U.S. stocks closed, with optical communication, storage, and semiconductor stocks rallying, while Neocloud-related stocks fell across the board; LITE rose over 6% and IREN dropped more than 6%.

Sui development team Mysten Labs co-founder Kostas Kryptos announced in a post that Havenex is in the final stages of its Series A financing round, having submitted applications for all required licenses plus several additional ones, with the funding nearly fully allocated. Positioned not as another Coinbase, Binance, Bybit, or Kraken, Havenex aims to provide infrastructure for financial institutions, enabling them to offer both digital and traditional financial assets to clients while complying with regulatory, custody, security, and transparency requirements. The project plans to support multi-chain architecture, verifiable custody, continuous proof of solvency, default multi-signature, quantum-resistant keys, hardware two-factor authentication (2FA) wallets, as well as self-custody and key loss protection mechanisms; in jurisdictions where regulation permits, it will also support privacy assets and real-world assets (RWAs). Havenex will leverage Sui technology in appropriate use cases, while integrating assets, bridge protocols, and core components from other blockchain ecosystems. Kryptos, who developed the Havenex concept, is currently participating in an advisory capacity, with Mysten Labs and Sui remaining his primary focus. He noted that the project seeks to establish transparency and security standards distinct from those of FTX and Mt. Gox, and mitigate the risk of critical vulnerabilities stemming from large language model-generated code that has emerged in recent times.

Salesforce (CRM) rallied more than 12% in post-market trading on Wednesday, after the cloud software company reported results and guidance that exceeded Wall Street expectations. The company’s second-quarter revenue came in at $11.35 billion, slightly above market forecasts. Net profit reached $3.53 billion, an 87% year-over-year increase. Salesforce noted it recorded a $2.6 billion strategic gain from its investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. For its third fiscal quarter, Salesforce projects adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.42 to $3.44, and revenue of $11.42 billion to $11.5 billion. Analysts had previously projected adjusted EPS of $3.38 and revenue of $11.41 billion for the quarter. For the full year, Salesforce now forecasts EPS of $16.67 to $16.71, and revenue of $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, representing an 11% growth when calculated at the midpoint of the range.

Nvidia (NVDA) posted better-than-expected second-quarter fiscal 2027 results in Wednesday’s after-hours US trading, but the numbers failed to sway some high-expectation investors, sending its shares down 3% in extended trading. CFO Colette Kress followed up with bullish comments during an analyst call, projecting the company’s fiscal 2028 revenue would grow roughly 70%, versus analysts’ prior consensus estimate of 44%. Kress noted: “Incredibly, even at our current scale, demand is accelerating. Customer forecasts show growth will double next year. However, as I mentioned earlier, due to supply constraints, we expect growth of around 70%.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang added that the company has never provided earnings guidance a year in advance, and actual demand growth has surpassed 70%. While demand growth is approaching 100%, the 70% figure is based on the firm’s current supply capacity. Without supply limits, Nvidia’s fiscal 2028 outlook would be “much higher”. Nvidia’s shares later rose as much as 5% in after-hours trading.

According to Bitget data, South Korea's KOSPI index rose 2.5% at the start of trading, SK Hynix gained 5%, and Samsung Electronics rose 3%.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, after Wednesday’s US stock after-hours session, Nvidia’s latest quarterly results continued to beat market expectations, with the company projecting its next fiscal year revenue to grow around 70%, driving AI-related stocks higher in after-hours trading. The storage sector rallied across the board: SK Hynix (SKHY) rose 4.48%, SanDisk (SNDK) gained 3.71%, Micron Technology (MU) climbed 3.67%, Seagate Technology (STX) advanced 3.15%, and Western Digital (WDC) added 3.11%. The Neocloud sector saw broad gains: Nebius (NBIS) jumped 6.27%, CoreWeave (CRWV) rose 4.76%, Applied Digital (APLD) gained 3.26%, while IREN and Core Scientific (CORZ) each climbed 3.16%. Optical communication stocks rallied across the board: Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) rose 4.25%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) gained 4.08%, Credo (CRDO) climbed 3.78%, Coherent (COHR) advanced 3.35%, and Astera Labs (ALAB) added 3.34%. Semiconductor stocks also strengthened in tandem: Arm rose 4.18%, Marvell Technology and Nvidia (NVDA) each gained 4.08%, Lam Research (LRCX) climbed 2.65%, and KLA Corporation (KLAC) advanced 2.42%.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook has again denied unsubstantiated mortgage fraud allegations repeatedly raised by former President Donald Trump, who is considering reviving efforts to oust her—a move that would likely spark another fierce legal battle over the Federal Reserve’s independence. In a letter to the White House on Wednesday, Cook’s lawyers called the allegations “baseless and untrue,” stating: “Governor Cook has never committed mortgage fraud or any intentional misconduct, and there is no legal basis for her removal from the Federal Reserve Board.” (Jin10)