Federal Reserve minutes signal a hawkish stance: Most officials expect another interest rate hike this year, but there is no clear urgency for a move in October.

Preliminary vote count results of Israel's Knesset election show that neither the right-wing bloc backing incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition camp has secured an absolute majority of seats. Netanyahu's Likud Party remains the largest party in the Knesset. (Xinhua)

Birch Hill, founded by former employees of Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, has closed a $4 million seed funding round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from ParaFi Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and Nascent. The firm’s total capital raised now stands at $6.5 million. It currently manages vaults on Morpho, has applied to the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for broker-dealer qualification, plans to sell private credit products to accredited investors, and aims to securitize pools of U.S. multifamily residential, agricultural, and energy loans and tokenize them on-chain in the long term. (Decrypt)

Financial AI startup Casap announced Wednesday it has secured $56 million in Series B funding, led by Base10 Partners with strategic participation from Synchrony and Experian. The company’s total raised capital now stands at $90 million. Founded in 2023, Casap’s AI tools help banks and credit card companies handle disputes and chargebacks. According to the company, its clients reduce first-party fraud losses by up to 51%, boost chargeback win rates to 96% (compared to the industry average of 60%), and cut average dispute resolution time to 8 days, while traditional methods take up to 90 days. The startup did not disclose the valuation for this round.

Pre-market Wednesday saw mixed performance in the three major stock index futures: Dow Jones futures fell 0.13%, Nasdaq futures rose 0.43%, and S&P 500 futures edged up 0.19%, per Bitget’s market data. The Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision in the early hours of Thursday Beijing time—the most significant macro event tonight, with markets closely monitoring the decision and subsequent remarks from Fed Governor Waller. Key pre-market U.S. stock news on Wednesday: 1. Microsoft will release its Q1 FY2027 results (ending September 30) after U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday’s close. Bloomberg consensus estimates project adjusted EPS of $4.72 (up ~14% year-over-year from $4.13) and revenue of $90.63 billion (nearly 17% YoY growth from $77.67 billion). 2. Alphabet (Google’s parent) will report Q3 results after U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday’s close. Bloomberg consensus forecasts its Q3 GAAP EPS at $2.99 and total revenue at $127.93 billion (up ~25% YoY from $102.35 billion). 3. Oracle expands Nvidia Vera Rubin AI server deployment to multi-gigawatt scale, adds Google and Cerebras chips. On Tuesday, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will scale its rollout of Nvidia’s latest Vera Rubin AI servers to multi-gigawatt capacity; no transaction value was disclosed. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously noted each gigawatt of the Vera Rubin system could generate up to $40 billion in revenue for the chipmaker. Oracle is also integrating chips from Alphabet and Cerebras Systems to diversify its computing power supply. 4. SK Hynix says all DRAM and HBM capacity is sold out by 2029, with Q3 operating profit beating expectations. 5. Apple will hold its second October event at 1:00 AM Beijing time Thursday, where the first touchscreen MacBook and new iPad mini are expected to launch.

Wolfe Research has reaffirmed its Outperform rating on SK Hynix with a $250 target price, citing robust demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI infrastructure. Analyst Chris Caso noted that upside potential in HBM pricing, increased memory production, and an attractive valuation of roughly 4.5x bull-case earnings will drive upside for the stock. Wolfe also estimates that, under SK Hynix’s expected shareholder return policy, the company will generate sufficient free cash flow to repurchase 28% of its shares within two years.

US Treasury Secretary Bessent has stated that regardless of whether Congress takes action, the U.S. Treasury will push to bridge the cryptocurrency regulatory gap between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The remarks signal that even if relevant legislation stalls at the congressional level, the Treasury still plans to coordinate the regulatory frameworks of the two agencies.