The White House has released the "President Trump's United States Cyber Strategy," mentioning support for cryptocurrency and blockchain security

Western Digital’s first fiscal quarter results exceeded all market expectations, driven by robust data storage demand and improved product pricing, prompting the company to raise its quarterly dividend. The firm reported fiscal 2027 first-quarter revenue of $4.381 billion, up 55% year-over-year, beating analysts’ prior consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. Non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) came in at $4.64, surging 161% YoY, versus the FactSet-surveyed analysts’ forecast of $4.11 per share. For the second fiscal quarter, Western Digital projects adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00 and revenue ranging from $5 billion to $5.2 billion. By contrast, analysts had expected adjusted EPS of $4.84 and revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, meaning the company’s midpoint guidance significantly outpaces market consensus. Despite Western Digital’s strong performance, storage and AI-related stocks overall remained under pressure. Market concerns over whether large-scale capital expenditures will generate effective returns in the short term have not dissipated, a sentiment that continues to weigh on sector valuations. Following the earnings release, the stock rose briefly before falling sharply; as of press time, it was down 6.3% in after-hours trading.

Meta’s Q3 revenue and Q4 guidance both exceeded expectations, pushing its shares up over 6.5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. However, regulatory filings released Thursday revealed that as of the end of September, the company’s total committed future expenditures stood at around $825 billion, covering agreements including leases, cloud computing contracts, and data centers, with a large portion of the funds directly tied to AI computing power and infrastructure construction. This figure is a sharp increase from the roughly $700 billion disclosed in July, with over $100 billion in new commitments added in just a few months. The market reversed course immediately: by Thursday’s U.S. market close, Meta’s shares fell around 7%, wiping out over $100 billion in market capitalization. The five-year credit default swap (CDS) price, a key gauge of Meta’s credit risk, surged to an all-time high, and the company’s bonds weakened significantly relative to U.S. Treasuries. Analysts pointed out this reflects deep-seated investor concerns: tech giants’ continued borrowing to expand AI capabilities will further exacerbate the already oversupplied bond market pressure. Meanwhile, CDS prices for hyperscale cloud providers and chipmakers including Oracle, Microsoft, and Broadcom also rose in tandem, signaling spreading market caution over debt risks across the entire tech sector.

SK Hynix announced in a statement that its overseas subsidiary Solidigm has canceled its pre-IPO financing. Amid market conditions and stock price trends, the company has halted its IPO review. The necessity of investing in Solidigm’s growth remains unchanged, and it will continue to explore alternative plans to enhance shareholder value.

Overnight to early this morning, risk aversion across U.S. markets surged. Catalysts included attacks on Saudi energy facilities, and reports that the U.S. and Israel have drafted plans to strike Iran after the U.S. midterm elections. Brent crude climbed to a five-month high, while WTI crude hit a five-month peak, approaching $100 per barrel. Adding to uncertainty over the midterm elections, these factors pushed yields on 2-year to 10-year U.S. Treasuries down by more than 15 basis points. The French-German yield spread widened to 175 basis points at one point, the highest level since the 2011 European debt crisis. According to Bitget market data, the S&P 500 closed at 7,662.54 on Thursday, down 1.22%, ending its three-day winning streak. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.60%. By sector, U.S. consumer staples, healthcare, and utilities led gains, while semiconductors, memory chips, and optical communications led losses. The chip index dropped 6.72%. In individual stocks, per BIT (bit.com) market data, CoreWeave fell 10%, Micron Technology declined 6.26%, Western Digital fell 6.43%, dropping more than 5% in post-earnings after-hours trading. Optical communications firm Coherent tumbled over 12%, while AAOI and LITE both fell more than 11%. Meta’s third-quarter revenue beat expectations, but its capital expenditure continued to rise, lifting future spending commitments to $825 billion and turning its free cash flow negative. The company’s five-year credit default swap (CDS) hit an all-time high. Funding concerns spread along the AI industry chain. Meta closed down 6.98% on Thursday, and fell an additional 0.61% in after-hours trading. Crypto-related stocks also fell, with MSTR down 5%, BMNR dropping over 6%, CRCL declining 3.44%, and COIN falling 4.49%. Per HTX market data, Bitcoin briefly dipped below $81,000 at midnight, then stabilized and consolidated, currently trading at $81,347.20.

According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index continues its downward trend, with losses widening to 3.00% after today’s opening, and is currently trading at 5364.99 points. Among heavyweight stocks, SK Hynix is down 2.7%, while Samsung Electronics falls 4.08%.

The Commodity Markets Council, which represents derivative exchanges including CME Group and commodity traders, has told the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that perpetual futures pose significant risks to market integrity. The group urged regulators not to approve the perpetual oil futures contract proposed by prediction market platform Kalshi, and also called on the CFTC to close regulatory loopholes to prevent retail investors from accessing offshore trading platforms. (Bloomberg)