AtlasClear Holdings (NYSE American: ATCH) has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire a profitable, internationally licensed institutional digital-asset business, and it has revised the terms of its planned acquisition of Dawson James. The amended terms are expected to allow an initial closing of 24.9% equity in about 30 days, with full ownership subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. The company said the two transactions together are expected to add $35.4 million in 2025 revenue and $6.7 million in combined EBITDA, and based on unaudited revenue through June 2026, the combined 2026 revenue run rate is over $56 million.

Bell Potter upgraded Regal Partners Ltd (ASX: RPL) to Buy and set a $4.80 price target after preliminary H1 2026 results pointed to normalised NPAT doubling to at least $90 million. The broker also cited net funds under management inflows of more than $1.3 billion for the half. Bell Potter said the company’s guidance should be treated as a floor rather than a cap.

Houthi forces have escalated their Red Sea blockade, raising concerns over global shipping and energy supplies. Japan, which relies heavily on Middle East oil imports, saw the yen slide below 163 per dollar for the first time since 1986, fueling expectations the Bank of Japan could raise interest rates faster. Meanwhile, API data showed U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose by 2.603M barrels, offsetting some risk tied to the Red Sea. The article also flags a pullback in chip stocks and a split in early flows among the “Magnificent Seven,” with Alphabet and Microsoft seeing inflows while Tesla and Apple saw outflows.

OCEAN has launched Portal, which it describes as the world’s first end-to-end encrypted dashboard for Bitcoin mining pools. Built for Bitcoin miners, the product focuses on secure, privacy-enhanced monitoring and management of pool operations. OCEAN positioned the release as a key infrastructure-layer deployment of the OCEAN protocol, extending its footprint from a data-economy focus toward a hashrate-economy ecosystem. The company said Portal is a mainnet-grade launch rather than a concept preview or beta, and it directly ties to OCEAN token protocol usage intensity and scenario expansion.

American Airlines (AAL) is set to release second-quarter earnings before the market opens Thursday, with revenue expected at $16.7 billion, up 16% year over year. Consensus calls for earnings of about $0.01 per share as Brent crude at $94 is seen driving a sharp jump in fuel costs and squeezing margins. The article says United Airlines has offset about half of its fuel-cost pressure and raised its full-year outlook, putting focus on whether American can show similar confidence at current oil prices.

McDonald’s shares fell to a 52-week low of $263.65 around July 21, down 23% from the March high. The company is scheduled to report Q2 2026 results on Aug. 4, with the market broadly expecting U.S. same-store sales to drop 2% and foot traffic to fall 4.6% year over year. The median analyst target price stands at $329.30, while the stock trades at a forward P/E of 20.44, its lowest since 2018. The piece does not cite specific pre-earnings catalysts and instead suggests waiting for the earnings release.

Ripple Senior Vice President Jack McDonald said the company is working with Mastercard, JPMorgan, OKX and Ondo Finance to build financial infrastructure spanning traditional and digital assets. He said the effort is tied to Ripple’s institutional strategy and is aimed at supporting real-world adoption of its RLUSD stablecoin and XRP in areas such as cross-border payments and settlement. No timeline, technical integration details, or funding figures were disclosed.

A Wall Street-backed institution has launched a new cryptocurrency index that includes Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and the HYPE token, but does not include Bitcoin (BTC). The index is positioned as a market-tracking tool rather than an ETF or investable product, and it does not involve spot listings, asset custody or direct capital allocation. HYPE is the only mid-to-small-cap token mentioned as a constituent, reflecting recent institutional attention in specific ecosystems or narratives. There is no information indicating the index is tied to any financial products or derivatives or that it has generated actual fund flows, and no details were provided on weights, a rebalancing mechanism or the issuer’s identity.