US considers ramping up trade sanctions against Canada.

According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index opened 0.53% higher. Samsung Electronics rose 1.36%, and SK Hynix gained 1.32%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index opened down 342.29 points, a 0.52% decline.

Sources from Pakistan’s military and Iran’s security services told Russia’s Sputnik News that the United States and Iran have reached a consensus on ceasefire agreement terms, including freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The sources stated: “A consensus has been reached on the ceasefire agreement, which includes a clause on freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” The two sides are expected to make relevant announcements in the coming days. Per the Islamabad Memorandum, negotiations and a round of technical meetings will be initiated.

According to Nikkei News, Japan is preparing to build a blockchain-based payment infrastructure to enable instant settlement for stock and Japanese government bond transactions. The Financial Services Agency (FSA), Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan, and relevant financial institutions will launch a research group this summer, with the development plan to be finalized as early as early 2027. The plan will cover blockchain design, division of responsibilities among institutions, and a future roadmap. If formally approved, the system is expected to be built within a few years, go operational as early as the early 2030s, and may further expand to cross-border remittance services. Currently, cash settlement for Japanese stock transactions takes two days after execution, while government bond transactions settle the next day. The real-time settlement system will eliminate the time gap between transactions and fund settlement, allowing investors to reinvest proceeds almost immediately after selling their assets.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, US stocks closed higher: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.32%, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.66%. Nvidia snapped its seven-day losing streak, surging over 2%. Sectors including storage, optical communications, and cryptocurrencies rallied. For the storage and semiconductor sectors: Intel (INTC) rose 0.25%; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped 4.91%; Micron Technology (MU) gained 2.48%; SanDisk (SNDK) fell 0.83%; Seagate Technology (STX) climbed 3.4%; Western Digital (WDC) rose 3.53%; SK Hynix ADR advanced 2.68%. The optical communications sector: Lumentum (LITE) surged over 6%; Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) jumped more than 5%; Coherent (COHR) gained over 4%. Crypto-related stocks: Circle (CRCL) rose over 4%; Coinbase (COIN) climbed more than 4%; Strategy advanced over 3%.

Beating AI Insight News Brief: OpenAI has released the first batch of test data for its first custom inference chip Jalape?o, claiming its performance surpasses NVIDIA’s GB300. The chip has reached the Pareto optimal frontier across three publicly available external models: GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 670B, and Kimi K2.5 1T. Compared to current best commercial systems, Jalape?o’s peak AI output per watt is 1.5 to 1.9 times higher, end-to-end latency is 1.7 to 3.6 times lower, and its advantage expands to 2.1 to 4.1 times in high-interaction agent scenarios. Jalape?o has a rated power of 700 watts, with measured continuous power not exceeding 550 watts. OpenAI emphasized that under agent workloads, real costs should be measured by "AI workload completed per unit of power consumption" rather than individual chip performance. Jalape?o took only 9 months from design to tape-out, with AI deeply involved in circuit optimization and verification. Leveraging Codex and GPT-Astra, the team optimized three open-weight models not originally planned for the project to high performance in just two months; AI-generated implementations of some modules were 1.5 to 1.8 times faster than human-written ones. OpenAI plans to deploy Jalape?o to its own computing infrastructure by the end of the year, while continuing to use external accelerators like NVIDIA at scale. This is the first generation in a multi-generation chip roadmap; Gen 2 is already in deep development, and Gen 3 is taking shape.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bahador Babaei stated that under the newly reached understanding between Iran and Oman on shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, routes entering the Persian Gulf will pass through Iranian waters, while routes exiting the Persian Gulf will pass through both Omani and Iranian waters. No warships are allowed to transit the strait; only merchant vessels are permitted. Babaei noted that the Iran-Oman understanding does not mean an immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the above transit arrangements are temporary measures. The two countries will hold negotiations within 30 to 60 days to establish a new permanent shipping route. He emphasized that if Iran’s demands and conditions are not met, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. The prerequisites for reopening the strait include a complete end to all hostilities, including the front in Lebanon, lifting of blockades, and a proper resolution to the Yemen issue. Additionally, the U.S. must fully fulfill all its previously unmet commitments. Babaei called the U.S. claim that it has cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz a "propaganda lie," adding that Iran will strike U.S. minesweepers entering the region.