CPI slows as expected, dimming Fed rate hike bets; AI stocks surge, Bitcoin edges lower.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, the as-expected slowdown in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has dampened expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike. The three major U.S. stock indexes closed mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04%, the Nasdaq rose 0.54%, and the S&P 500 gained 0.26%. Nvidia climbed 3.03% to close at $224.09, its highest closing price since June 2. Overnight in pre-market trading, Goldman Sachs maintained its "Buy" rating on Nvidia with a $285 target price. SpaceX jumped 9.65% as the company announced the launch of Grok 4.6 during the session. AI-related stocks surged across sectors: In the memory chip segment, SK Hynix rose over 9%, SanDisk gained more than 5%, Western Digital advanced over 3%, Seagate climbed over 7%, and Micron Technology rose over 4%. For optical communications and photonics products, Lumentum surged over 13%, Coherent gained more than 8%, and Corning rose over 5%. In the semiconductor equipment space, Applied Materials climbed over 4%, Lam Research advanced over 4%, and KLA rose over 3%. Among next-generation AI cloud service providers, Nebius jumped over 34% and CoreWeave surged more than 19%. Turning to the Middle East situation: Former U.S. President Trump stated that the U.S. has full control over the Strait of Hormuz. A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard responded that if Iran faces another threat, hundreds of thousands of miles of energy transmission lines, thousands of power plants, all U.S. and non-U.S. facilities, and even global infrastructure connected to the internet will be targeted. According to HTX market data, Bitcoin edged down 0.19% in the past 24 hours, trading at $63,423.