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Nokia (NOK) stock traded at $8.44 on Wednesday, down 5.54% intraday, after sellers pushed the price to the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement at $8.50. It is the last major support above the January low of $6.06.

The drop extends Tuesday’s 5.6% slide and deepens a decline that started at the June peak of $17.45. NOK has lost roughly 52% of its value in less than two months.

Why Nokia Stock Is Falling Again This Week

Part of this week’s weakness was mechanical. Tuesday, July 28, was the ex-dividend date for Nokia’s quarterly dividend of 0.04 euros per share, which will be paid on August 6.

However, the adjustment explains only about 0.5% of the move. The rest reflects profit-taking that has continued since last week’s post-earnings breakdown, when investors sold the memory shortage outlook rather than the strong quarter.

Analysts have also started trimming expectations. On July 27, Deutsche Bank lowered its Nokia price target to 11.50 euros from 13.50 euros, while keeping a Buy rating on the shares.

Meanwhile, the sector backdrop remains heavy. Intel dropped 11% after an earnings beat, and profit-taking spread across AI hardware names. Nokia now falls with the sector rather than on company-specific news alone.

NOK Price Analysis Shows Bulls Defending the $8.50 Level

On the daily chart, the Fibonacci retracement drawn from the January low of $6.06 to the June top of $17.45 still maps the decline. The June peak ended a months-long rally fueled by AI and cloud demand.

NOK lost the 0.618 golden pocket at $10.41 last week, and a large spike in volume accompanied the breakdown. Such volume signals conviction among sellers, which favors trend continuation.

The slide has now reached the 0.786 retracement at exactly $8.50. This is the bulls’ final line of defense, and they must step in immediately to hold it.

The Visible Range Volume Profile (VRVP) adds weight to both levels. Its two largest volume nodes sit near $10.41 and $8.50, so these zones will likely act as resistance and support over the coming days or weeks.

Nokia RSI at 27 Gives Bulls No Divergence to Lean On

The daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) reads 27, below the oversold threshold at 30. Historically, such depressed readings can produce short-term bounces, as other beaten-down names showed during this earnings week.

However, there is no sign of a bullish divergence yet. The indicator keeps printing lower lows together with the price, so momentum still favors the sellers.

If NOK loses $8.50 on a daily close, the next support zone sits at the $6.06 anchor low, roughly 28% below Wednesday’s price. In contrast, a daily close back above $10.41 would invalidate the bearish outlook.

Until then, the market decides between a defended floor at $8.50 and a full retest of $6.06.

To read the latest stock market analysis from BeInCrypto, click here.

The post Nokia Bulls Have One Level Left to Defend After 52% Crash From June Peak appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Veteran macro investor Jordi Visser says the easy money in artificial intelligence (AI) is gone. He thinks Bitcoin (BTC) is where the next big gains turn up.

New company filings help explain why. The biggest AI spenders are now burning cash faster than they bring it in.

Big Tech Is Burning Cash to Build AI

Google spent more cash last quarter than it collected. That has never happened since the company listed in 2004.

The measure that matters here is free cash flow. It is simply the money left over after a company pays for the data centers it is building.

All three of the biggest AI spenders saw that cushion shrink.

Meta’s drop is the eye-catching one. A year ago it kept $8.5 billion. This time it kept $784 million.

Its own release shows why. Sales rose 28%. Costs rose 55%. Meta then borrowed $24.91 billion to keep building. It spent $31.08 billion on new capacity in three months.

One fair caveat. Some of those costs were legal bills and layoff payments, not AI. Together they came to $3.58 billion.

Microsoft looks the healthiest of the three. Its filing shows sales up 18% and its Azure cloud business up 43%.

Even so, its spare cash fell 23%. Nobody escaped the squeeze. Only the size of it changed.

Why Jordi Visser Says the AI Trade Is Over

Visser has worked in markets for more than 30 years. He runs AI research at 22V Research and founded Visser-Labs. He used to be chief investment officer at hedge fund Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers.

“The AI trade’s over. The ability of getting seven, eight times your money in that is over,” Jordi Visser, on a podcast.

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He does not think AI is finished. He thinks the returns are shrinking.

Investors used to hope for seven or eight times their money. He now expects closer to 30% a year. That is still good. It is just no longer a windfall.

The reason is competition. Cheap open-source models keep catching up, so no company stays ahead for long. Wall Street is already split on AI chips as a result.

Goldman Says US Stocks Have No Fuel Left

Big investors have little spare money to put to work. Goldman Sachs told clients that leaves stocks stuck.

Hedge funds have already borrowed heavily to buy shares. Their borrowing sits near the top of the past five years.

“There are limited sources of ‘juice’ for rallies in the immediate term. We still need to get through rubble of the past couple weeks before we can start the conversation for any meaningful re-risking,” Bloomberg reported, citing Goldman Sachs trading desk.

Regular investors are pulling back too. Trading activity this month is more than 3% below the five-year average.

Computer-driven funds are the bigger worry. They hold about $196 billion in US shares. A further slide could force them to sell $15.7 billion inside a week.

The wider mood is nervous. The Federal Reserve held rates steady in a 9 to 3 vote. The Dow then fell 1,153 points, its worst day since April 2025.

Long-term borrowing costs jumped as well. The 30-year Treasury closed at 5.20%, its highest level since 2007.

Why Bitcoin and Ethereum Could Benefit

Visser expects AI programs to start moving money on their own. Blockchains are where that would happen.

He does not think Bitcoin leads the way, though. He expects Ethereum to do better, because investors now prefer networks that earn fees.

The past month backs him up. Ethereum (ETH) trades near $1,921 and is up 23.3% in 30 days. Bitcoin trades near $64,793 and is up 10.9%.

Zoom out and the picture flips. Over a year, Bitcoin is down 45% and Ethereum 49%.ETH also sits 61% below its 2025 peak. Bitcoin’s current price is 49% below its own record.

So this is a one-month shift, not proof of a new cycle. It matches three bullish Ethereum signals spotted this week, and not much more.

What to Watch Over the Next 30 Days

Visser is waiting on one law. The CLARITY Act would finally decide which US regulator watches which crypto asset.

Traders doubt it passes. Polymarket puts the odds near 30%, and seven roadblocks remain in the Senate.

Rates are the other question. Morgan Stanley economist Mike Gapen expects inflation to ease to about 3.3% by December. That would keep the Fed still. Three officials already wanted a rise.

Then there are buybacks. Goldman expects 90% of big US companies to be free to buy their own shares by mid-August.

Visser needs a law and a buyer. Whichever shows up first will tell us more than any earnings call did.

The post Veteran Macro Investor Says AI’s Easy Money Is Over and Bitcoin Is Next appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Japan slashed its growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 0.9% on Thursday, blaming surging crude oil prices and a weaker yen for squeezing the import-dependent economy.

The downgrade exposes how quickly Middle East tensions can reshape the outlook for an advanced economy.

The Oil and Currency Assumptions Behind the Downgrade

Fiscal year 2026 in Japan runs from April 2026 through March 2027, the standard period governments use for budgeting and forecasting. The Cabinet Office presented the revision alongside updated fiscal projections.

The new figure marks a sharp cut from January. Officials had projected 1.3% growth just six months ago, before global energy markets turned against the country.

Two assumptions drive the revision. The government now models crude oil at $92.5 per barrel, well above its earlier estimate of $68.

Currency expectations shifted just as dramatically. Officials assume the yen is trading at 161.4 per dollar, compared with 155.2 in the previous forecast.

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Both changes hit the same pressure point. Resource-poor Japan imports nearly all of its energy, so higher prices and a weaker currency inflate costs across the entire economy. Household spending absorbs much of that initial shock. Private consumption, which drives more than half of Japanese output, is now forecast to grow just 0.9% instead of 1.3%.

Business investment faces similar pressure. Capital expenditure should rise just 2.3% this year, down from the 2.8% that officials projected back in January.

Inflation moves in the opposite direction. Consumer prices are now expected to climb 2.2%, up from the earlier 1.9% estimate, further testing household purchasing power.

Can Japan Recover Growth in Fiscal Year 2027

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration paired the downgrade with a more optimistic medium-term view. Growth should recover to 1.1% in fiscal 2027, according to the same projections.

That rebound depends on policy execution. The government is promoting investment in crisis management, strategic sectors, and public-private partnerships, while new budget guidelines give ministries greater flexibility for growth-oriented projects.

The fiscal arithmetic tells a mixed story. The primary balance, which excludes debt interest, should post a wider deficit of 1.2 trillion yen ($7.4 billion) this year because of supplementary budgets.

Next year looks considerably better on paper. Officials expect a surplus of 1.4 trillion yen ($8.7 billion) in fiscal 2027, driven largely by higher tax revenues.

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That projected swing carries genuine political significance. Japan holds one of the heaviest public debt burdens among developed nations, making credibility with bond markets essential.

Oil markets still remain the central variable. Brent crude has traded around the $80 range recently, while the Bank of Japan points to underlying resilience in exports and specific industrial sectors.

The post Japan Cuts Fiscal 2026 Growth Forecast to 0.9% on Oil and Weaker Yen appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Ethereum continues to trade within a critical technical area after recovering sharply from its June lows. While the broader rebound remains intact, the latest price action suggests momentum is fading as buyers and sellers battle for control beneath major resistance.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, Ethereum remains below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, keeping the broader trend cautious despite the recovery from the June bottom. The recent rally stalled just below the 100-day MA near the $1.95K region, where sellers quickly stepped in and pushed the price back toward the $1.88K to $1.91K supply zone.

This area is now acting as immediate resistance. A successful breakout above it would improve the medium-term outlook and expose the confluence of the 100-day and 200-day moving averages inside the $2.02K to $2.15K resistance zone. Until then, ETH remains vulnerable to another rejection.

On the downside, the $1.75K to $1.79K demand zone remains the first important support. Losing this area would likely trigger a deeper correction toward the major demand region around $1.56K to $1.64K.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows Ethereum trading inside a compression pattern, with price action confined between the rising white trendline and the descending yellow trendline. This narrowing range reflects increasing indecision as neither buyers nor sellers have been able to establish a decisive directional move.

Ethereum is currently consolidating around the $1.88K to $1.91K resistance zone while continuing to respect the ascending support trendline. A breakout above both the resistance zone and the descending trendline would likely strengthen bullish momentum and pave the way for another attempt at the recent highs.

However, a breakdown below the white ascending trendline would invalidate the current sequence of higher lows and could accelerate a correction toward the $1.75K to $1.79K demand zone, where buyers would be expected to defend the broader recovery structure.

Sentiment Analysis

The two-week Binance liquidation heatmap highlights a notable concentration of liquidity above the current price around the $2K level, making it the primary upside liquidity target if buyers regain momentum.

At the same time, a significant liquidation cluster has formed around the $1.82K region beneath the market. Since price is currently trading between these two liquidity pools, Ethereum may continue to experience choppy and range-bound price action before making a decisive move toward one of these high-liquidity areas. A sweep of either cluster could trigger increased volatility as leveraged positions are liquidated.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Holds Key Support but Bullish Momentum Fades appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two firms accused of supporting an IRGC-backed scheme that allegedly extorted commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz by requiring them to purchase maritime insurance.

Wednesday’s designations hit the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority, known as Hormuz Safe. Treasury says the policies extract revenue while covering risks that Iran itself creates.

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How Iran’s Hormuz Insurance Scheme Drew US Sanctions 

The IRGC reportedly began collecting transit fees from tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz in April, with charges starting at approximately $1 per barrel.

The Treasury said the insurance scheme was created to offset revenue lost following Operation Epic Fury. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent linked the initiative to Iran’s worsening economic conditions.

“With its economy in freefall and inflation in the triple digits, the regime is desperate for cash,” he said.

According to the department, Iran established the “illegitimate schemes” through the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company (PGMIC) and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority.

It said Iran’s Ministry of Economy developed HormuzSafe. It offers insurance, traffic control, security, and emergency response services to vessels transiting the strait. 

The firm accepts payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets as part of Iran’s efforts to circumvent Western sanctions.

The Treasury also noted that Iran’s insurance regulator created the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company, which issues policies approved by the Persian Gulf Strait Authority. 

OFAC sanctioned the IRGC-backed authority on May 27. It has now designated both the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority under Executive Order 13902 for operating in Iran’s financial sector.

In addition, OFAC sanctioned eight shipping companies and identified eight oil tankers as blocked property. The operators are registered in Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands, and China. According to the Treasury, the vessels transported Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.

The agency has now sanctioned more than 100 shadow fleet vessels since January. The latest measure is part of a broader US enforcement action against Iran.

In mid-July, the Treasury sanctioned four cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran’s central bank. At the same time, Tether froze approximately $131 million in USDT held in those addresses.

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The post OFAC Targets Iran’s Crypto-Funded Toll Scheme in Strait of Hormuz appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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