U.S. stocks closed higher after a sharp drop in oil prices followed signs of easing geopolitical risk in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.30%, the S&P 500 gained 0.32%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.66%. Reports cited by Russian media said the U.S. and Iran had reached consensus on ceasefire terms, including freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran and Oman were said to have reached a temporary aviation understanding. At the same time, an Iranian deputy foreign minister rejected the U.S. claim that sea mines in the strait had been cleared and said reopening would depend on several conditions being met. WTI crude fell 4.57% to below $80, while Brent dropped more than 5% and slipped under $85. Softer U.S. data added to the move in rates: August consumer confidence came in at 89.4, a seven-month low, and July new home sales missed expectations. The 10-year Treasury yield fell about 7 basis points to around 4.62%, while the 30-year yield dropped about 6 basis points to roughly 5.17%. In equities, AI hardware names led the rebound ahead of Nvidia’s second-quarter results. Nvidia gained 2.19% and ended a seven-session losing streak after unveiling the Jetson Orin Nano 2 robot computer. Copper also hit record levels, Canada announced new tariffs on about $20 billion of U.S. goods starting Sept. 8, and investors turned to a packed calendar that includes core PCE, revised GDP, Nvidia earnings, and the Jackson Hole symposium.

U.S. stocks closed mixed Monday as investors weighed a fresh escalation in U.S. pressure on Iran, renewed debate over Treasury buybacks, and a sharp selloff across AI hardware. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.26%, supported by financials, consumer staples and other defensive names, while the S&P 500 fell 0.28% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.76%. Oil prices retreated after the market moved to price in sanctions rhetoric, yet Goldman Sachs warned that a prolonged Strait of Hormuz crisis into winter could tighten Europe’s gas balance and force TTF gas above EUR100/MWh to attract enough LNG, with storage currently near 62%, a roughly 20-year seasonal low. On rates, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said no bonds had been bought and that the next buyback would come on Sept. 9, even as speculation continued around using the Treasury General Account, estimated at roughly $935 billion to $950 billion, to support larger long-end operations. Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Citadel Securities argued buybacks would not solve the deeper issues of a $40 trillion debt load, fiscal deficits and inflation. In equities, Nvidia fell 2.91% for a seventh straight session despite stronger earnings estimates, while memory, optical networking and EV-related names also dropped. Mega-cap platform stocks were steadier, with Meta gaining 1.66%.

Bitcoin ripped more than 26% last week, touching $79,500 on Aug. 21 and breaking above its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2025. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $1.918 billion last week, while spot Ether ETFs drew $697 million. Coinbase’s Bitcoin premium index turned positive at 0.0032%, ending a 97-day negative streak, and Polymarket now puts the odds of BTC reaching $90,000 before 2027 at about 48%. Ether outperformed with a weekly gain of nearly 30%, but on-chain deleveraging signals remained visible.

PANews’ latest Wall Street morning briefing tracks several market threads moving at once: U.S. August composite PMI came in above expectations and lifted the major indexes on Friday, yet the weekly trend remained soft. Long-dated Treasury yields stayed near the top of their one-year range, while Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio warned that a U.S. debt crisis could emerge within one to five years if deficits and debt keep worsening. Another focal point is U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent’s plan to release detailed Iran sanctions during Monday trading hours. According to the report, the package targets purchases of Iranian oil, money transfers and ship-to-ship transfers through secondary sanctions. In parallel, the AI trade is facing a cost test: some of Nvidia’s largest customers were told that servers using Nvidia AI chips could cost more than 15% extra next year because of surging memory chip prices. The article also reviews sharp stock moves. Tesla rose 5.14% and led the “Magnificent Seven” after Nevada approved Robotaxi operations in Las Vegas involving Tesla, Waymo and Uber. Alibaba dropped after announcing an HK$80 billion placement to fund AI expansion. Crypto-related stocks moved higher as Bitcoin approached $80,000 and expectations for liquidity and crypto-friendly policy improved.

PANews’ weekly funding roundup showed a pickup in crypto deal activity from Aug. 3 to Aug. 9, with 12 disclosed blockchain financing events totaling more than $94.9 million. Capital was concentrated in infrastructure, stablecoins, real-world assets and centralized finance, while DePIN, GameFi and rewards platforms also logged fresh deals. The headline M&A transaction came from Mastercard, which said it had completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, a deal previously reported in March as being worth up to $1.8 billion. On the financing side, Yellow Card announced a $40 million strategic round backed by SC Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital and Blockchain Capital. Other disclosed transactions included rounds for Blockspace, MAGNE.AI, InvestiFi, JPYC, Dow Protocol, Vangrid and Bundle. PANews also tracked a separate wave of AI and robotics funding, where large checks continued to cluster around infrastructure, cloud capacity, optical networking and enterprise agent platforms, with Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and the newly launched 224 Ventures also stepping up commitments to the sector.

Bybit said it has filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), and the Lazarus Group over the large-scale cyberattack that targeted the exchange in February 2025. The company said it also obtained a preliminary injunction freezing identified stolen digital assets held or moved by unidentified individuals and entities named as John Doe defendants. In granting a temporary restraining order, the court described the case as “one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history” and said Bybit was likely to succeed on the merits. The exchange said the civil case is separate from a criminal investigation by U.S. law enforcement and is intended to create another legal path for asset recovery. Bybit added that it has recovered about $48.4 million so far and frozen about $30.5 million in related assets across more than 28 exchanges and custodians. It also linked those efforts to broader actions by German and Swiss authorities against eXch and Cryptomixer.io.

According to ChainCatcher, Omilia, a Cyprus-based enterprise AI customer service company, has completed a $67 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Expedition Growth Capital. Omilia said the proceeds will be used to accelerate business expansion in North America and other global markets. The company also plans to open its first U.S. office in the second half of 2026. Omilia was founded in 2002. It develops proprietary voice AI technology for enterprise contact centers, providing self-learning agent CX solutions. The platform supports compliance standards including FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR. The funding amount, lead investor, and expansion targets come from the company's announcement. The company expects to establish a U.S. presence in 2026. Its product focuses on voice-driven automation for call center environments. The compliance certifications cover security, data protection, and industry-specific requirements. Expedition Growth Capital led the round.

Freelance journalist Ben Touati says his byline was attached to AI-written gambling guides months after ClickOut Media ended his working relationship. Touati, who said he lost access to company systems on March 9 and formally stopped working with the company on March 23, discovered five articles on his Esports Insider author page on May 26 that he says he never wrote. Press Gazette reported that the pieces were published between 5:39 a.m. and 6 a.m. over four consecutive days through May 29. Touati later filed a complaint on June 2 under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, arguing that his personal data had been misused. The company then removed his byline from the five articles and reassigned them to another writer, according to the report. Press Gazette updated the story again on July 15, saying 28 more gambling-related articles carrying Touati’s name had appeared on the German-language version of Esports Insider, with publication dates ranging from May 15 to July 14. The report also linked the episode to ClickOut Media’s parent company, Finixio, which Press Gazette said generated about £40 million in revenue in 2024 and controls more than 200 domains. The company said it uses AI-assisted content with human checks and editing, but its public statement did not explain why a former contributor’s name appeared on articles he says he did not write.