AT&T has used a D-Wave quantum computer to reduce a network optimization workload from roughly an hour to under 15 seconds, a gain of about 240x. The result points to practical applications for quantum annealing in telecom infrastructure optimization. After the announcement, AT&T shares rose around 7%, lifting other quantum-related stocks such as IonQ. The report said no other traditional assets were directly involved or affected.

Stablecoin market capitalization has fallen about $10 billion from its May peak to roughly $300 billion, including a $7.7 billion decline in June that was the biggest monthly drop since Terra collapsed in May 2022. Over the same month, stablecoins settled $1.79 trillion in adjusted transaction volume, an all-time record. The article argues that market cap reflects parked balances, while settlement volumes better capture how stablecoins are increasingly used as a payments rail. It does not reference traditional financial assets, and the assets discussed—such as USDT and USDC—are crypto-native stablecoins without a direct price-transmission or regulatory/economic mechanism linkage to stocks, commodities, FX, or interest rates.

Meta has left the RE100 renewable-energy initiative as it ramps up investment in natural gas power to support AI-driven expansion of its data centers, including agreements tied to 10 plants in Louisiana totaling 7.5GW and a 200MW project in Ohio. The company still says it will match 100% of its annual electricity use with clean and renewable energy, but its near-term demand is increasingly being met by gas generation. The International Energy Agency projects that natural gas and coal will supply more than 40% of the additional electricity demand from data centers through 2030.

Philippine developer Megaworld is selling a 27 billion-peso ($437 million) commercial property portfolio to its REIT arm, MREIT, including Eastwood Mall and the Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport City. The deal would lift MREIT’s assets under management to 122 billion pesos and expand its total floor area to 950,000 square meters. After the acquisition, offices are expected to make up about 77% of MREIT’s portfolio, up from roughly 95% currently. The property-for-share swap still requires approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

U.S. stocks are heading into the busiest stretch of the second-quarter earnings season, with Meta, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon—four members of the “Magnificent 7”—set to report results. Investor anxiety has been fueled by Alphabet’s move to sharply raise its projected 2026 capital expenditures to $200 billion, stoking concerns that AI investment is outpacing returns. The Magnificent 7 fell 5.7% over the past week as the market focused on whether AI commercialization can keep up with rising budgets. Results from non-tech blue chips such as Procter & Gamble and Chevron are also on deck.

IBM warned on July 14 that preliminary second-quarter revenue would be $17.2 billion, well below Wall Street expectations of about $17.9 billion, while adjusted earnings of $2.93 a share also missed the $3.01 consensus. The shortfall was driven by infrastructure revenue, including mainframes and hardware, which fell 7% year over year, while software rose 5% and consulting was roughly flat. The company said clients pulled forward purchases of AI-related hardware in late June to get ahead of expected price increases, delaying some software and consulting deal closures. The update sent IBM shares down as much as 23% before the opening bell, its worst single-day reaction in years.

TSMC’s CoWoS advanced-packaging capacity is fully booked through 2026, with lead times of 52–78 weeks and equipment expansion taking years. Nvidia is estimated to hold about 60% of CoWoS capacity, while AMD has roughly 11%. With AMD needing to split limited CoWoS supply between its Venice EPYC CPUs and MI400 GPUs, internal competition for packaging could prevent a fast ramp in shipments even if AI demand surges. That physical constraint could hinder AMD’s ability to convert demand into revenue, posing a material execution risk to a valuation above 70x forward P/E.

Thai renewable-energy engineering firm Gunkul Engineering is benefiting from the country’s push to develop a hub for green data centers. Net profit in the first quarter of 2026 rose 24% year on year to 456 million baht, while revenue also gained 24% to 2.6 billion baht. The company said it holds more than 100 billion baht in EPC order backlog and expects 2026 revenue to reach 10 billion baht. Founded in 1982 and pivoting into renewables from 2007, the SET-listed company operates across Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Vietnam.

Coffee futures have jumped on concerns that El Niño weather patterns could disrupt harvests in key producing regions, pushing the market into what StoneX described as “meme stock” trading territory. The move reflects a sudden agricultural supply shock rather than dynamics typical of equities. As the world’s second-largest traded commodity, coffee’s futures pricing is highly sensitive to climate-related disruptions. The article does not cite spillover effects to other commodities or broader indexes, and says AI-infrastructure financing and geopolitics have no direct causal link to coffee’s price moves.