Japanese and South Korean stock markets closed higher, with South Korean stocks seeing a sharp intraday plunge, and SK Hynix ending the day up 3.6%.

According to Bitget market data, Brent crude oil rose 3.00% intraday to $85.31 per barrel. WTI crude oil rose 3.00% intraday to $80.14 per barrel. Trump posted a statement yesterday saying that the US will immediately resume the blockade of Iran and impose a 20% fee on cargo transportation.

According to market sources, Samsung is holding preliminary discussions regarding a potential stock sale in the United States.

Wang Yajun, Head of Equity Capital Markets for Goldman Sachs Asia (ex-Japan), noted that Hong Kong’s market has entered the AI era, yet major stock indices have not fully reflected the impact of AI-related enterprises. This explains the contrast between this year’s red-hot IPO fundraising and the relatively lackluster performance of secondary market indices. Wang forecasts that Hong Kong’s total equity financing and IPO fundraising scale will both reach new highs in 2026. Since the start of this year, AI has become the most active investment theme in Hong Kong’s stock market: the most actively traded, best-performing, and largest fundraising stocks are all AI-related, though index constituent adjustments lag behind. Regarding AI industry valuations, Wang believes that sustained growth in AI demand will drive continued expansion of capital expenditures on infrastructure such as computing power, chips, and storage, and the industry still has room for growth in capital spending. As China’s AI industrial chain continues to improve, more AI enterprises are expected to list in Hong Kong or on the STAR Market in the second half of the year.

Hyperliquid platform’s SK Hynix-linked contracts SKHX and SKHY have seen extremely robust trading activity, with a combined 24-hour trading volume of $1.836 billion, surpassing Bitcoin (BTC) to become the platform’s most active asset by trading volume. SKHX alone notched a 24-hour volume of $1.63 billion and open interest (OI) of $635 million, while SKHY posted a 24-hour volume of $206 million and OI of $101 million. SKHY still trades at a roughly 26% premium to SKHX. Notably, SKHX’s funding rate surged sharply in just one hour: it jumped from +0.0064% to +0.0151%, a rise of over 130%. Concurrently, the contract’s trading volume dipped slightly from $1.663 billion to $1.604 billion, and its open interest fell from $638.6 million to $627.1 million. A sharp spike in funding rates typically signals a rapid rise in bullish sentiment, as long positions flood the market—traders holding long positions face higher costs to maintain their bets, reflecting intensifying long-short battles in SKHX contracts and growing speculative enthusiasm for SK Hynix’s US-listed assets.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had launched ballistic missiles at a U.S. military air base in Jordan and called on Jordanian citizens to resist the U.S. military presence there. Jordanian authorities said its air defense systems successfully intercepted four Iranian missiles that entered its airspace, and the incident caused no casualties or property damage. In response, U.S. Central Command, with authorization from President Donald Trump, carried out approximately five hours of continuous airstrikes on targets inside Iran. This marked the third consecutive night of large-scale U.S. military strikes against Iran. According to Iranian media reports, multiple targets including the port of Bandar Abbas were struck, with some naval maintenance facilities damaged. Meanwhile, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz remain high. Trump recently proposed that the U.S. would take responsibility for securing the Strait of Hormuz and planned to impose a 20% fee on goods transiting the waterway, sparking widespread international controversy. Affected by the escalating situation in the Middle East, international oil prices rose nearly 3% at one point, as markets worry that shipping risks in the strait will further exacerbate global energy supply tensions.

According to a study cited by Fortune, the rapid expansion of AI data centers in the United States has driven a sharp rise in public power costs. PJM Market Monitor, the entity overseeing power grids across 14 U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, projects that the additional power demand from data centers will lead to power users bearing roughly $230 billion in extra costs, an impact that will persist through at least the end of 2028. The report notes that while multiple major tech companies have committed to covering the costs of new power infrastructure, since public utility expenses such as transmission lines, substations and grid upgrades are typically shared uniformly by regulators, some costs may still be passed on to residential and general commercial users. The study also points out that some data centers can reduce their power usage during grid peak periods by flexibly adjusting their load, thereby cutting their share of grid costs allocated based on peak load. However, they still consume large volumes of electricity, meaning their actual cost burden may be lower than the strain they exert on the grid. Analysts believe that as AI infrastructure construction continues to accelerate, issues such as power cost allocation mechanisms, data center power pricing and rising residential electricity rates are emerging as key challenges facing U.S. energy regulators.