On Sunday morning, the crypto community finally exhaled. Not loudly, not joyfully—the kind of exhale that comes after narrowly surviving a disaster. Bitcoin climbed back above $61,000, gaining 1.7% in just a few hours. On a normal day, that wouldn’t even make headlines. But this was no normal week. It was the most brutal week since the collapse of FTX and the imprisonment of Sam Bankman-Fried.

Let’s start with the numbers to grasp the scale of the damage. Bitcoin lost more than 17% over the week. Ethereum fell around 20%. The entire crypto market shed roughly $390 billion in market capitalization. Three hundred ninety billion dollars—more than the GDP of New Zealand or Portugal—vanished in just five days.

Friday was the real horror show. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $60,000. This wasn’t just another price level; it was a psychological wall. When Bitcoin broke above it, everyone was shouting, “To the moon! $100,000 next!” When it fell below, panic took over. If $60,000 couldn’t hold, where was the bottom? $50,000? $45,000? Nobody knew. Nobody wanted to find out. Everyone simply sold.

And now, on Sunday, traders stare at the chart in disbelief. Bitcoin is back around $61,800. It should be a reason to celebrate. Yet the optimism feels nervous, cautious. What if another crash comes tomorrow? What if this is just a dead-cat bounce?

Do you know what triggered the panic for many investors? Not macroeconomic news, not Federal Reserve comments, not even the stock market decline. It was news from a company called Strategy.

Formerly known as MicroStrategy, the company rebranded after Bitcoin effectively became its sole reason for existence.

Strategy spent decades building business intelligence software. Then founder Michael Saylor discovered Bitcoin and became obsessed....

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lands in a country, local technology companies line up to meet him. Not because he's handing out gifts, but because in today's AI world, almost no major decision gets made without Nvidia. Huang arrived in South Korea on Friday, and by Monday, announcements of new partnerships were pouring in one after another.

These are not the typical memorandum-of-understanding photo opportunities that often accompany executive visits. These are real technology partnerships, multi-year agreements, and strategic alliances that could reshape the global AI infrastructure landscape.

Nvidia needs Korea because the country produces some of the world's most advanced memory chips. Korea needs Nvidia because without its AI accelerators, even the most sophisticated data center is just an expensive room full of servers.

The main players in this Korean tour are SK Group, Naver, Doosan, and, as it became clear later, LG. Each company received its own dose of Nvidia's influence. And each is now building its AI strategy around technologies from the American giant.

Let's start with the most obvious—and arguably the most important—announcement.

SK Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer after Samsung. More importantly, it has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom thanks to its leadership in HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), the advanced memory technology essential for AI workloads.

HBM is not the kind of memory found in your laptop. It enables data transfers measured in terabytes per second between processors and memory, making it indispensable for training and running modern AI models.

Now SK Hynix and Nvidia have entered into a multi-year technology partnership. This is more than a supply agreement—it involves joint development of future generations of memory and AI accelerators.

In...

Currency & Commodity Analysis:

US Dollar Index

Last week, the US dollar index showed significant strength, driven by strong May non-farm payroll data, breaking through the Bollinger Band's upper limit (99.99). This morning, it remained above 100, putting downward pressure on major non-US currencies. USD/JPY approached the 160 level, while the euro and pound fell after the data release. Adjustments in market expectations regarding Fed policy were the core driving factor. The market believes that the resilience of the labor market exceeded the revised data, suggesting that the employment diffusion index has rebounded above 50. The Fed's decision-making focus remains on inflation control, and improved employment reduces the urgency for its actions on the employment front. Some opinions point out that although the current threshold for interest rate hikes is high, the possibility of policy adjustments this year still exists, providing fundamental support for the dollar. Strong US economic data combined with external uncertainties have consolidated the dollar's temporary strength. Technically, many currency pairs are approaching the extreme Bollinger Band area, indicating short-term directional pressure, but the overall trend is still dominated by fundamentals. Investors should pay attention to the guiding role of subsequent inflation data and policy signals on exchange rates.

Overall, the short-term foreign exchange market is influenced by both strong US employment data and geopolitical factors, with the US dollar index showing a clear advantage, while major non-US currency pairs are undergoing divergent adjustments. The US dollar index is rising strongly, currently at 100.09, having broken through the Bollinger Bands at 99.99 and above the psychological level of 100.00. After a significant rebound from the year's low of 95.56, it has maintained a high level of fluctuation and is now showing bullish dominance again. The MACD indicator is expanding positively, with the DIFF higher...

Monday, 8 June 2026  ·  New York Open  

★  May NFP +172K (vs 85K)  ·  10Y at 2-Wk High 4.57%  ·  Dec Fed Hike ~70%  ·  Marvell S&P 500 Inclusion  ·  BTC Clears $63K  ★

S&P 500 7,436  ·  USD/CAD 1.3941  ·  USD/CHF 0.7960  ·  Gold $4,331.73  ·  Nat Gas $3.13  ·  SanDisk $1,615.97  ·  BTC $63,778  ·  DOGE $0.085  ·  10Y 4.57%

Wall Street opens the new week attempting to stabilise after one of the most violent stretches of 2026: Friday's session saw the Nasdaq plunge 4.18% — its worst day since the April 2025 tariff turmoil — as a Broadcom-led semiconductor rout wiped roughly a trillion dollars from equity markets, while a far-stronger-than-expected May jobs report sent Treasury yields surging and flipped the Fed conversation from cuts toward a possible December hike. Monday's tape is a tentative bounce: chip names are clawing back losses, the S&P 500 is up roughly 0.71% near 7,436, and Marvell's surprise S&P 500 inclusion is providing a sentiment spark — but the 10-year yield grinding to a two-week high of 4.57% and a fresh escalation between Israel and Iran over the weekend keep the rebound on a knife's edge.

The May employment report is the dominant macro driver of the entire week. Non-farm payrolls rose 172,000 versus a consensus near 85,000, with March and April figures revised higher, the unemployment rate steady at 4.3%, and average hourly earnings up 0.3%. Economists flagged the upcoming FIFA World Cup — which kicks off in the US on June 11 — as one likely source of the outsized hiring surprise. The print reinforced the view that the labour market remains resilient at a moment when inflation is still running above the Fed's target, pushing market-implied...

Monday, 8 June 2026  ·  London / Frankfurt Open

★  ECB June 11 Hike 99% Priced  ·  Brent +5.8% Iran-Israel Strikes  ·  EUR/USD 6-Week Low 1.1509  ·  Phoenix Group -11.93%  ★

EUR/USD 1.1509  ·  GBP/USD 1.3312  ·  Brent $98.86  ·  Lead $1,995.50/t  ·  FTSE 100 10,332.2  ·  GLEN 587.9p  ·  ETH $1,660.02  ·  EU 10Y 3.04%

Monday's European session has opened under the shadow of three compounding forces: a near-certain ECB rate hike in 72 hours that markets have fully absorbed but whose aftermath remains deeply uncertain; a renewed flare-up in Middle East hostilities that has sent Brent crude surging above $96 a barrel; and the cascading aftershock of Friday's US semiconductor rout landing squarely on London's commodity-heavy blue-chip index. The result is a European market in acute bifurcation — energy stocks surging, miners retreating, and EUR/USD pinned at a six-week low as a rate-hiking ECB paradoxically cannot strengthen its own currency against a dollar hardened by blowout US payrolls.

The macro centrepiece of this week is Wednesday's ECB decision, where market pricing has reached 99% probability for a 25 basis-point hike to 2.25%. That is not the question anymore. The question is what ECB President Christine Lagarde signals about the path beyond Wednesday — whether this is a singular insurance hike or the opening move in a sustained tightening cycle. With Eurozone CPI at 3.2% in May, its highest in over two-and-a-half years, and services inflation accelerating, the hawks led by Isabel Schnabel have ammunition. But the macro context is treacherous: Eurozone Q1 GDP has been revised to a contraction — the first since late 2022 and the steepest since mid-2020 — leaving the ECB in a classic stagflationary bind. Inflation is too high to pause, growth is too weak to hike aggressively.

...

Monday, 8 June 2026  ·  Tokyo / Sydney Open  

★  SOX -10.26% Friday  ·  USD/JPY 160.34 — BoJ Intervention Zone  ·  Japan Q1 GDP +0.5% Beat  ·  Kioxia -11%  ★

AUD/JPY 113.09  ·  USD/JPY 160.34  ·  Copper $6.30/lb  ·  Nat Gas $3.166  ·  ASX 200 8,522.2  ·  XRP $1.11  ·  Cardano $0.16

Nikkei 225 at 63,791 (▼ -4.20%). ASX 200 at 8,522.2 (▼ -0.49%). USD/JPY at 160.34 (▲ +0.06%). AUD/JPY at 113.09 (▼ -0.34%). Copper HG at $6.30/lb (▼ -0.31%). Natural Gas at $3.166/MMBtu (▼ -1.24%). XRP at $1.11 (▲ +2.63%). Cardano ADA at $0.16 (▼ -2.44%). Gold XAU/USD at $4,312.20 (▼ -1.11%). WTI Crude at $93.70 (▲ +3.40%). Bitcoin at $62,874 (▲ +2.28%).

Monday's Asian session has opened under a three-way stress test of historic proportions: the worst Philadelphia Semiconductor Index collapse since March 2020, a yen in its third consecutive session grazing the BoJ's intervention danger zone at 160 per dollar, and stronger-than-expected Japanese GDP data that paradoxically makes Tokyo's equity market more — not less — vulnerable by raising the probability of a BoJ rate hike this month. The result is a Nikkei 225 down nearly 4%, Kioxia Holdings cratering 11%, and a cross-asset risk-off wave reverberating into AUD/JPY, the ASX 200, copper, and crypto simultaneously.

Japan's Q1 2026 GDP expanded at 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, beating the 0.3% consensus — and rising 1.8% year-on-year, surpassing the 1.3% forecast. Growth was driven by firming private consumption gaining 0.3% QoQ and robust external demand. In any other context, this would be unambiguously constructive for Japanese equities. In June 2026, however, it is being read as the final ingredient needed for the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates at its upcoming late-June meeting...

The artificial intelligence industry is in the middle of a full-blown gold rush. Yet even against this backdrop, the latest news from China is making traders and venture capitalists around the world raise their eyebrows. Moonshot AI—a company that, until recently, was barely known outside Beijing and Shenzhen—is reportedly in talks to raise up to $2 billion in a new funding round. What makes this remarkable is that the startup has already secured funding in two previous rounds... within the last six months.

Just think about the numbers. Moonshot AI wants investors to value the company at $30 billion. Thirty billion dollars. That’s more than the market capitalization of many public companies that have been operating profitably for decades. Moonshot, meanwhile, is still a startup. It has a chatbot called Kimi, a team of talented engineers, and plenty of ambition. But a $30 billion valuation is a serious statement.

And that’s only part of the story. According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, Moonshot is already close to completing another funding round led by Meituan, China’s delivery and services giant. That round is expected to value the company at around $20 billion after the deal closes. The subsequent round now under discussion would push the valuation even higher—to $30 billion.

In other words, Moonshot’s valuation could increase sevenfold in just a matter of months compared to last December, when the startup was valued at slightly over $4 billion. A sevenfold increase in half a year would have looked extreme even during the dot-com bubble. Yet in today’s AI market, almost nothing seems impossible.

Behind all this money stands a product. Moonshot AI’s flagship offering is a chatbot...

If you opened your brokerage app on Monday morning and couldn’t believe your eyes, you weren’t alone. Asian stock markets experienced a genuine bloodbath. And no, this wasn’t just another minor correction that investors could shrug off and move on from. This looked much more like a full-scale selloff, fueled by a toxic mix of an overheated artificial intelligence sector, military strikes in the Middle East, nervous investors finally taking profits, and fresh U.S. economic data that crushed hopes for imminent rate cuts.

South Korea’s KOSPI became the undisputed antihero of the day. The index collapsed by nearly 9%. An 8.8% decline isn’t just a drop—it’s a meltdown. To put it into perspective, KOSPI erased virtually all the gains accumulated during the previous six months of explosive growth in a single trading session. The reason? The Korean market’s biggest stars—semiconductor manufacturers—suddenly lost their untouchable status.

Samsung Electronics—a name spoken with reverence in South Korea—saw its shares tumble 4.7%. For a company of Samsung’s size and stature, that’s a devastating move. Given its enormous weighting in the index, when Samsung falls, the entire market feels the impact.

Yet Samsung wasn’t even the biggest story. SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip manufacturer, lost “only” 1.1%. And the reason it held up better was simple: on Friday, the company made a brilliant strategic move by announcing a partnership with NVIDIA—the undisputed leader of the AI revolution. SK Hynix will supply advanced memory chips to NVIDIA, and that announcement became a lifeline amid a sea of red.

Still, why were losses so severe? Just weeks ago, investors were celebrating Korean chipmakers. Analysts were raising price targets, investors were buying shares aggressively, and KOSPI was outperforming nearly every major stock market in the...

Just a couple of weeks ago, it seemed that gold was on the verge of breaking through its all-time highs and shooting to the moon. Investors were snapping up bullion like crazy, jewelry stores in Dubai and Singapore couldn't restock their displays fast enough, and millionaire YouTubers were passionately proclaiming that "the dollar is about to collapse, and the only safe haven left is gold."

And what happened in the end?

On Monday morning, gold fell to its lowest level in the past eleven weeks.

The spot price—the price at which the metal can be bought right now for immediate delivery—dropped to $4,312 per ounce, down 0.4% during a few hours of Asian trading. And that's after Friday's selloff, when gold lost more than 3% in a single day. This is no longer just a correction—it is beginning to look like a full-scale retreat.

U.S. gold futures—the contracts traded by professional speculators and hedge funds—fell to $4,337 per ounce, down another 0.7%. Doesn't sound catastrophic? Perhaps. But when you look at the monthly chart, it becomes unsettling. As recently as mid-May, gold was trading around $4,600, and everyone was predicting a rapid move to $5,000. Now it's at $4,312. And according to whispers among traders, this may only be the beginning.

So what happened?

Why are investors who were practically kissing gold bars yesterday suddenly turning their backs on them today?

The answer is simple and painfully predictable: the U.S. economy once again proved the pessimists wrong.

On Friday, the May labor market report was released. Economists, as usual, built forecasts, ran spreadsheets, and drew elegant charts. Most expected the economy to create around 120,000–130,000 new jobs....

The calm that lasted only a few weeks vanished in an instant. Late Sunday night, as most residents of Tel Aviv were preparing for bed, fiery trails of Iranian missiles lit up the skies over northern Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system sprang into action immediately—interceptions, explosions in the sky, sirens, and panic followed. Reports suggest that most of the projectiles were intercepted, but the significance of the attack far outweighed its direct military impact.

Why now? Why would Iran take such a risk? Tehran did not mince words. Iranian officials stated openly that the strike was retaliation for Israeli attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Those operations were reportedly aimed at Iranian assets and proxy forces in Lebanon. One of the strikes hit an area near the Lebanese capital, where, according to Iranian authorities, advisers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were among those killed.

Israel responded in its usual uncompromising manner, warning that the attack would not go unanswered. The message from Israeli military officials was essentially: “If we are attacked, we respond ten times harder.” Once again, the region appears to be standing on the edge of a broader conflict.

Perhaps most alarming is that the ceasefire reached in April—painstakingly negotiated by diplomats and viewed by many as a lifeline—now looks little more than a piece of paper. This is the most serious incident since the truce was signed. Hopes for diplomacy have dissipated faster than the smoke from the intercepted missiles.

As Asian markets opened on Monday morning, traders wasted no time reacting.

Brent crude futures, the global benchmark for oil prices, jumped 2.6% to $95.49 per barrel. U.S. benchmark WTI crude rose 2.4%...