U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%); U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

Economists at Maybank said that although Singapore's electronics industry growth has slowed to an 11-month low, the sector will still benefit from global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure development. Singapore's electronics sector output rose 11.2% year-on-year in July, down from 21.1% in June, partly due to a high base effect from the same period last year. Maybank stated: "Although the electronics sector's output growth has slowed, we believe the AI boom is unlikely to end anytime soon." Meanwhile, demand for Singapore's semiconductor equipment remains robust amid global chip manufacturing capacity expansion. Maybank noted that Singapore holds a significant share of the global semiconductor equipment manufacturing market, at around 20%.

Raymond James said it raised CrowdStrike’s price target from $188 to $240.

Bank of Korea Governor says it will gradually raise interest rates.

According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, a crypto whale has purchased 95,928 SOL tokens after two years of inactivity, valued at approximately $9.74 million. Over the past three years, this wallet address has completed two rounds of SOL swing trades, both of which yielded profits via buying low and selling high, with cumulative gains of around $4.95 million.

FinTax, a provider of cryptocurrency financial and tax solutions and AI infrastructure, announced the completion of its seed round financing, led by YZi Labs via EASY Residency S4, with participation from Amber, Hash House, Pundi AI, Waverider International, and Nexus Holdings. The post-money valuation stands at $40 million; previous round investors include Victory Courage, BGIN, Tools Factory, and individual investor Fan Chao. YZi Labs has been steadily expanding its presence in stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), payments, and institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure in recent years. Leveraging FinTax’s expertise in on-chain data processing, crypto accounting, cross-jurisdictional tax practices, and crypto asset financial auditing, the two parties will explore long-term ecosystem collaboration focused on institutional fiscal and tax infrastructure, compliance standards, and emerging use cases including stablecoins, RWA, and payments, while further strengthening ties between FinTax and YZi Labs and its ecosystem partners. Following the funding round, FinTax will accelerate the scaling of its five product lines, expand its operations from Asia-Pacific and North America to Europe and the Middle East, and deepen the application of AI in complex fiscal and tax scenarios. The theme of the next decade is the alignment of blockchain with legal systems. FinTax will continue to advance the dual evolution of blockchain and legal frameworks across dozens of jurisdictions, integrating on-chain economic activities into the real world’s fiscal and financial systems, and driving blockchain from technical consensus to social consensus.

Liquid Capital founder Yilihua said he remains bullish, noting that the current price is consolidating near a resistance level. During a bull market, consolidation at resistance levels and pullbacks after highs are normal phenomena. He plans to close his long positions when the price rises to a higher level, and will go long again after a reasonable market pullback. The market will maintain a bullish trend at least until 2028, so investors should avoid short selling as much as possible. Risk assets are presenting investment opportunities, and AI is far from entering a bubble phase; seizing these two market trends is his current favored strategy. Most industry participants benefit from a bull market, and it is relatively easier to go long with the trend once the market turns bullish, rather than always seeking gains through speculative short selling.