Odaily Planet Daily reports that Nick Timiraos, a vocal advocate for the Federal Reserve, commented on the US CPI data, stating that the optimistic narrative surrounding inflation has been that recent price increases are driven by tariffs (which will be reflected in goods), and therefore this increase will not be sustainable because tariffs cannot be raised year after year. However, the April CPI data alone does not support this claim. Housing prices rose 0.6% (a rebound was previously expected to compensate for lower figures during the government shutdown). But core services prices, excluding housing, rose 0.45%, the third-highest month-over-month increase since January 2025. Looking at the 12-month period, the 3.3% year-over-year increase is the highest level since February 2025. Core goods prices rose 0.03% in the month (1.13% year-over-year). (Jinshi)

Odaily Planet Daily reports that the latest US inflation data, which exceeded expectations, weakened market expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut this year, triggering a general pullback in risk assets. Following the data release, the market anticipates the Fed will maintain interest rates in the 3.50%–3.75% range at its June 17 meeting, and possibly continue to do so until the end of the year. Affected by the data, Bitcoin fell briefly, trading around $80,700–$80,814, a 24-hour drop of approximately 1.2%. US stock futures also weakened, and the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose to 4.44%. In commodities, WTI crude oil rose about 3% to $101, further exacerbating market concerns about the sustainability of inflation. Analysts point out that against the backdrop of higher-than-expected inflation and stronger energy prices, short-term market risk appetite is suppressed, and both the crypto asset and equity markets face repricing pressure. (CoinDesk)

Odaily Planet Daily reports that AI startup White Circle has completed an $11 million seed funding round, with executives from several well-known AI giants, including Romain Huet of OpenAI and Durk Kingma of Anthropic, participating. The company provides a unified API for real-time monitoring of large model inputs and outputs to detect hallucinations, injection attacks, harmful content, model drift, and malicious user behavior. It also supports customizable security policies (rate limiting, blocking, etc.) and automated governance. (Techfundingnews)

Odaily Planet Daily reports that Bernstein reiterated its "Outperform" rating on Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR) and maintained its target price of $67, implying approximately 72% upside from the current share price of $38.97. Figure's Q1 2026 performance was strong: loan origination reached $2.9 billion, a year-over-year increase of 113%; adjusted revenue was $167 million, a year-over-year increase of 92%, exceeding market expectations by 6%; adjusted EBITDA was $82.7 million, with a profit margin of approximately 50%, slightly higher than market expectations. However, GAAP diluted EPS was $0.18, lower than expected by approximately 9%, mainly due to a $26 million share-based compensation expense. Bernstein analysts believe that this performance should reshape the market's perception of Figure, which is not a traditional lending company but rather a "tokenized capital markets platform" with core profitability derived from network fees and scaled operational leverage. They maintain their valuation based on 25 times 2027 EBITDA. Furthermore, the tokenization ecosystem continues to expand: the yield-generating security token YLDS reached $598 million (up 80% month-over-month); equity lending product balances reached $368 million (up 79%); and small business lending contributed $60 million in revenue. The current share price is still not far below the 2025 IPO price of $36, but significantly lower than the all-time high of $78. (The Block)

Odaily Planet Daily reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Hergsays stated that the U.S. already has plans to escalate the situation with Iran if necessary. (Jin Shi)