US Stock Futures Dive Further

Against the backdrop of recent sharp share price pullbacks for Sivers Semiconductors (SIVE) and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI), Serenity took a contrarian stance, saying the price drops have made it "more bullish than ever" and elaborated on investment theses for both firms. For SIVE, which has a current market cap of ~$1.9 billion, Serenity views it as a critical "bottleneck supplier" of lasers in the silicon photonics supply chain, with partners including GlobalFoundries (for reference lasers), Ayar Labs (for co-packaged optics (CPO) scaling in NVIDIA’s NVLink ecosystem), POET, and hyperscaler suppliers like Jabil. Its gross margin is around 60%. Recent bearish reports from Swedish media and a 15% share expansion stem from Nasdaq public float arrangements and merger authorization—not fundamental deterioration. The ~$140 million convertible notes are "a drop in the bucket" for U.S. institutional investors. Serenity calls SIVE’s priority Nasdaq listing the right strategy to escape local media noise. For AAOI, with a ~$10 billion market cap, the company projects monthly revenue of $471 million by H2 2027. Hyperscalers including AMD are reportedly in talks for long-term agreements (LTAs); the firm has raised ~$1.4 billion via ATM stock offerings and holds ample cash reserves. Serenity compared the current scenario to last year’s trajectory of Nebius (NBIS), which plunged from $70 before rallying to over $250 as results materialized. It noted photonics stocks are generally more volatile than other tech stocks, and the market now only awaits the two firms’ mass production ramp-up data.

US stocks closed on Thursday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a preliminary 0.14% gain, the S&P 500 edged lower, and the Nasdaq fell 0.46%. The storage sector rallied sharply, with Micron Technology surging 15.7%, SanDisk jumping 21.97%, Western Digital up 4.90%, and Qualcomm rising 3.7%. Microsoft dropped over 3%, while Apple slid 6.1%, its market capitalization nearing the $4 trillion threshold.

Fed official John Williams stated that the current monetary policy stance is well-positioned to bring inflation back to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 2% target, while acknowledging that risks remain to fulfilling the Fed’s dual mandate. Williams said: "Given that inflation is at a high level, we must sustainably bring it back to the 2% long-term target. The current monetary policy stance is fully capable of achieving this goal." Williams noted that inflation is "undoubtedly at a high level" and far above the committee’s 2% target. He expects inflation data to edge down in the coming quarters, although significant risks persist.

According to The Washington Post’s analysis of data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission, as the midterm elections approach, major U.S. political donors have poured over $1.3 billion so far this election cycle to influence national politics. These donors tend to favor the Republican Party, and this funding could be critical for the GOP to retain control of Congress in November. In the first half of 2026, Republican-leaning donors contributed a total of $880 million, compared to $290 million from Democratic-leaning donors, while cross-party and special interest groups donated $200 million. Newly-minted trillionaire Elon Musk leads individual donors, having given $85.1 million to Republican-related organizations or candidates.

The Persian Gulf Strait Administration (PGSA), an Iranian government agency responsible for approving and regulating maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, stated that any passage not following its approved routes will be deemed unauthorized and not covered by the agency’s security guarantees. The agency added that consequences arising from the use of unauthorized routes will be the sole responsibility of shipowners, operators, and captains. This comes after a recent ship attack near the Strait of Hormuz: U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that the attack was carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and targeted a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel.

According to county-level filing documents, SpaceX (SPCX.O) plans to start building a roughly 13-kilometer natural gas pipeline leading to its Texas launch facility next month. The project, dubbed "Starpipe", is designed to help the Elon Musk-founded company boost the launch frequency of its next-generation Starship rockets.