China's two leading copper producers reported that their profits more than doubled in the first half of 2026, aided by stronger copper prices and a rise in sulfuric acid revenue, Bloomberg said.

Sulfuric acid is produced as a by-product of the smelting process.

The Bank of Russia has expanded its surveillance of illicit crypto activity by adding 2,600 cryptocurrency wallet addresses to a dedicated information system, according to Bits.media.

ChainCatcher reports these addresses are linked to legal entities, project teams, and individual business owners, collectively holding about 1 billion rubles in crypto assets.

The information system is now accessible to government agencies and law enforcement, and bank transactions connected to the listed addresses are likely to be frozen.

The central bank said roughly 74% of the addresses are associated with financial pyramids and fraud, including fake crypto investments, bogus data-center projects, and unlawful crypto lending involving USDT stablecoins.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. notes that shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have rebounded to roughly two-thirds of pre-war levels.

The partial recovery is viewed as helping to limit the war's influence on global crude prices.

The Japanese hybrid bond market is rebounding as investors seeking higher yields and issuers looking to finance acquisitions or refinance debt turn to hybrids to avoid equity dilution, Bloomberg reports.

Demand for these securities has revived as companies tap hybrid bonds for deal financing and refinancing needs.

Tencent Holdings completed a HK$301 million share repurchase on August 27, extending its streak to nine consecutive trading days of buybacks dating from August 17, according to Jiemian News.

As of August 27, the company217;s year-to-date buybacks total HK$28.832 billion, the highest figure in the Hong Kong market, with Xiaomi Group in second place at HK$11.815 billion, the same report noted.

Tang Daosheng, Tencent217;s executive vice president who leads the cloud and smart industries group, stated in an internal publication that the AI sector217;s momentum in the second half has only just begun, emphasizing the importance of staying power over early starts.

Tencent and Xiaomi are the top two holdings in the Huaxia Hang Seng Internet ETF (513330.SH). Jiemian described the ETF as the largest product tracking the Hang Seng Internet Technology Index and the only Hong Kong-listed internet index fund that fully covers Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Kuaishou and Xiaomi.

DigitalBridge Group, the U.S. private equity firm that SoftBank Group is set to acquire, has agreed to buy PLUS ES, an independently operated unit of Ausgrid Group.

PLUS ES provides metering and data services to retail electricity companies, utilities, and grid operators, and is one of the country's largest smart meter service providers, overseeing roughly 2 million meters across the national electricity market.

Justin Chang, DigitalBridge Asia-Pacific head and Senior Managing Director, described PLUS ES as positioned at the intersection of digital infrastructure and the energy transition.

The deal remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, and no transaction value was disclosed.

Global technology equities have traded with heightened volatility after rising long term U.S. Treasuries weighed on growth valuations. The pullback eased as yields cooled and Nvidia posted stronger-than-expected results, supporting a rebound in U.S. and Chinese tech stocks.

Sina Finance analysts note that rate moves influence risk appetite and valuations, but the current weakness cannot be explained by high U.S. Treasuries alone. As the AI industry moves into a phase of large-scale capital spending and real-world validation, the market is shifting from asking whether compute demand exists to evaluating commercialization potential, technological leadership, and the ability to deliver future profits.

On August 26, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.21 percent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.02 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.08 percent. Nvidia dropped 1.59 percent ahead of its earnings release, while Apple, Meta, and Microsoft each rose more than 1 percent.

After the close on August 26, Nvidia reported fiscal second quarter 2027 revenue of 96.22 billion dollars, up 106 percent year over year, with adjusted earnings per share of 2.22 dollars, up 120 percent year over year. The company forecast third quarter revenue of 105.84 billion to 110.16 billion, above the market estimate of 105.15 billion.

Following the report, Nvidia shares at one point rose more than 5 percent in after-hours trading, and storage, networking equipment, and other AI compute-related stocks also strengthened.

Japan's August data from Tokyo showed the core consumer price index excluding fresh food rising 1.8% from a year earlier, matching economists' forecasts and up from 1.7% in July.

Tokyo inflation is often treated as a leading gauge for nationwide price growth, though local government measures — such as tuition-fee reductions — can distort the readings from time to time.

The core-core CPI, which excludes both fresh food and energy, was up about 2% year on year, while the overall CPI increased 1.9%.

Major contributors to the gain were higher costs for education, entertainment, durable goods, and medical care.

Although measures aimed at easing living costs have been introduced, price pressures persisted, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of Japan could move on rates in the near term.

Markets priced in roughly an 82% chance of a September rate hike, with traders noting inflation risks remain elevated even after last month's U.S.-Japan policy actions.

BoJ Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino did not directly push back on market expectations, instead signaling that policymakers should remain mindful of upside risks to inflation from here.

Nvidia has halted a subset of deals that offered credit support in exchange for a share of revenue, people familiar with the matter said.

ChainCatcher's report noted that the specifics of which transactions were affected were not disclosed, nor the reasons behind Nvidia's decision to pause the arrangements.

Some Nvidia employees have told current and prospective customers that the project could trigger antitrust scrutiny.

ChainCatcher says The Wall Street Journal reported these concerns.