stm

Morgan Stanley's Chief Equity Strategist Mike Wilson stated that despite the cooling enthusiasm for artificial intelligence trading and recent pressure on U.S. stocks, he maintains his forecast for the S&P 500 index to close at 8000 points by the end of the year. Morgan Stanley has set a tactical downside target for the S&P 500 at 7100 to 7200 points, slightly below the 200-day moving average, while the basic year-end target remains at 8000 points. Wilson noted that several upcoming clearing events, including the midterm elections, should mark the end of the current stock market adjustment.Wilson is relatively cautious about the semiconductor sector, believing that support levels may be significantly lower than current levels, but selling pressure may ease next month. The strategy team stated that as the market questions the timing and scale of revenue realization related to artificial intelligence, the semiconductor and other capital expenditure beneficiary sectors have become the epicenter of financing concerns; there are new doubts about the cost of capital for some participants and whether the credit market can provide sufficient funds to support related expenditures, as governments and non-AI-related capital expenditures are also competing for funds. The team indicated that given the possibility of more financing plans in the future, it is normal for the market to focus on the supply side, but this concern will persist until financing is completed.The five-year credit default swaps of the highly leveraged new cloud service provider CoreWeave closed above 1100 basis points last week, implying a default probability of about 50% on its debt within five years. Wilson's team believes that the adjustment in the semiconductor sector has entered its final stage, expecting this round of adjustment to end by mid-November; however, based on technical analysis and comparisons with the once-hot silver market, the sector may decline another 10% to 15% from current levels, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index potentially dipping to around 9500 points. Last week, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell a cumulative 0.7%, with a total decline of over 5% in the past two weeks; on Monday, Anthropic's public IPO prospectus boosted the AI sector, leading chip stocks to rise, and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 0.82%, closing at 26169.38 points.

Bitget has launched perpetual contracts for 3 stocks: EIDO (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF), STM (STMicroelectronics), and EQT (EQT Corporation). The aforementioned contracts are settled in USDT, supporting up to 20 times leverage and 24/7 trading. As of now, Bitget supports a total of 382 stock perpetual contract underlying assets.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X that ETF analyst Nate Geraci stated that two Bitcoin dividend reinvestment ETFs, FBEQ and FIBT, under Franklin Templeton are expected to launch soon. The effective registration date listed in the SEC filing is October 27, which may not necessarily be the date trading begins.Both funds target approximately 95% exposure to U.S. equities and 5% exposure to Bitcoin, automatically reinvesting U.S. stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure rather than distributing them to investors. FBEQ tracks a U.S. large-cap stock index covering about 500 companies, with an annual management fee of 0.09%; FIBT tracks an innovation-themed index composed of 100 U.S. companies, with an annual management fee of 0.19%.

According to official news, IOSG Ventures announced an investment in Fun, betting on a global funding infrastructure aimed at the internet market. Fun provides fiat trading, payment routing, and cross-chain fund settlement services for prediction markets, on-chain perpetual contract platforms, and DeFi applications, helping users transfer funds between different fiat currencies, digital assets, and blockchain networks.According to IOSG, all fiat trading for Polymarket is processed through Fun, and platforms like Lighter and Aave are also using its services. Fun currently processes an annualized funding volume of $100 billion, covering over 150 countries and regions and more than 50 payment methods.IOSG believes that as prediction markets, on-chain trading platforms, and tokenized asset applications expand, the smooth entry and exit of funds will directly affect user conversion rates and platform growth. Fun aims to reduce the complexity of platforms integrating fiat channels, wallets, stablecoins, and multiple blockchains through a unified funding access layer. The company was founded by Alex Fine in 2022.

According to official news from Bitget, the platform announced a collaboration with the structured product liquidity service provider VETA Finance to upgrade its stock dual-currency investment products. This upgrade expands the product pool on top of existing popular targets such as NVIDIA (rNVDA), Google (rGOOGL), and AMD (rAMD), enriching the investment duration options; relying on deeper liquidity support, it offers more competitive annualized returns while optimizing product structure and settlement mechanisms, bringing users a better trading experience and more diverse income opportunities.Currently, Bitget's stock dual-currency investment supports two strategies: "buy low" and "sell high." Users can use USDT or eligible U.S. stock tokens for subscription, and based on preset target prices and investment durations, complete corresponding asset conversions according to the settlement price at maturity and receive corresponding interest income.In addition, Bitget also plans to launch structured products such as accumulation purchase and accumulation sale options (AQ) with VETA Finance based on the rToken ecosystem, expanding the product layout from standardized wealth management to customized solutions, further enriching multi-asset wealth management options under the panoramic exchange (UEX) ecosystem.

According to Bitcoin.com, Yuridia Trujillo, a tax preparer from Meriden, Connecticut, is accused of fabricating stock and cryptocurrency trading losses in tax returns prepared for clients through her company, Yuri's LLC, for the tax years 2017 to 2024, for assets that the clients never actually held. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stated that she is also suspected of using Form 8888 to divert part of the clients' tax refunds into bank accounts belonging to herself and an associated individual.A federal grand jury indicted her on October 7, and she was arrested on October 9. She is currently out on bail of $50,000 and faces 19 counts of aiding in the preparation of false income tax returns, with each conviction carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison. The case remains an accusation, and she is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Previously, Texas Bitcoin investor Frank Richard Ahlgren III was sentenced to two years in prison in December 2024 for inflating the cost of Bitcoin purchases and was ordered to pay approximately $1.095 million in restitution.

According to U.S. SEC filings, Franklin Templeton has registered two index ETFs that reinvest stock dividends into Bitcoin for listing on Nasdaq, namely the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FBEQ) and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FIBT).

Dongfang Gangwan Fund Chairman Dan Bin is making a "major adjustment" in the technology sector. According to statistics from Private Equity Ranking Network, as of the end of the third quarter of 2026, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund held a total of 13 U.S. stock targets, with a total market value of approximately $1.469 billion.From the perspective of industry distribution, AI remains a key focus for Dongfang Gangwan. As of the end of the third quarter, Google was the largest holding in Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund. However, in terms of buying and selling actions, Dan Bin's preference for sub-sectors within the AI industry has changed significantly compared to the second quarter.According to statistics, in the third quarter of this year, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund reduced its holdings in targets such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom, and Lumentum, which were newly purchased in the second quarter, while increasing its positions in storage giant Micron Technology, SanDisk, as well as Nvidia, Google-C, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Cryptocurrency analyst Darkfost stated that this round of deleveraging is driven by factors such as price declines, chain liquidations, and traders actively closing positions to reduce risk. Looking back at July this year, Ethereum also experienced a more severe contraction in open contracts, followed by stabilization and a rebound, with an increase of over 32%, and the price once breaking through 2800 USD. Deleveraging is part of the market adjustment process, and such phases are often accompanied by panic sentiment, which may also occur at the tail end of an adjustment.The overall performance of the altcoin market has been weak over the past three weeks, with Ethereum's price correcting by about 15%, and its market capitalization shrinking by approximately 54 billion USD. In the derivatives market, Binance's ETH open contract volume decreased by 1.3 billion USD in the past month, a decline of nearly 20%, dropping to 5.7 billion USD; the total amount of ETH open contracts across the network has fallen to 11.5 billion USD.

AI pharmaceutical company Pathos AI has completed a $237 million Series E financing round, with a post-money valuation of approximately $3 billion. This round was led by Bristol Myers Squibb, with participation from existing investors.Pathos AI plans to use the new funds to expand its Foundry platform, which assists drug development through thousands of AI agents, while advancing its four cancer treatment drugs that are in clinical stages.

AI prediction market infrastructure project InsightX announced the completion of a strategic round of financing, with investors including Aurumx Capital and Becker Ventures. The project previously secured Series A financing with participation from Infinite Alliance, UZ Capital, and Gemhead, bringing the total financing scale to 7.4 million USD.InsightX positions itself as the AI infrastructure layer for the intelligent economy, dedicated to transforming data, information, and collective consensus into programmable on-chain value. The first benchmark product is an AI-native prediction market, which now supports Mantle and Morph networks. As of October 20, the platform has over 40,000 registered users, with more than 540,000 on-chain interactions, and the cumulative platform trading volume has surpassed 1.157 billion USD.This round of strategic investors will introduce institutional market-making resources and industry networks to InsightX, helping to iterate the order depth engine, improve cross-market liquidity mechanisms, and promote the implementation of underlying infrastructure for the intelligent economy.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released proposed rules for the implementation of the COINS Act, planning to further expand restrictions on foreign investments in sensitive technology sectors concerning certain "countries of concern." The current system primarily covers entities related to China, and the proposed rules aim to tighten restrictions in areas such as AI and semiconductors, extending the regulatory framework to more sensitive technologies and countries.In the field of AI, some investments that can still be made under the current rules after declaration are proposed to be further prohibited; in the semiconductor sector, high-bandwidth memory, photonic chips, and radiation-resistant chips are also included in the scope of stricter restrictions. Meanwhile, biotechnology has been added as a key regulatory area, involving directions such as brain-computer interfaces and automated laboratory software.

The hedge fund Bridgewater's China business department informed investors that the institution's bullish stance on gold has decreased and that it holds a cautiously optimistic view on the domestic Chinese stock market. The Shanghai-based hedge fund stated in a letter to investors in September that it has gradually reduced its previously overweight position in gold.Bridgewater China noted that rising interest rates have increased the opportunity cost of holding gold, while rising oil prices have suppressed demand from energy-importing countries like India. The institution also expressed optimism about Chinese assets, believing that the current stock market valuation is not high, the policy direction is favorable for long-term capital formation, and that there may be more funds flowing into the stock market in the future against a backdrop of lower bond yields.

AI video startup Higgsfield Inc. announced that it has received investments from NVIDIA and TCV. This round of financing will be used to support global infrastructure development and talent recruitment. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with its engineering team primarily located in Kazakhstan.This financing is a follow-up extension to the Series B funding in August, during which it raised $400 million, bringing the company's valuation to $5.4 billion.

FORT Robotics, Inc., dedicated to developing a "Physical Artificial Intelligence Trust Layer" security platform, announced that existing investors have committed to an additional investment of approximately 20 million dollars. Among them, Tiger Global led a financing round of about 10 million dollars (Mark Cuban Companies also participated), and this round of financing is expected to be completed this week.In addition, Tiger Global has also committed to invest 10 million dollars in the previously announced common stock PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity); this PIPE is expected to be completed concurrently with the proposed business combination of FORT and Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: NTWO). Including the previously announced PIPE commitments, as of today, the total committed capital related to the proposed business combination with FORT has exceeded 50 million dollars.

According to Jinshi, SK Group's newly established data center business unit SK Hyper is in talks with large technology companies and financial investors for financing, planning to raise funds for a data center construction project expected to cost $350 billion. SK Hyper has begun discussions with potential partners, aiming to build data centers in South Korea with a total capacity of 15 gigawatts by 2035.SK Hyper CEO Chung Suk-geun stated that the first phase of the 5-gigawatt construction alone requires $350 billion, which includes equipment costs. The company plans to complete its first round of external financing by the end of this year or early 2027, and will continue to raise funds over the next three to four years while sharing the overall construction costs with data center tenants and external investors.

On October 23, a16z General Partner Chris Dixon announced that a16z crypto would be renamed a16z Frontier. The investment scope has expanded from crypto startups to a broader category of frontier technology startups, which are companies that create new technologies, open new markets, and may take years to mature. Dixon emphasized that this adjustment is an expansion of scope rather than a shift in direction, and the team will continue to invest in crypto and related businesses while advocating for reasonable crypto regulation.Dixon stated that as blockchain becomes more widely adopted, Wall Street and fintech companies have normalized the launch of on-chain products, and the importance of the "crypto company" label has diminished; companies should be defined by their business rather than the technology they use. His explanation also pointed to the AI wave, which not only focuses on using AI to perform existing tasks faster and better but also emphasizes the emergence of new native use cases, full-stack entrepreneurship that integrates software and hardware with services, and new networks that connect people with intelligent agents.Dixon believes that blockchain will continue to play an important role, providing the internet with a fast, cheap, global, and programmable funding track. Stablecoins are becoming standard tools for fintech and institutions, and they can also support machine-to-machine transactions and the cold start of new networks. The fund will be co-led by Dixon along with a16z founders Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and General Partners Eddy Lazzarin and Guy Wuollet, while the operating team will continue to serve existing and future portfolio companies in areas such as regulation, market entry, talent, marketing, and technology development.

On October 22, a16z announced the removal of "Crypto" from the name of its flagship blockchain fund, renaming it to a16z Frontier, and long-time general partner Ali Yahya is stepping down. The announcement stated that this move does not signify a withdrawal from investing in the cryptocurrency space, but rather aims to further broaden the investment scope.The fund has previously raised nearly $10 billion, including $4.5 billion in 2022 and $2.2 billion for Fund 5 this year, making it one of the largest institutional players in the industry. When raising Fund 5 this year, a16z stated that the industry is shifting from a price cycle to a usage cycle, focusing on the infrastructure of stablecoins, on-chain finance, prediction markets, and asset tokenization, rather than merely chasing market trends.Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, will remain in his position. Investments related to crypto assets and blockchain remain one of the core directions, but the overall label and strategic focus have been adjusted to cover a broader range of frontier technology fields.