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

Market sources revealed that South Korea’s foreign exchange authorities carried out a rare dollar-selling intervention on Thursday, pushing the won to a nine-month high. South Korea’s move coincided with Japan’s intervention in the New York market the same day, where Tokyo bought yen and sold dollars, pulling the currency back from a 40-year low. The won rose 2% against the dollar on Thursday, hitting 1,418 won per dollar, its strongest level since October 20 last year. The won hit a 17-year low of 1,561.50 last month, has gained more than 8% this month, and is on track for its largest monthly increase since March 2009. A foreign exchange official at South Korea’s Ministry of Finance declined to confirm the intervention. A South Korean FX trader said markets suspect coordinated intervention between Seoul and Tokyo, as the two countries had previously pledged close coordination on foreign exchange matters. On July 2, South Korea’s Vice Minister of Finance told a press conference that Seoul was maintaining close communication with Japan and other major allies on FX issues. Japan’s top foreign exchange official followed up on July 7, stating Tokyo was in close contact with Seoul’s FX officials, noting that the two countries’ financial markets sometimes exhibit similar volatility trends.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Microsoft’s U.S. stock closed up 15.5% on Thursday, marking the company’s fourth-largest single-day gain in history and the largest single-day market cap increase for any U.S. individual stock on record. Investors welcomed the tech giant’s strong earnings report, which bucked the recent broad downturn in AI-related stocks. The stock’s year-to-date decline narrowed to 5.8% from roughly 19.3% at Wednesday’s close. Data shows the rally added $450 billion to Microsoft’s market cap, surpassing Nvidia’s $440 billion single-day gain set on April 9, 2025, to become the largest single-day market cap increase for a U.S. individual stock in history.

US President Trump announced on social media that the Peace Committee has reached a historic agreement to fully disarm Hamas and all armed groups in Gaza. The agreement is a key step toward Gaza eventually being governed by a new Palestinian government, which will work closely with the Peace Committee to assist the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Israel will receive its deserved security guarantees, and Gaza will no longer be used as a base for "terrorist attacks". This is a major milestone in the implementation of Trump's 20-point plan. The agreement will advance in carefully designed phases. Once the disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and an international stabilization force will cooperate with the new Palestinian police force to ensure Gaza's safety for its residents and neighboring countries. Trump said: "We have made historic progress, but there is still much work to be done."

Renowned trader Ouyang Zhuai Bai commented in a post that the storage sector staged a sharp rebound today after days of steep declines. As extreme conditions often trigger reverse forces, examples include Zhang Xiaolong’s call for college students to invest in tech stocks and the "Hynix Girl" posting messages about Seoul’s golden era. Just a few weeks ago, the storage sector’s fundamentals remained largely unchanged, yet stock prices have halved—this is the reverse deleveraging momentum formed by unanimous bullish sentiment across trading levels. Earlier, he stated, “I will continue taking positions today,” placing stepped limit buy orders for SK Hynix ADRs in the range of roughly $122 to $94. A few days ago, he noted that the year’s biggest trading opportunity had arrived, and began bottom-fishing for storage concept stocks via a strategy of no stop-losses and stepped spot purchases. Ouyang Zhuai Bai has long employed a low-leverage trend trading strategy, with core tenets including “going long on real breakouts,” short-term adjustments during extreme market sentiment, and strict position control—total leverage usually does not exceed 2x. His trading philosophy emphasizes achieving compound returns through trend-aligned holdings and phased bottom-fishing, with staying active in the market as a primary principle, and he opposes high leverage and full-position trading.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, during U.S. trading hours, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock (ticker: STRC) is trading at $89.43, up 2.35%, hitting its highest price since July 2. Strategy will release its Q2 financial results at 5 a.m. UTC+8 on July 31. Additionally, Strategy has not added to its Bitcoin holdings for the fifth consecutive week. Recently, Strategy founder Michael Saylor emphasized that the company will not issue new STRC shares when the stock trades below $100. The firm has repurchased 288,930 STRC preferred shares for a total of roughly $25 million, at an average price of $86.52 per share. Strategy plans to remain a "regular and disciplined buyer," continuing repurchases when STRC is priced below $100. It will increase buying activity when the price is far from $100, and reduce repurchase volumes as it approaches that level. Currently, Strategy has approximately $975 million available for preferred stock repurchases. Funds for STRC repurchases will not come from its U.S. dollar reserves; instead, they will be raised via methods such as selling MSTR stock and Bitcoin, depending on market conditions, with the goal of stabilizing STRC’s price near $100.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Situational Awareness, the fund run by 25-year-old Wall Street AI stock prodigy Leopold, was revealed today to have sold off the majority of its holdings, with Leopold falling just before the dawn. Likely driven by the liquidation news, all stocks previously held by the fund (per Q1 13-f filings) surged sharply, including: CleanSpark (CLSK) up 21.61%; Riot Platforms (RIOT) up 23.70%; Applied Digital (APLD) up 21.27%; Core Scientific (CORZ) up 22.93%; IREN Ltd (IREN) up 28.83%; CoreWeave (CRWV) up 24.53%; SanDisk (SNDK) up 24.34%; Bloom Energy (BE) up 27.05%.