ING: NVIDIA's Profit Margins Face Threat from Clients' Self-Developed Chips

Weekly change in US ADP employment for the week ended June 20 came in at 21,000, versus the prior value of 30,750. (Jinshi)

According to Bloomberg, AI legal startup Norm has raised $120 million in a new funding round, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Blackstone, Bain Capital Ventures, and Coatue Management, among other investors. To date, Norm has secured over $260 million in total cumulative funding. Founded in 2023, Norm is among a growing cohort of startups leveraging AI to assist legal professionals with document drafting, research, and contract review. Other firms including Anthropic and Harvey have also launched AI agents and software tailored for lawyers. Unlike its competitors that sell software to law firms, Norm operates its own law firm, Norm Law, to deliver AI-powered legal services directly to clients. The firm charges clients based on outcomes rather than the hourly billing model prevalent in the legal industry, aiming to better reflect the value of services provided.

Amazon plans to raise at least $25 billion through U.S. dollar bond issuance.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, in pre-market trading for U.S. stocks, the storage sector led declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 7.30%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 5.97%, Micron Technology (MU) declined 5.34%, and SanDisk (SNDK) fell 5.01%. Semiconductor stocks were broadly lower, with Lam Research (LRCX) down 5.56%, Applied Materials (AMAT) down 5.48%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) down 4.68%, KLA (KLAC) down 4.50%, Arm (ARM) down 4.13%, AMD (AMD) down 3.85%, ASML (ASML) down 3.74%, and Intel (INTC) down 3.54%. Optical communication concept stocks also faced pressure in pre-market trading: Astera Labs (ALAB) fell 3.72%, Ciena (CIEN) dropped 3.63%, Coherent (COHR) fell 3.63%, Lumentum (LITE) declined 3.59%, and Corning (GLW) fell 3.55%.

BlackRock said Tuesday it will launch an ETF tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index, designed to meet investors' growing demand to tap into the AI-driven stock market rally. The "iShares Nasdaq 100 ETF" from the world's largest asset manager will track the leading U.S. benchmark index and begin trading on Thursday. The move comes shortly after Nasdaq revised its inclusion rules to accelerate the addition of newly listed firms such as SpaceX to the index. BlackRock's new ETF will compete with Invesco's Nasdaq 100-related products; Invesco has long dominated this segment, with its QQQ Trust Series 1 and Nasdaq 100 ETF being popular among investors seeking exposure to large-cap growth and tech stocks. Last month, State Street also launched a Nasdaq 100 ETF. (Source: Jinshi)

Renowned trader and chart analyst Peter Brandt, who accurately predicted the 2018 Bitcoin crash, has stated in a post that he is considering selling a portion of his Bitcoin holdings and reallocating the proceeds to gold. Based on current market trends, gold could see a substantial rally relative to Bitcoin.