The U.S. Treasury jolted markets by doubling liquidity buybacks for 10- to 30-year Treasurys from a maximum of $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, a move that helped pull long-dated yields lower after a sharp bond selloff. The 30-year yield fell by more than 9 basis points on the day, while the 10-year yield slipped back toward 4.64%. The dollar index dropped 0.86% to 98.69, spot gold surged through $4,500 an ounce, and Bitcoin briefly climbed to $70,064, its highest level since June 2, according to OKX data. At the same time, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting struck a hawkish tone. Rates were left unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, but three voters — Logan, Hammack and Kashkari — dissented in favor of an immediate 25-basis-point hike. The minutes also showed officials discussing AI-driven inflation pressure in chips, steel, power and data-center materials, while warning that aggressive borrowing and overly optimistic profit assumptions could leave AI valuations vulnerable. Equity leadership shifted sharply. A successful Phase 3 personalized mRNA cancer vaccine trial from Moderna and Merck ignited a rally in drugmakers and biotech, while semiconductor, storage and optical-networking names tied to AI momentum selling continued to weaken. Crypto-linked stocks also jumped, helped by stronger Bitcoin prices and comments tied to Hyperliquid’s possible compliant U.S. entry.

Bloomberg reported that TikTok is developing a peer-to-peer payments feature that would let users send money to each other through direct messages, based on findings from code in the U.S. version of the TikTok app. The code suggests the product flow is already fairly detailed: recipients can tap to accept a payment, senders can attach a note, and status updates are pushed back to the sender in real time. The reported user experience is similar to Venmo, the PayPal-owned payments app. TikTok said the feature has not entered testing in any market at this stage, and the report said there is no indication the company will definitely launch it. Even so, the presence of the code, along with TikTok’s hiring for financial services roles in the U.S. and other markets, suggests the company is exploring the area. Bloomberg also noted that TikTok already has payments experience in Southeast Asia through TikTok Pay, which operates in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand for TikTok Shop purchases. In the first half of 2025, TikTok Shop GMV in Thailand reached $5.419 billion, up 162% year over year. TikTok has more than 1 billion monthly active users globally, including about 170 million in the U.S.

U.S. stocks fell for a third straight session Tuesday as higher long-term bond yields put fresh pressure on richly valued technology names. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.33%, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, while the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly touched 5.338%, its highest level since 2007. The move was part of a wider global bond sell-off that also pushed long-dated yields higher in France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Markets are increasingly focused on the growing debt burden tied to artificial intelligence expansion. According to figures cited in the report, AI-related bond issuance has reached $489 billion so far this year, well above an earlier full-year 2025 estimate of roughly $322 billion, while The Wall Street Journal reported that nine major technology companies have about $3 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI commitments. That backdrop hit semiconductors, memory, optical communications and AI cloud-service providers especially hard. Investors are also weighing fiscal deficits, oil-driven inflation risks tied to the Iran situation, and a heavy event calendar that includes U.S. tariffs on some Canadian products, a 20-year Treasury auction, Federal Reserve minutes and China’s one-year LPR decision.

Bloomberg reported that internal Slack messages show Phoebe Gates, daughter of Bill Gates, and Phia co-founder Sophia Kianni knew as early as December last year that their shopping comparison startup had been using cookie stuffing to claim affiliate marketing commissions. The practice involves placing tracking cookies in a user’s browser without a legitimate referral click, allowing a company to take credit for sales it did not drive. Corporate lawyer Ariel Givner wrote on X that this conduct is typically treated as federal wire fraud in U.S. courts and could carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 years, along with fines and restitution. Bloomberg had previously reported on July 9 that Phia’s browser extension opened background tabs during checkout, inserted its own cookies, and in some cases overwrote valid referral records. After the feature was shut down, charts reviewed by Bloomberg showed Phia’s average daily revenue fell from about $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000. The report also said cookie stuffing accounted for 51% of all sales attributed to Phia in June. No prosecutors have formally charged Gates or Kianni at this stage.

JPMorgan maintained its Overweight rating on Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) and kept its price target at HK$690 in a research note dated Aug. 13, framing the company as being in the middle of an AI investment cycle that runs through 2026 and 2027. The bank said 2026 could mark a low point for earnings growth, with adjusted EPS expected to rise about 2%, before growth recovers to a 10% to 15% range in 2027 as AI monetization starts to offset investment costs. The note pointed to Tencent’s second-quarter results, including revenue of 204.8 billion yuan, up 11% year over year, and non-IFRS net profit of 68.4 billion yuan, up 9%. It also highlighted 22% growth in marketing services revenue, 17% growth in domestic games, and 9% growth in fintech and business services. JPMorgan estimated quarterly spending on new AI products such as Hunyuan, Yuanbao, CodeBuddy, WorkBuddy and Xiaowei at about 10.5 billion yuan, above roughly 8.8 billion yuan in the first quarter. The bank said investors may read flat sequential profit and negative reported free cash flow as signs of stalled growth or cash burn, but argued Tencent’s core businesses still support the current AI push. It is now watching Hunyuan 4, deferred recognition of WorkBuddy paid-tier revenue, and testing and possible commercialization of WeChat agent Xiaowei.

Xiaohongshu is developing a new "AI shopping guide" feature that would use conversational interactions to recommend products directly inside Q&A scenarios, according to an exclusive report from Dujia cited by ChainCatcher. The report says the feature will push product cards and attach links that send users to a purchase page. It adds that the project is being led by Daoxuan, also identified as Pan Boyuan, while Xiaohongshu had not responded by press time. The report places the feature within Xiaohongshu’s broader push to add intelligence to its transaction flow. It notes that the company had already rolled out an AI summary function for store reputation pages. Public data cited in the report shows Xiaohongshu has about 400 million global monthly active users. Around 39 million users show clear purchase intent each day, generating 140 million active purchase requests. More than 47 million users enter merchant livestream rooms, and over 170,000 merchant group chats remain active. The same report says store livestream GMV rose 265% year over year during the 618 shopping period, while note-based content drove transaction growth of more than 210%. It also says Xiaohongshu currently uses a dual transaction model combining an in-platform marketplace loop with off-platform traffic redirection.

Grab plans to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan for $600 million in cash, with closing expected in the second half of 2026 pending regulatory approval. The deal also puts focus on whether Grab’s Web3 wallet and crypto payment tools could later enter Taiwan.

DDN led the latest U.S. weekly funding rankings with a $300 million strategic investment, while biotech and healthcare companies took most of the top spots. AI infrastructure and vertical healthcare AI also remained key investor themes.