Nick Timiraos said June CPI gave Fed chair Kevin Walsh room entering a two-day congressional testimony, his first Hill appearance since April confirmation. Softer-than-expected inflation allows Walsh to stick to his written testimony, avoid fresh forward guidance and protect FOMC consensus without being boxed in. Timiraos notes Walsh favors responding to data rather than pre-feeding markets; he can endure lengthy questioning while using prepared language on tariffs, AI investment and whether pol

HSBC analysts said in a research note it is too early to assume the storage cycle has peaked. Agentic AI-driven productivity gains and workflow changes could extend a storage supercycle, while improving AI service margins continue to support robust cloud spending; hyperscale cloud providers are unlikely to slow compute-capacity expansion. The phased introduction of next-generation high-bandwidth memory HBM4 should sustain upward pressure on HBM prices. Given SK Hynix’s large HBM exposure, HSBC prefers the stock among Korean techs and expects SK Hynix to hold roughly 50-55% of the HBM market once HBM4 reaches mass deployment around 2027.

China A-share marine engineering equipment sector opened weaker. Juli Rigging hit the daily limit down; Hailanxin fell over 13%. Hualing Cable, CSSC Defence, Fengxing, Orient Cable and Zhongchao Holdings also declined.