Germany Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (YoY) registered at 2.4% above expectations (2.2%) in September

Reuters says DeepSeek is building its own AI chip to cut ties with Nvidia. NVDA slipped 2% on the news but still holds $197. The chart has flipped to a long setup. 61 analysts Buy at $301 avg target.

Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened higher and continued to rise, with the KOSPI Index and the Nikkei 225 index gaining to varying degrees. SK Hynix and Kioxia surged by approximately 8%, while Samsung Electronics and SoftBank tracked the gains.

TradingKey - Donald Trump publicly stated that he has no intention of resuming any agreement negotiations with Iran, dampening market trading sentiment. The three major US stock indexes diverged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average taking a hit, the Nasdaq Composite rising, blue-chip stocks declining, and memory chip stocks rebounding. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% to 52,348.39 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.20% to 25,870.65 points; and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.28% to 7,482.71 points.

The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its June 16-17 FOMC monetary policy meeting on July 8. The document shows that the Fed's policy has completely shifted to a neutral, wait-and-see stance, with upside risks to inflation becoming the core contradiction. This FOMC meeting sent a clear signal that the Fed has completely moved away from its previous unilateral rate-cut bias and entered a period of two-way, flexible policy observation. Higher-than-expected inflation stickiness and its broadening scope are the core reasons for this policy shift, while the resilience of employment and growth provides room for flexible policy adjustments. Officials confirmed a further rise in inflation, noting that pressures are no longer confined to exogenous factors such as energy and tariffs. Instead, price increases have spread across a wide range of categories including transportation, airfares, and oil, with service inflation excluding housing showing almost no improvement. In the short term, as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz recovers and the marginal effects of tariffs fade, inflation is expected to decline gradually.

TradingKey - A further escalation of the US-Iran conflict, coupled with mixed earnings from Samsung, weighed on market sentiment and triggered a sell-off in chip and memory stocks. The three major US stock indexes fell across the board, even as the Dow hit a historic high in early trading. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.25% to 52,925.15 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.16% to 25,818.69 points; and the S&P 500 Index lost 0.45% to 7,503.85 points.