This Week in Review: South Korea Tightens Regulations on Single Stock Leveraged ETFs; US Inflation Cools Down; US-Iran Conflict Continues to Escalate

BlockBeats News, July 18th. This week, the global market is focusing on the Federal Reserve's policy, the Middle East situation, South Korean financial regulation, and the AI industry:

· U.S. inflation cools down, Fed maintains a cautious stance. Both the June CPI and PPI in the U.S. came in below expectations, leading to a downward revision of rate hike expectations in the market. However, Fed Chair Kevin Wash stated that single-month data is not sufficient to confirm that inflation is under control. The Fed will continue to prioritize restoring price stability.

· U.S.-Iran conflict continues to escalate. The U.S. military has conducted multiple consecutive days of airstrikes on Iranian targets, while Iran has expanded its strikes on U.S. military bases and related facilities in the Middle East. Iran has reiterated that it will not accept U.S. intervention in the Strait of Hormuz. The White House has stated that both sides are still in communication, but Iran has emphasized adherence to the principle of "commitment for commitment."

· South Korea tightens regulations on single-stock leveraged ETFs. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has announced a halt to new listings of single-stock leveraged ETFs, increased the investment margin requirement from 10 million Korean won to 30 million Korean won, and raised the minimum trading unit to reduce the amplification effect of high-leverage products on market volatility.

· Longxin Technology's IPO is red hot. Longxin Technology's offering price has been set at 8.66 yuan per share. The number of valid online subscription accounts has reached 9.4288 million, resulting in a final online lottery rate of 0.4714%, setting a new record for the Science and Technology Innovation Board's IPOs. It is expected to raise approximately 66.6 billion yuan.

· U.S. proposes a 25% tariff on some Brazilian goods. The U.S. has announced that starting from July 22nd, a 25% tariff will be imposed on certain Brazilian imports, involving areas of dispute such as digital trade and intellectual property. Brazil has stated that it will assess countermeasures.

· Buffett discusses Alphabet investment and market speculation. Buffett has confirmed for the first time that Berkshire's approximately $31 billion investment in Alphabet was led by himself. He also warned of the growing speculative sentiment in the current market and stated that he would no longer continue to donate to the Gates Foundation in the future.

· SpaceX's Starship 13th test flight aborted prior to launch. The Starship experienced an abnormal ignition of some Raptors, leading to an automatic shutdown approximately 1 second after ignition. Musk stated that the engines will be replaced, and a reattempt at launch could take place as early as next week.

· Darkmoon releases Kimi K3 on the dark side of the moon. Darkmoon has launched the open-source large-scale model Kimi K3 with a parameter size of 2.8 trillion, supporting 1 million tokens of context and multimodal capabilities. The official announcement describes it as the world's largest open-source model.

· Wall Street's major banks report better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and other banks have benefited from a resurgence in trading and investment banking businesses, with capital markets operations becoming the main driver of this round of profit growth.