Odaily reported that U.S. stock analyst Paradis said in a post on X that Leopold Aschenbrenner, known by some market watchers as an "AI stock guru," and his fund Situational Awareness may be active again. According to Paradis, a mysterious pool of capital has been aggressively buying concentrated, customized FLEX call options tied to several AI-related names since last Friday. The reported positions carry a combined premium of $315 million, with delta exposure of $1.1 billion and vega of $5.8 million. Paradis listed seven trades: SNDK, BE, INTC, CRWV, DRAM, SKHY, and AMD, all in January-dated call structures with different strike combinations and sizable premium outlays. He added that if similar block FLEX call purchases later appear in MU, NBIS, and TSM, that would strongly support the view that Leopold and his fund are behind the activity. Paradis said the data came from CBOE, while trading desks at Nomura and Goldman Sachs currently share the view that the flow points to the same mystery buyer.

Sage Road Research said in the executive summary of its report The AI Trade that the Mag 7 has underperformed the Russell 3000 by about 8 percentage points this year and lagged the MSCI ACWI by nearly 9 percentage points. The summary also said the CBOE NDX volatility index relative to the VIX reached its highest level since the dot-com bubble in July, while the Nasdaq posted a 5% rebound over four days after entering a correction. As of the time of writing, AI company shares were down 20% from their 52-week highs in June. The report pointed to rising AI costs, weak returns on investment, restrictions on employee AI use at companies including Uber, Amazon, Meta and Walmart, growing capital expenditure expectations, heavy bond issuance by hyperscalers and Nvidia-related entities, and a sharp rise in off-balance-sheet liabilities among large technology companies.

At the opening bell on U.S. stock markets, major indices showed minor losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.19%, the S&P 500 declined 0.13%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.02%. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased by 1.33%, indicating relatively calm market sentiment. Among AI-related stocks, a broad decline was observed. UiPath, the robotic process automation company, dropped 10.14%, the largest percentage loser among the group. Ambarella, a semiconductor company focused on AI vision processing, fell 5.66%. Adobe, the software giant, declined 5.27%. Atlassian, the collaboration software provider, slipped 2.18%, and Workday, the cloud-based enterprise software company, dropped 1.42%. The data was sourced from MSX.COM, a platform that describes itself as a leading RWA trading platform. MSX has listed hundreds of RWA tokens, representing tokenized shares of major U.S. stocks and ETFs, including Nvidia, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN, META, TSM, and AMD. The opening trading session reflects continued pressure on high-growth technology and AI stocks.

Arthur Hayes used a new appearance on Kyle Chasse Crypto to lay out a broad market view that now differs sharply from what he said on the same show about ten weeks earlier. Back then, he was talking about a local top. This time, he said he is buying again and argued that $58,000 is not just a local floor for Bitcoin but the cycle low. He tied that call to what he sees as a policy shift around yen intervention, a larger U.S. Treasury buyback program in early August, and a wider liquidity backdrop that he believes favors crypto. Hayes also said Ethereum is Maelstrom’s largest directional position, even though the fund owns more Bitcoin in absolute size. His case for ETH rests on the idea that this cycle’s narrative is built around real-world asset trading on a layer-one chain, Ethereum’s failure so far to break its 2021 high, and its long operating history. On Hyperliquid, he said he has fully exited, arguing that the asymmetry is gone and that a U.S. compliance path would require compromises to its model. He was especially bullish on Ethena, saying the token could rise 5x over the next two to three months as earlier investors have been paid out, unlock pressure has cleared, and the project is considering tokenholder revenue sharing. Hayes also spent much of the interview promoting Flop, a project he says he returned from retirement to build as a payment network for AI compute, while disclosing his direct involvement and existing positions.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the Dow down 0.79% and the Nasdaq falling 1.03%. AI-related stocks saw broad declines, led by Cadence dropping 7.6%, CrowdStrike 6.9%, and Dell 6.8%. The VIX volatility index surged 9.52%. MSX, a leading RWA trading platform, also reported the declines in tokenized U.S. equity assets.

Tema ETFs launched the Tema MLCC & PowerSemi ETF, trading under the ticker PSOX, in August 2026 on the CBOE BZX Exchange. The actively managed fund carries a 0.75% expense ratio and focuses on two parts of the AI server power stack: multilayer ceramic capacitors, or MLCCs, and power semiconductors. As of shortly after launch, the fund had $868,000 in assets under management, leaving it relatively small and potentially more exposed to volatility and liquidity constraints. According to the portfolio data cited in the report, PSOX’s top positions include Delta Electronics, Infineon, Murata Manufacturing, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Yageo, while Taiwan represents the largest country allocation at 29.84%. The article says the fund was developed with SemiAnalysis and is built around the view that AI infrastructure upgrades, especially the shift toward 800V DC server power architecture, could drive demand for both MLCCs and power semiconductors over the next several years. It also notes that the product is geared toward investors willing to take concentrated industry exposure tied to the AI hardware power supply chain.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday as lower long-dated Treasury yields gave technology shares room to recover, while traders also reacted to easing signals around the Strait of Hormuz and a fresh rally in both Bitcoin and gold. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.30% to 53,577.40, the S&P 500 gained 0.32% to 7,677.28, and the Nasdaq advanced 0.66% to 26,151.30. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 1.77% to 16.13. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield dropped 7.13 basis points to 4.625%, with the 2-year at 4.170% and the 30-year at 5.164%. According to the article, the decline in long-end yields extended the impact of Treasury General Account-related long-bond buybacks tied to Bessent, helping ease valuation pressure on growth stocks. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.44%, and Nvidia gained 2.19% to $213.05, ending a seven-day losing streak ahead of its earnings report due after Wednesday’s close. Elsewhere, Iran and Oman said they planned to establish a secure maritime passage in the Strait of Hormuz, sending a de-escalation signal that coincided with a second straight drop in oil prices. WTI crude fell 2.4% to $85.01 a barrel. Bitcoin briefly touched $80,000 for the first time since May and has climbed more than 27% this month, while spot gold rose as much as 1.7% and the world’s largest gold ETF saw $1.3 billion in one-day inflows.

CME Group relaunched single-stock futures on July 27, 2026, listing 55 standard contracts and 22 micro contracts tied to names including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and newly public SpaceX, while extending trading to 23 hours a day with a one-hour maintenance break. The move, as described in the Foresight article, is aimed at a market that has already been trained by crypto perpetuals to expect round-the-clock leveraged access. The report argues that CME is not introducing a new behavior so much as trying to pull an existing one back into the traditional exchange system. It contrasts the structure of perpetual contracts, where funding costs are settled during the holding period, with single-stock futures, where financing costs are embedded in the basis between futures and spot prices and where investors must roll positions before expiry. Foresight also highlights CME’s split posture on perpetuals. CEO Terry Duffy has criticized the product and CME has pushed for stricter regulation, yet Duffy has also said the exchange already has the technical and operational ability to offer perpetual contracts if customers want them. The broader question is whether traders who have become used to perpetuals’ interface, funding visibility, and trading style will switch to a more traditional futures product simply because it is now available nearly around the clock.