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$15.1 million has been lost in a cryptocurrency scam after a man in Singapore was approached on LinkedIn by someone posing as a recruiter. The victim had unknowingly downloaded malicious software during a fake technical assessment, giving scammers access to his and his company’s accounts. https://str.sg/f7g6

https://ecoinometrics.substack.com/p/bitcoin-has-found-buyers

AQR Is Showing the Richest 1% How to Slash Their Taxes to Zero https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-aqr-tax-loss-harvesting-billionaires/

Hackers have found a software flaw in a brand of “cold” Bitcoin wallet — considered one of the safest places to store cryptocurrency — and are siphoning tens of millions of dollars in an ongoing attack https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/hackers-target-bitcoin-s-safest-hiding-place-in-ongoing-attack

A 3rd wave in what we suspect are hacks of Coldcard-generated addresses has been identified in which 207.7294 BTC has been drained. https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/2083623500183421043?

Global stocks ended the week moderately higher as Amazon.com Inc rallied after stellar corporate earnings results, boosting investor sentiments across artificial intelligence-related companies. The results echoed Samsung Electronics Co posting a 250-fold surge in chip profits earlier this week, reflecting the relentless pace of the global artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout. The 2Q 2026 corporate earnings season approaches mid-point with 305 out of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings reporting an exceptionally strong +14.3% median year-on-year earnings growth and 50 out of NASDAQ 100 companies similarly reporting an exceptionally strong +17.0% median year-on-year earnings growth. Global stocks currently trade at 16.8x forward earnings, close to the last 5-years median and average valuation.

QCP Macro Themes - 29 July 2026 Early earnings suggest AI infrastructure momentum remains intact. Celestica reported revenue of $4.70bn, up 62% YoY, and lifted its FY26 guidance to $20.5bn, while Seagate and Teradyne pointed to continued strength in storage, testing and compute demand. The focus now shifts to Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Amazon. Their results need to show that AI spending is translating into cloud growth and end-user monetisation—not simply fuelling another capex cycle. That matters as Nvidia sits at the centre of an increasingly circular ecosystem, while five-year CDS spreads across major AI hyperscalers have climbed sharply. Broader risk also remains elevated. Renewed US–Iran strikes drove Hormuz traffic back towards a standstill, with just one tanker crossing as of 27 July. Meanwhile, the SPR remains at 311.4mb—its lowest level since March 1983 and just 11.4mb above the 300mb stress zone. If AI demand remains intact, can monetisation grow quickly enough to support the capital behind it?

BBG - Nasdaq 100 futures tumbled 2% as the global selloff in chipmakers gathered pace, with traders rushing to exit positions in stocks that had fueled this year’s rally but whose valuations grew increasingly demanding. Contracts for the S&P 500 also got hit, falling 1% as a closely watched exchange-traded fund tracking semiconductor firms dropped 4.4% in premarket trading. The selloff spread throughout Asia, with Taiwanese stocks falling into a technical correction and the region’s main benchmark hitting a two-month low. In Europe, chip-linked stocks such as ASM International NV and Aixtron SE tumbled more than 4%. Another day of attacks and counterstrikes in the Middle East also weighed on sentiment. Brent crude is heading for its biggest weekly gain since April, with the benchmark trading just below $85 a barrel. Treasuries caught a bid despite the rise in oil prices, with the 10-year yield down three basis points to 4.53%. The dollar wavered, while gold rebounded from a two-month low.

More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd959q11g54o