Serenity comments on Leopold's heavy position in Taiyo Yuden: AI bottlenecks are spreading to the smallest electronic components, and MLCCs are poised to see robust demand.

Citigroup Research stated that the uptrend in precious metals is far from over, with silver continuing to track gold’s moves and serving as a more aggressive play on upside due to its higher volatility. Should tensions in the Strait of Hormuz eventually ease, paired with a less hawkish stance from the Federal Reserve, investment demand for precious metals will continue to recover. Recent market action has already laid the groundwork for this outlook. The settlement price of COMEX August gold futures rose 0.49% to $4,383 per ounce; silver futures fell 0.5% on the day to $64.769 per ounce, ending a two-day winning streak. Citigroup noted that the short-term pullback does not alter silver’s status as a high-beta asset relative to gold, adding that if easing geopolitical risks drive capital back into precious metals, silver could rise to $95 per ounce by 2027. However, Citigroup also outlined risk scenarios, estimating there is roughly a 20% chance silver could drop to $50 per ounce, highlighting that current precious metals trading remains highly dependent on interest rate expectations, U.S. dollar movements, and geopolitical risks. For markets, gold remains a core asset for hedging and rate-cut expectations, while silver is better suited to capturing upside from a rebound in risk appetite.

The Korea Exchange (KRX) has drafted amendments to the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Business Regulations for the Securities Market, raising the minimum trading unit for single-stock leveraged ETFs from the current 1 share to 20 shares, and for ETNs from 1 security to 20 securities. The proposal is now open for public consultation. It is reported that South Korea’s financial regulators originally planned to roll out the measure in November, but given the rising speculative trading in single-stock leveraged products, a pre-emptive cooling is needed, so the exchange is pushing for the earliest possible implementation next month. In addition to raising the trading unit, South Korean regulators will also strengthen investor protection measures: new individual investors must complete at least 5 trading days of simulation trading (1 hour per day, totaling 5 hours) before participating in single-stock leveraged product transactions.

MetaPlanet(@Metaplanet) transferred out 1,473 $BTC($93.82M) 1 hour ago. Hut 8(@Hut8Corp) also transferred out 493 $BTC($31.36M) 3 hours ago.

In its latest research report, Bernstein reaffirmed its bullish outlook on Microsoft, raising the 12-month target price to around $660 and maintaining an "Outperform" rating. The bank argues that market concerns over Microsoft’s AI infrastructure being "built too fast and spent too much" are overblown, noting that the company’s data center expansion remains aligned with its commercial cloud revenue growth, and AI investments will continue to support Azure, Copilot, and its enterprise software ecosystem. Microsoft’s share price has rebounded notably recently, rising roughly 30% since the release of strong earnings at the end of July, returning to positive territory for the year. Even after the rally, Microsoft’s valuation remains below its historical high range, with its AI and cloud businesses continuing to underpin earnings growth, per Bernstein. The report specifically points out that Microsoft’s long-term lease obligations total $329.1 billion, spread across fiscal years 2027 to 2033, with some contracts extending up to 20 years; hardware commitments for fiscal 2027 are approximately $169 billion, after which they will decline significantly. This means Microsoft is not locked into a single short-cycle AI hardware expenditure, and can reallocate data center resources to traditional cloud and software services in the future.

Korea Exchange triggered the KOSPI temporary trading halt mechanism, suspending programmatic buying for 5 minutes, following a 5% rise in KOSPI 200 index futures. (Jinshi)

According to monitoring by ai_9684xtpa, Hyperliquid trader DoshiAtoll opened a short position of 1,576.23 BTC at 8 AM today, valued at roughly $100 million. The short entry price was $64,039, with 40x leverage, and it currently has an unrealized profit of approximately $456,000. Following the establishment of this position, the two largest BTC holdings on the Hyperliquid platform are now both BTC short positions, drawing market attention to the bearish sentiment of large capital.