Key Takeaways

• Longest US bond rally in years fueled by rate cut hopes.
• Fitch sees US economy slowdown, political risks increasing.
• US crude inventories drop, oil prices remain stagnant.
• Apple trains AI on Google’s custom chips over Nvidia’s.
• Tesla recalls 1.8M EVs in US for hood latch issue.
• Microsoft Q4 earnings watched for cloud, AI growth signals.

I. Market Report

Stock futures rose marginally on Tuesday as investors digested key corporate earnings and looked to the beginning of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.

As of 08:30 am, EST (or 08:30 pm in Malaysia), futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.09%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.16%, while Nasdaq-100 futures added about 0.25%.

II. Market Movers

As of 08:30 am, EST (or 08:30 pm in Malaysia), top pre-market movements are as follows:

Note: We are pleased to inform you that our app now supports pre/after-market trading for US stocks. The trading hours for these sessions are as follows:

• Pre-market: 16:00 to 21:30 in Malaysia
• After-hours market: 04:00 to 08:00 the next day in Malaysia

Please note that regular trading hours are from 21:30 to 04:00 UTC.

III. Flash Headlines

Rate Cut Hopes Fuel Longest US Bond Rally in Three Years; Next Focus: Quarterly Refinancing Plan

Economists such as Roubini have recently accused the US Treasury Department of improperly manipulating US Treasury bond auctions and artificially controlling the size of long-term bonds. Read in detail>>

Fitch: US Economy to Cool in H2 Amid Rising Political and Geopolitical Risks

Fitch Ratings analysts said the US economy is expected to cool in the second half of the year, with overall real GDP growth expected to slow significantly, but still above recession levels... Read in detail>>

US Crude Oil Inventories Decline, Yet Prices Struggle to Gain

On July 29, market analyst Tsvetana Paraskova wrote that this summer, US commercial crude oil inventories have been falling faster than usual. However, the decline in inventories over the past four weeks has failed to trigger an increase in US or Brent oil prices as concerns about Asian oil demand linger. Read in detail>>

Daiwa: BOJ Faces Dilemma Between Supporting Yen and Curbing Yield Spike

Eiji Kinouchi, an analyst at Daiwa Securities, believes that the Bank of Japan may be caught in a dilemma between a weaker yen and rising bond yields. Read in detail>>

IV. Stocks to Watch

Apple's AI Models Trained On Google's Custom Chips, Not Nvidia's: Report

Apple Inc. ($Apple Inc. AAPL$) has disclosed that the artificial intelligence models powering its AI system, Apple Intelligence, were trained on custom chips developed by Alphabet Inc.‘s ($Alphabet Inc. Class A GOOGL$) ($Alphabet Inc. Class C GOOG$) Google, not on the widely used chips from NVIDIA Corp. ($NVIDIA Corporation NVDA$). Read in detail>>

Tesla Recalls Over 1.8 Million EVs in US Due to Hood Issue Blocking Driver's View

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Tuesday that Tesla's ($Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA$) software failed to detect an unlocked hood. More than 1.8 million electric vehicles will be recalled in the United States. Read in detail>>

Microsoft Q4 Preview: Analyst Says Stock Yet to Fully Price In Next Wave of Cloud and AI Growth

Among the largest companies to report quarterly earnings during the trading week is Microsoft Corp ($Microsoft Corporation MSFT$) with investors and analysts eyeing continued growth of Cloud and artificial intelligence efforts. Read in detail>>

Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Meta's Zuckerberg Discuss Open Source AI's Potential at SIGGRAPH

At the 51st SIGGRAPH Graphics Conference held in Denver, USA, Nvidia ($NVIDIA Corporation NVDA$) CEO Jensen Huang and Meta ($Meta Platforms META$) founder Mark Zuckerberg had a face-to-face public dialogue to discuss the transformative potential of open source AI and AI assistants. Read in detail>>

CrowdStrike Falls Pre-Market as Delta Airlines Blames Network Outages on Firm

CrowdStrike ($CrowdStrike Holdings CRWD$) fell in pre-market trading. On the news front, Delta Airlines is said to have hired well-known lawyer David Boies to sue CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the previous large-scale network outage. The company is seeking compensation. Read in detail>>

Buffett Trims Bank of America Stake Again, Cashes Out Over US$3B This Month

Berkshire Hathaway has been investing in Bank of America ($Bank of America Corporation BAC$) since 2011 and has long been its largest shareholder. According to documents submitted to regulators on Monday, Berkshire Hathaway sold US$767 million of Bank of America shares between July 25 and July 29. Read in detail>>

Procter & Gamble Q4 EPS Beats, Sales Miss Expectations

Procter & Gamble ($Procter & Gamble Company PG$) reported quarterly earnings of US$1.40 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of US$1.37 by 2.19%. Read in detail>>

V. Calendar

Earnings:

$Microsoft Corporation MSFT$
$Procter & Gamble Company PG$
$Merck & Co., Inc. MRK$
$Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD$
$Pfizer Inc. PFE$
$S&P Global, Inc. SPGI$
$Arista Networks, Inc. ANET$
$American Tower Corporation AMT$
$Starbucks Corporation SBUX$
$PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL$
$Phillips 66 PSX$
$Electronic Arts Inc. EA$

Expected IPO:

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Please note that the timing of IPOs is subject to change at any time (including being advanced or delayed). Investors should therefore keep up-to-date with relevant news.

Events:

Finally, just a little reminder:

The regular trading hours for US stocks in the Daylight Saving Time (DST) are from 21:30 to 04:00+1 GMT+8, with pre-market trading available from 16:00 to 21:30.

Have a nice trading day!