Pakistan says the US and Iran are still negotiating over the Strait of Hormuz issue.

According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s Korea Exchange (KRX) has recently examined the technical feasibility of temporary short-selling bans and narrowing stock price fluctuation limits to assess emergency measures deployable during sharp market downturns. The checks cover whether systems can execute these adjustments and the time required to complete them. However, a source familiar with the matter emphasized that while technical feasibility has been confirmed, this is not premised on actual implementation. The KRX is also evaluating further reducing the current 30% daily price fluctuation limit to curb single-stock daily declines during extreme market conditions. South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance previously held an emergency meeting to review market conditions, stating that given the KOSPI’s volatility is higher than that of other countries and historical levels, it will maintain the highest alert level and launch a 24-hour joint monitoring mechanism involving relevant departments. Amid the continuous plunge of South Korea’s stock market, a temporary short-selling ban has become one of the main demands of retail investors. A related National Assembly petition gained around 10,000 signatures within two days of going public, with some lawmakers also proposing to reactivate the securities market stabilization fund. Securities analysts in South Korea noted that with the deleveraging of single-stock leveraged ETFs still ongoing, a short-selling ban could help control further declines. However, such a ban may conflict with South Korea’s goal of being included in the MSCI Developed Markets Index. KRX officials stated that they have not received any relevant government requests, nor have they formally studied a short-selling ban, adding that this measure is not within the exchange’s discretionary authority.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Arm released their financial results after U.S. stock market trading hours on Wednesday. Microsoft (MSFT) rose 7% in pre-market trading, with its fourth fiscal quarter cloud business revenue exceeding market expectations. Meta Platforms (META) fell 8.3% in pre-market trading, as its second-quarter free cash flow dropped by 91%. Qualcomm (QCOM) declined 5.7% pre-market, while Arm (ARM) was down 7.2% in pre-market trading.

Tech giants are releasing earnings reports one after another. After Microsoft and Meta published their earnings in the early hours of today, Apple and Amazon will report their results in the early hours of tomorrow. The highly anticipated NVIDIA earnings, however, won’t be released until August 26. Metrics including AI chip demand, data center revenue, gross margin, and forward guidance will act as a barometer for the performance of cloud computing, AI capital expenditure, advertising, and consumer electronics sectors. Besides earnings, several key conferences deserve attention. The Future Memory and Storage Conference, scheduled for August 4 next week, has participants including Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, NVIDIA, and others, and is of great significance to the storage industry chain. Hot Chips 2026, taking place from August 23 to 25, is one of the most notable technical conferences in the fields of chip architecture and AI hardware. NVIDIA’s Vera CPU, HBM architecture, advanced packaging, and new-generation processors from multiple companies will be unveiled at the event, which may impact expectations for the CPU, GPU, HBM, and packaging industry chains.

According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, all five millionaire-level whales that entered positions to bottom-fish during SKHX’s sharp drop yesterday have now exited their long positions: four currently hold zero SKHX, while the whale address starting with 0x54c flipped from long to short. Data shows that over the past 24 hours, these five addresses have collectively closed out approximately 19,500 SKHX long positions, with a total transaction value of around $19.05 million and combined losses of about $171,000. The whale starting with 0x54c added 2,000 SKHX short positions this afternoon, and currently holds a short position of 7,000 units with 5x leverage, worth roughly $6.359 million at an average entry price of $939.5. SKHX is now trading at $908.5, with an unrealized profit of about $217,000, a return rate of approximately 16.5%, and a liquidation price of $1,454.8. Meanwhile, SKHX has dropped around 8.2% intraday, with a 24-hour trading volume of about $1.55 billion and open interest of roughly $562 million.

Binance Alpha has listed MarsCoin, a meme coin on the BSC network.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Samsung SDS is advancing cooperation in the digital asset sector with Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit. The two sides are discussing areas including stablecoin infrastructure, virtual asset financial system integration, and AI-based next-generation payment services, and plan to further clarify specific business models. Lee Jun-hee, CEO of Samsung SDS, stated that the company’s equity investment in Dunamu is not a purely financial investment, but a strategic move to enter the digital asset infrastructure business. The two sides intend to combine Dunamu’s blockchain operation experience with Samsung SDS’s strengths in IT services, AI, cloud computing, and security to strengthen their digital financial infrastructure business. Samsung SDS’s second-quarter revenue rose 5.9% year-on-year to 3.7178 trillion won, while operating profit increased 0.7% year-on-year to 231.8 billion won. Among this, cloud business revenue grew 17% year-on-year to 779.4 billion won, and external cloud business revenue jumped 75% year-on-year. The company also plans to expand its AI infrastructure scale from the current 110 megawatts to 230 megawatts by 2029, and by 2031, expand the overall scale (including design, construction, and operation services) to over 800 megawatts.