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Goldman Sachs continues to predict that gold prices will reach $4,900 per ounce by the end of 2026, and believes there are net upside risks. Goldman Sachs pointed out that if demand from central banks remains strong and ETF investor inflows recover, gold prices could far exceed the forecast. Additionally, if expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes increase, it could lead to a sharp correction in gold prices.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction event "WTI Crude Oil September 2026 Price Prediction" on Polymarket, the "Yes" option in the sub-market "↑ $105" experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 81.5% an hour ago to the current 64.6% (a fluctuation of 16.9%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Castle Labs released a research report on September 10, comparing the execution costs of the swaps products launched by Variational with traditional perpetual contracts. The report shows that for most trading volumes, Variational is currently the lowest-cost venue among listed assets, with the cost of a $1 million trade in the US100 market being only $47.The report points out that the trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts has grown from less than $1 billion in October 2025 to over $12 billion in August 2026, currently accounting for about 12% to 13% of on-chain perpetual contract trading volume, with a peak in July reaching 20%. As of the report's release, the total open interest of RWA perpetual contracts was $4.9 billion, with TradeXYZ and Variational accounting for nearly 90%.Variational's swaps utilize RFQ execution and the proprietary liquidity provider Omni, with liquidity coming directly from traditional financial partners, and the fees being a holding cost charged once at the daily close, rather than relying on market supply and demand funding rates. Since the launch of the US100, US500, XAU, XAG, and USOIL markets at the beginning of the month, a total trading volume of $3.8 billion has been accumulated, with a peak open interest of $245 million. Currently, swaps have contributed over 50% of Variational's daily trading volume and more than $220 million in open interest.

According to official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a themed live broadcast today at 8 PM. DaDa, Zhengrong Says, Crypto Master Brother, Grace, and others will participate in the live broadcast.The live broadcast will discuss the latest U.S. employment data, CPI trends, and the Federal Reserve's policy expectations for September, as well as current market liquidity, funding sentiment, and content related to the $80,000 threshold for BTC.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, the Bitcoin fintech company Castle announced that it will open its automated Bitcoin financial stack to individual users and launch a pioneering feature in this category: users can choose to receive dividend income in cash or Bitcoin at any ratio.Castle's revenue comes from the perpetual preferred stock STRC issued by Strategy, which was incorporated into the platform earlier this year and currently pays an annualized dividend of 12% on a semi-monthly basis. Users can receive 100% of the dividends in cash, convert 100% to Bitcoin, or choose any ratio between the two. According to the company, most users opt for a compromise solution, using cash to cover daily expenses while automatically reinvesting the remaining portion into Bitcoin with each dividend payout.Castle co-founder and CTO João Almeida stated that investors have long faced a dilemma of choosing between stable income and holding Bitcoin. Castle allows users to achieve both cash flow and long-term upside by automatically converting a portion of the dividends into Bitcoin. Previously, Castle only catered to business clients such as restaurants, gyms, accounting firms, and e-commerce; the opening of personal accounts was due to repeated requests from business owners. Castle was co-founded by Almeida and CEO Stephen Cole and has received investments from Boost VC and Winklevoss Capital.

Goldman Sachs significantly raised its industry forecast in the latest global optical module report, expecting the global optical module market size to reach approximately $67.7 billion, $131.4 billion, and $148.5 billion in 2026, 2027, and 2028 respectively, an increase of 33%, 81%, and 115% compared to previous forecasts.Goldman Sachs believes that this round of upward revision is not solely due to the increase in the number of AI servers; more importantly, the architecture of AI servers is continuously migrating towards high-speed networks, coupled with the increase in the number of optical modules required for a single GPU or ASIC chip, driving rapid growth in demand for 800G, 1.6T, and even 3.2T.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the event "WTI Crude Oil August 2026 Price Prediction" on the prediction market Polymarket, the "Yes" option in the sub-market "Below $80" has experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 64.5% an hour ago to the current 83.5% (a fluctuation of 19%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Goldman Sachs' research report on August 23 pointed out that the forecast for wafer front-end equipment (WFE) for 2026 to 2028 has been raised to $150 billion, $218 billion, and $281 billion, which is an increase of 6%, 17%, and 35% respectively compared to previous forecasts. The adjusted year-on-year growth rates for the next three years are 36%, 45%, and 29%, while the previous expectations were 28%, 32%, and 12%.Goldman Sachs believes that DRAM and advanced process foundry are the main short-term drivers. In the DRAM sector, capital expenditure forecasts for Samsung and SK Hynix have been raised by 22% and 19% respectively, with HBM4 mass production driving demand for etching, deposition, and other equipment; in the foundry sector, TSMC's annual capital expenditure has been revised up by $8 billion, and the N2 process is entering the mass production ramp-up phase. NAND and logic/others (including Terafab) will take over in the medium term, and the approximately $16.8 billion initial phase equipment investment promised by SpaceX and Tesla has been included in the WFE forecast.Goldman Sachs is bullish on global semiconductor equipment stocks, with a focus on recommending Applied Materials, Lam Research, ASML, Tokyo Electron, ASMI, BESI, Lasertec, and Ebara.

CITIC Securities International published a report indicating that Pop Mart (09992.HK) reported earnings in the first half of the year that were 15---20% below market expectations, mainly due to a 10% decline in sales in the Americas. An unfavorable product mix eroded gross margins, exacerbating margin pressure. The firm has lowered its average earnings expectations for Pop Mart for 2026---2028 by 25%; the target price is set at HKD 121, based on a projected price-to-earnings ratio of 14 times for 2027; it recommends "Sell."The firm also lowered its average sales forecasts for Pop Mart for 2026---2028 by 17%, reflecting further downward adjustments in overseas sales expectations following disappointing performance in the first half of 2026, and has reduced the gross margin expectations for 2026/2027 by 0.2 percentage points/1 percentage point, respectively, to reflect the structural decline in the proportion of overseas business and the pressure from raw material costs.

Castle Securities stated that the Federal Reserve remains unwilling to tighten monetary policy despite inflation rates being above target levels, leading to long-term bond yields being at multi-year highs, posing risks to the market. Noshad Shah pointed out that although the policy rate is 175 basis points lower than its peak, long-term U.S. Treasury yields are still at their highest levels in nearly 20 years. Shah warned that recent improvements in inflation should not be interpreted as a removal of interest rate risks.

According to Harmony monitoring, Harmony stated that it is advancing the rollback plan and has reached an agreement with validators and exchanges on the specific path. The minting vulnerability fix has been activated, and a complete list of attacker wallets will be announced soon.Previously, the number of ONE tokens abnormally minted on the Harmony network had exceeded 30 trillion, involving 6 abnormal blocks.

Design software company Canva has lowered its annual revenue growth forecast by one-third to 20% due to AI feature delivery costs far exceeding expectations. CEO Melanie Perkins stated that user demand for AI features "significantly exceeded expectations," but the company has decided to postpone the large-scale launch of related products until it optimizes its architecture, reduces unit costs, and improves its business model. Since the release of Canva AI 2.0 in April, the cost per task has decreased by nearly 90%, but the volume of designs generated by AI users is three times that of previous versions, and economic pressures remain.This case reflects a common dilemma in the software industry: the cost of AI inference is breaking the traditional software "zero marginal cost" profit logic. Pitchbook analysts pointed out that Canva and Figma are the "most obvious signals" of this trend. Figma's free cash flow profit margin in the second quarter has dropped from 27% in the first quarter to 14%, and revenue growth in the third quarter is expected to slow from 48% to 36%. Canva previously sold employee shares at a valuation of $42 billion, and the market had anticipated its IPO in 2026, but analysts now believe the IPO may be delayed until next year.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has lowered its global oil demand forecast for this year, primarily due to ongoing export disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and high fuel prices. The IEA expects global oil demand to decline by 1.56 million barrels per day by 2026, reaching 103.29 million barrels per day. It is anticipated that global oil demand will decrease by 4.9 million barrels per day year-on-year in the second quarter, with a recovery in the fourth quarter, increasing by approximately 580,000 barrels per day.

This week will see several important events and data. On Monday, the Bank of Japan will release the summary of opinions from the July monetary policy meeting. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia will decide on interest rates and hold a press conference. On Wednesday, the United States will release the July CPI data and EIA crude oil inventory. On Thursday, the UK and Eurozone will publish various economic data, and JD.com and Tencent will release their financial reports. On Friday, France and the Eurozone will release CPI and GDP data, and a new round of pricing adjustments for domestic refined oil will begin.

According to Gate market data, Microchip Technology rose 9% in pre-market trading as the company forecasted that both revenue and profit for the second quarter would exceed expectations.

The U.S. unemployment rate and non-farm data for July will be released at 20:30 Beijing time tonight. Institutions forecast the U.S. July non-farm employment population as follows:Vanguard: +10,000; Berenberg Bank: +40,000; Scotiabank: +50,000; Moody's Analytics: +50,000;CIBC: +63,000; Deutsche Bank: +65,000; Nordea Bank: +65,000; UBS Group: +70,000;TD Securities: +70,000; Danske Bank: +70,000; Morgan Stanley: +70,000; HSBC Holdings: +70,000;Société Générale: +75,000; ING: +75,000; Bank of Montreal: +75,000; Goldman Sachs Group: +75,000;JPMorgan Chase: +75,000; Daiwa Capital: +75,000; Westpac Banking: +75,000; Standard Chartered Bank: +75,000;Panasonic Macro: +75,000; U.S. Bank: +75,000; Imperial Commercial Bank: +75,000; High-Frequency Economics: +78,000;Sumitomo Mitsui: +78,000; Oxford Economics: +80,000; Commonwealth Bank of Australia: +80,000; Bank of America Merrill Lynch: +80,000;ANZ Bank: +80,000; Lloyds Bank: +80,000; National Westminster: +85,000; Capital Economics: +90,000;Wells Fargo: +95,000; Barclays Bank: +100,000; Deutsche Bank: +100,000; Société Générale: +105,000;Citigroup: +115,000; Mizuho Securities: +115,000; Nomura Securities: +130,000; Reuters expectation: +80,000.

DraftKings announced its Q2 2026 financial report, with revenue of $1.443 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5%, mainly affected by customer-friendly sports outcomes and increased customer acquisition promotional spending; net loss of $67.61 million, compared to a net profit of $158 million in the same period last year; adjusted EBITDA was $115 million, down from $301 million in the same period last year. The sports consumer transaction volume reached $13.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15%, with monthly active paying users (MUP) of approximately 3.6 million, a year-on-year increase of 9%, and average revenue per monthly active paying user (ARPMUP) decreased by 13% to $132.CEO Jason Robins stated that the market business has exceeded expectations since its launch in December last year, with relevant customer metrics performing similarly to sports betting, showing strong user acquisition and retention, and the super app has been launched nationwide. The company maintains its guidance for full-year revenue of $6.5 to $6.9 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $700 to $900 million. DraftKings currently offers mobile sports betting services in 27 states and Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, covering approximately 53% of the U.S. population, with iGaming available in 5 states. The Canadian market has covered Alberta and Ontario, accounting for about 51% of the Canadian population.

According to Bloomberg, informed sources revealed that a recent wave of complex cyberattacks targeted several large asset management firms on Wall Street, with attackers attempting to infiltrate the information systems of the relevant companies. Several large hedge funds globally became targets of the attacks, including Two Sigma Investments, Citadel, and Point72 Asset Management. In addition, several private equity firms were also attacked.It is currently unclear who the attackers are, the methods used in the attacks, and whether any sensitive data has been compromised. Informed sources requested anonymity due to the involvement of undisclosed information. This incident has once again raised market concerns about the cybersecurity risks faced by financial institutions. As asset management companies increasingly rely on complex information systems, algorithmic trading, and cloud infrastructure, the financial industry is becoming a primary target for cyber attackers.