steady

Goldman Sachs’ TMT team said both SanDisk and Western Digital fell in after-hours trading, despite posting strong quarterly results. The market focus was not on the quarterly figures themselves, but on the fact that buyer expectations were already elevated ahead of the earnings release. SanDisk beat consensus estimates on revenue, gross margin and earnings per share (EPS), but its third-quarter revenue guidance was slightly below market expectations, while its EPS guidance was roughly in line. Against the backdrop of a notable prior run-up in share prices, the earnings results triggered some profit-taking. More positive factors: SanDisk has secured multi-year customer supply agreements covering over 50% of its planned bit production for fiscal 2027 and 65% for fiscal 2028, with price floors to support NAND pricing visibility and share repurchases. Western Digital also exceeded expectations on revenue, margin and EPS, and its third-quarter revenue and margin guidance was above market estimates, yet its share price still declined. Goldman Sachs noted that given already high expectations for HDD prices and margins, the company’s guidance failed to meaningfully lift market expectations further. The market also expressed concerns that storage capacity shipment growth could slow as the company advances expansion of its 40TB ePMR products and HAMR certification. Goldman Sachs summed up the after-hours performance as "beating earnings estimates, but still falling short of elevated expectations". The fundamentals of NAND and HDD remain supportive, but market expectations are already at a high level.

According to Al Arabiya TV, Oman and Iran will soon issue a joint statement on the Hormuz Strait transit corridor. (Jinshi)

Unitree has set its IPO price at 150.8 yuan per share. The pre-IPO perpetual contract for Unitree on Trade.xyz is currently priced at $74.62, equivalent to approximately 503.7 yuan, translating to a post-listing market capitalization of around $301.8 billion, or roughly 2.037 trillion yuan. Based on the IPO price of 150.8 yuan per share, a 3.34x return on new share subscriptions is expected after trading opens. Unitree’s STAR Market IPO plans to issue around 40.45 million shares, representing 10% of its total share capital post-listing. Each share is priced at 150.8 yuan, with each new share lot consisting of 500 shares; the estimated subscription payment per successful lot is around 75,000 yuan. Calculated based on Trade.xyz’s pricing, the opening price is projected to deliver a 3.34x return, with each 500-share lot valued at 252,000 yuan, resulting in a profit of approximately 176,000 yuan after deducting the subscription payment.

Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), the parent company of Google, has launched a 10-tranche U.S. dollar investment-grade bond offering.

Unitree Technology has disclosed its strategic placement list. Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd. (DeepSeek) and Shanghai Qishan Investment Co., Ltd., a Tencent subsidiary, were selected as "large enterprises or their affiliates that have strategic cooperation relationships or long-term cooperation prospects with the issuer's business". The batch of strategic placement investors also includes China National Petroleum Corporation Kunlun Capital Co., Ltd., China Southern Power Grid Industrial and Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd., and other companies.

SpaceX faces lock-up expirations for up to 911.5 million shares today, equivalent to over 140% of its current public float, which could heighten short-term stock price volatility. Following the company’s prior earnings release, its stock dropped 12% despite revenue exceeding forecasts and its AI business unexpectedly posting a profit. Additional share unlocks are scheduled for August 12 and 20 days later. By the end of this year, more than 4 billion shares are projected to become tradable, potentially exerting sustained selling pressure on the stock, though market focus remains on the company’s long-term fundamentals.