Tonight's Highlights | U.S. Stocks Rise as De-escalation in Middle East Lifts Sentiment; Oil Prices Tumble

U.S. stock index futures pushed higher on Monday, while international crude oil prices fell sharply following a weekend pause in military strikes between the U.S. and Iran. Major European equity benchmarks also traded broadly higher.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump halted airstrikes against Iran on Friday to allow room for diplomatic efforts, ending a 13-day bombing campaign.

 

The pause reignited market hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough, sending Brent crude—the global benchmark—down over 5% to trade near $87 per barrel.

 

Geopolitical friction flared elsewhere, however, after Ukraine attacked an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, prompting Tehran to accuse Kyiv of committing a "hostile and criminal act."

 

Investor focus this week turns to a heavy slate of mega-cap tech earnings, with Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft set to report quarterly results.

 

Following Alphabet's disappointing print last week, the upcoming numbers will dictate whether Wall Street's anxiety over surging artificial intelligence capital expenditure subsides or intensifies. The earnings could also drive near-term sentiment for semiconductor stocks, which have been prime beneficiaries of the AI buildout.

 

"The overarching risk remains the unrelenting rise in AI capital outlays," said Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management. "Yet if these management teams cave to shareholder pressure and slow their spending, the market won't like that outcome either."

 

"It's a complete seesaw—there is downside risk on both sides of the trade."

Corporate News

NVIDIA, Microsoft, and IBM Form Alliance to Advance AI Safety

NVIDIA, Microsoft, Adobe, SpaceX AI, IBM, SAP, Dell, Cisco, and dozens of other industry leaders announced on July 27 the formation of the Open Secure AI Alliance (OSAA).

 

The coalition aims to develop and share open-source tools to promote the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence.

 

The alliance's member lineup includes Cadence, Capital One, Cloudera, Cloudflare, Cognition, CrowdStrike, Databricks, DoorDash, Elastic, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hugging Face, LangChain, the Linux Foundation, NAVER, NetApp, Nous Research, OpenClaw, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Red Hat, Reflection AI, Salesforce, SK Telecom, ServiceNow, Siemens, Snowflake, Synopsys, Thinking Machines Lab, and TrendAI.

 

Samsung Confirms 2nm GAA Process for HBM5, Promising 50%+ Speed Boost

Samsung Electronics released an interview on July 27 with Gu Ja-hyun, Executive Vice President and Head of Technology Development for its Semiconductor Division.

 

Gu confirmed that next-generation HBM5 memory is projected to deliver over 50% faster operating speeds than HBM4E.

 

He noted that the base die for HBM5 will leverage a 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process alongside higher-density Through-Silicon Via (TSV) architecture.

 

Building on the technical foundation and foundry expertise gained from its 4nm HBM4 base die, Samsung plans to deploy the 2nm node early in the HBM5 cycle.

 

The company aims to broaden partnerships with customers across mobile, HBM, AI, high-performance computing (HPC), automotive electronics, and robotics to expand its broader semiconductor ecosystem.

 

SoftBank Secures 21 Additional Lenders for $40 Billion OpenAI Financing

SoftBank Group has expanded the lender syndicate for its $40 billion bridge loan earmarked for its OpenAI investment, adding 21 new financial institutions, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The new lenders join existing syndicate members to take on roughly $7 billion of the total facility.

 

First Abu Dhabi Bank, GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund), and Standard Chartered each took commitments approaching $1 billion, with the remaining allocation absorbed by European and Japanese banks.

 

Samsung's Lee Meets OpenAI's Altman to Discuss AI Infrastructure Partnership

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco on July 25.

 

While OpenAI declined to disclose specific agenda items, industry observers believe the two leaders discussed deepening collaboration across AI infrastructure—including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), advanced DRAM, and leading-edge foundry manufacturing.

 

HSBC to Launch Global AI Center of Excellence in Singapore

HSBC announced on July 27 that it will establish a global Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (CoE) in Singapore during the second half of this year.

 

The center is tasked with developing scalable AI capabilities across the bank's international network and plans to hire over 100 AI specialists.

 

According to the official statement, the CoE will initially focus on enhancing digital wealth management capabilities, rolling out intelligent treasury operations, and deploying AI-powered payment solutions.