Fintech firm Flex completes $70 million Series B1 funding round, led by Halo Fund.

Key pre-market news for US stocks is as follows: 1. US June unadjusted annual CPI came in at 3.5%, against expectations of 3.8%. Traders pushed back their bets on Federal Reserve interest rate hikes to October; 2. Federal Reserve Chair Walsh stated the Fed has "zero tolerance" for persistent high inflation and holds a cautious stance toward the AI boom; 3. IBM (IBM.N) pre-market shares fell over 20%, as the company reported preliminary Q2 revenue of $17.2 billion, vs. consensus estimate of $17.86 billion; 4. Goldman Sachs (GS.N) pre-market shares rose over 2%, with Q2 stock sales and trading revenue hitting $7.42 billion, vs. consensus of $5.02 billion; 5. KeyBanc raised price targets for multiple AI chip stocks: Arm’s target was lifted to $430, while Micron Technology (MU)’s target rose to $1750; 6. New York will temporarily ban the construction of large new data centers; 7. SK Hynix accelerates mass production of HBM4 for NVIDIA; 8. NVIDIA has established a new client "whitelist" in Asia. After a new round of reviews, the number of approved clients in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan for AI chip purchases has dropped by more than half; 9. Trump plans to strengthen control over the Strait of Hormuz, while the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to its lowest level since 1983.

According to official announcements, Tether today announced it has led Pact Labs' $7 million Series A funding round, with Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna participating. The investment will support Pact Labs' development, enabling it to become a core infrastructure provider for USAT in areas including payroll, early wage access, credit, and daily payments.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), semiconductor stocks in pre-market trading on US equities are broadly higher, with Marvell Technology (MRVL) up 5.7%, Intel (INTC) up 3.89%, Arm (ARM) up 3.71%, and Applied Materials (AMAT) up 6.53%. Optical communication concept stocks lead pre-market gains: Corning (GLW) up 5.4%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) up 6.26%, Coherent (COHR) up 4.05%, Astera Labs (ALAB) up 6%, and Credo (CRDO) up 6.36%. The storage sector is also strengthening, with Seagate Technology (STX) up 5.43%, Western Digital (WDC) up 5.3%, SanDisk (SNDK) up 6.54%, and Micron Technology (MU) up 5.03%. Earlier, the US reported June unadjusted annual CPI at 3.5%, compared to the prior reading of 4.2% and market expectations of 3.8%.

Federal Reserve Chair Walsh expressed optimism about the overall economic situation. He noted that the labor market is generally stable, with almost no layoffs and nominal wages on the rise. The Fed chair took a more cautious stance on the boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. He argued that while AI has spurred increased corporate investment, it has also introduced uncertainty into the economy. “We still do not know the extent to which the economy can benefit from the development of AI,” he said. “The new opportunities emerging in the economy also bring new challenges for policymakers. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring how these changes impact inflation and the labor market.”

Traders have pushed back their bets on a Federal Reserve interest rate hike to October.

Federal Reserve Chair Walsh stated that AI opportunities pose a challenge to policymakers, adding that the central bank is monitoring the impact of AI on inflation and the labor market.