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American consumer confidence significantly dropped in September to its lowest level in over 12 years. The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index fell by 6.7 points to 81.9, the lowest since 2014. Consumers hold a more pessimistic outlook on the business environment and job market for the next six months.

Due to consumer confidence and JOLTS data, the decline in U.S. Treasury bonds has narrowed.

As U.S. consumer confidence data remains strong, driving expectations for high interest rates and rising U.S. Treasury yields, gold and silver are under pressure. According to CoinGlass data, gold (XAU) is currently priced at $4,225.56, with a 24-hour decline of 1.45%; silver (XAG) is currently priced at $62.69, with a 24-hour decline of 2.41%.During the period of significant market fluctuations, trading volume for Gate precious metal contracts surged: Gate silver contracts had a 24-hour trading volume of $59.5667 million, ranking second in the industry; Gate XAU gold holdings are approximately $417.78 million, also ranking second in the industry.

Goldman Sachs Research released a viewpoint on September 18, stating that AI is transitioning from the experimental phase to the implementation phase, with the rise of consumer-grade AI agents marking the emergence of the platform layer. At the Communacopia + Technology Conference held in San Francisco, most companies showcased cases from experimentation to implementation. Goldman Sachs expects that by 2027, capital expenditures for U.S. mega-cap companies will reach $1.4 trillion, exceeding Wall Street consensus.Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan stated that consumer-grade AI agents are shifting from conversational relationships to action-oriented tasks. If consumers overcome trust and security issues, they could execute complex tasks such as purchasing tickets and booking hotels. The monetization of such agents in the mass market will be similar to search, achieved through advertising and subscriptions. AI is evolving from the infrastructure layer to the platform layer and application layer, with declining token unit pricing and increased utility being key drivers of mass adoption.During the conference, concerns about AI risks became a major topic, but Goldman Sachs believes this will not slow down infrastructure construction, as demand for computing power still exceeds supply and most projects have already been contracted. Supply chain constraints such as memory chips, electricity, and land may pose resistance, but the capital expenditure cycle is expected to remain high through 2027.

On September 14, the Japanese stock market's real estate, retail, and IT service sectors performed actively. According to Gate platform's Japanese stock market data, Rand (8918) rose by 10.00%, currently reported at approximately 0.07 USD; Kobe Bussan (3038) increased by 6.35%, currently reported at approximately 21.00 USD; SHIFT (3697) saw an increase of 6.05%, currently reported at approximately 6.00 USD.

The consumer version of the Doubao Mobile Assistant under ByteDance has been officially released. This assistant is based on the Doubao App and collaborates with mobile manufacturers at the system level, exploring the application of AI in mobile phones around core experiences such as interaction, task execution, local memory, and retrieval.Compared to the technical preview version launched at the end of last year, this consumer version emphasizes stability and everyday usability. The first consumer version will be equipped on the Nubia NaviX Ultra phone, which is currently available for pre-order and will be officially released on September 16.

The AI content detection platform Pangram has released a trend analysis of market share changes for AI model providers over the past two years based on its text detection model's classification analysis of user-submitted content. The data shows that OpenAI's model market share has never fallen below 50%, maintaining its leading position; Anthropic's share has increased from 4.3% in 2024 to 14.9% in July 2026, reflecting the growing attention on Claude in the technology and science fields; Google's model market share has sharply dropped from an early 12% to 1.9%, marking the most significant decline.When compared with similar data from OpenRouter, the trend of Google's declining share is confirmed by both data sources. By subject area, OpenAI's model is more commonly used in daily life and the humanities, while Anthropic and Google's models have a higher share in programming technology and scientific fields, but the overall differences are not significant. Pangram notes that both data sources have their biases, but the consistency in trends indicates that Google is significantly losing market share in the consumer end of AI language models.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Governor Cook stated that low consumer confidence is related to various factors such as high inflation.

According to a report by Jinshi, the economic bulletin released by the European Central Bank on Monday pointed out that after the outbreak of the Iran war, household consumption in the Eurozone has significantly declined, mainly due to a sharp deterioration in consumer confidence. In April of this year, the decline in Eurozone consumption reached twice the historical trend forecast level, with the scale of impact comparable to the household consumption response after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022.Data shows that since mid-2024, the nominal consumption growth rate in the Eurozone has averaged around 3% to 4%, but in April of this year, it dropped to about 2.5% year-on-year. The slowdown in consumption is mainly driven by higher-income households reducing non-essential spending.

According to Jinshi reports, the U.S. Treasury Secretary stated that current core inflation is at a low level, and consumer confidence remains strong.

Recently, market capital flows have favored defensive consumption and leading retail stocks, driving multiple consumer-related assets in the Gate platform's gStocks sector to rise. According to the latest data from Gate, KOG/USDT (Coca-Cola) has seen a 24-hour increase of 5.51%, currently priced at $88.73, with a 24-hour high of $90.23. Meanwhile, home retail and supermarket leaders have also risen, with HDG/USDT (Home Depot) currently at $344.23, up 2.43% in 24 hours; WMTG/USDT (Walmart) is currently at $114.39, up 1.69% in 24 hours. Overall, consumer and retail gStocks have shown active performance, becoming one of the main upward directions in today's sector.

Recently, market capital flows have favored defensive consumer and retail leaders, driving multiple consumer-related stocks in the Gate platform's gStocks sector to rise. According to the latest data from Gate, KOG/USDT (Coca-Cola) has increased by 5.51% in 24 hours, currently priced at $88.73, with a 24-hour high of $90.23. Meanwhile, home retail and supermarket leaders have also risen, with HDG/USDT (Home Depot) currently at $344.23, up 2.43% in 24 hours; and WMTG/USDT (Walmart) currently at $114.39, up 1.69% in 24 hours. Overall, consumer and retail gStocks have shown active performance, becoming one of the main upward directions in today's sector.

On July 29, according to WEEX TradFi market data, funds continue to gather in the technology and consumer sectors. Among them, the semiconductor and software sectors performed actively, with SOXS rising over 13.02% in 24 hours, FIGMA rising 6.21%, ADBE rising 5.40%, and CRM rising 4.46%; in the large consumer sector, KO rose 6.08% and PEP rose 3.74%; in the financial payment sector, PYPL rose 4.07% and MA rose 3.71%. WEEX Labs believes that after a significant pullback in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on the previous trading day, a recovery has occurred, combined with the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and the concentrated release of large tech company earnings reports, funds have begun to reposition around performance expectations and event-driven strategies. Currently, WEEX's "TradFi Trading Carnival Season" is underway.

According to Jinshi, the U.S. Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell from a revised 92.2 in June to 90.8 in July, below the forecast of 92.3. Households' views on the labor market remain generally weak.The Conference Board's Chief Economist, Dana Peterson, stated that consumer feedback on economic factors in July remained predominantly pessimistic, with a slight increase in mentions of employment and unemployment.

Recently, market funds have continued to concentrate on high-growth assets, driving multiple popular targets in the Gate platform's gStocks sector to strengthen collectively. According to the latest data from Gate, the AI giant PLTRG/USDT (Palantir Technologies) leads with a 24-hour increase of 5.49%, currently priced at $131.02.At the same time, consumer and financial giants are also performing strongly. COSTG/USDT (Costco) is currently priced at $955.75, up 2.36% in 24 hours; VG/USDT (Visa) is currently priced at $363.28, up 2.30% in 24 hours; WMTG/USDT (Walmart) is currently priced at $112.42, up 2.23% in 24 hours.Gate gStocks adopts a 1:1 full native stock reserve mechanism, where each tokenized security corresponds to an equal number of native stocks as underlying asset support. It supports 24/7 trading, unified account management, and a minimum investment of 1 USDT with fractional share trading. Users can participate more flexibly in global popular stock investments, achieving a one-stop allocation of digital assets and traditional securities. As the ecosystem of tokenized securities continues to enrich, Gate gStocks will continue to expand more quality stocks and ETF targets, providing users with more diverse global asset allocation options.

According to the latest survey by TrendForce, in June, the top three MLCC suppliers in Japan and South Korea (Murata, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Taiyo Yuden) achieved a monthly shipment volume that reached a nearly five-year high, with 140 billion, 98 billion, and 40 billion units respectively, and the growth momentum continued into July. AI applications are the main driving force, with CSP manufacturers maintaining strong procurement demand for self-developed ASIC platforms such as Google TPU and AWS Trainium, driving continuous growth in demand for high-capacity, low-voltage, small-sized MLCCs.At the same time, Japanese and South Korean suppliers are accelerating the shift of production capacity from consumer-grade X5R to high-end X6S/X7R specifications, resulting in a severe squeeze on the production capacity of mid-to-high capacity (1µF-22µF) consumer-grade MLCCs, with mainstream inventory days generally falling below 30 days. The overflow effect of production capacity has led channels, agents, and second- and third-tier customers to urgently pull goods, significantly increasing order visibility for Taiwanese and mainland suppliers, leading to rising prices, with agents raising prices by an average of 20-25%, and spot market prices have soared to 2-3 times the original price. TrendForce pointed out that the consumer-grade MLCC market currently shows a structural mismatch of "weak end demand, strong channel pricing."

The rotation of hot spots in the US stock market continues, with strong performances from steel, healthcare, and entertainment consumer-related stocks. Data from the Gate platform shows that the top three stocks in terms of gains in the US market are Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF), up 15.87%; Medpace Holdings (MEDP), up 15.06%; and IMAX Corporation (IMAX), up 11.98%. Among them, CLF's single-day gain is close to 16%, reflecting the increasing attention of market funds on cyclical manufacturing and consumer service-related stocks.

According to Jinshi reports, Samuel Tombs of Pantheon pointed out that the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index rose from 49.5 in June to 54.4, exceeding economists' expectations of 50.5, but still below last year's average level. He stated that the decline in inflation expectations provides some comfort to the Federal Reserve, although Chairman Waller's tough rhetoric failed to further lower expectations.At the same time, the "lack of leverage" for workers means that the likelihood of wage growth rising due to the recent overall inflation rebound is very low.

The Clarity Act will establish clear federal rules for centralized platforms, brokers, dealers, and custodians used by consumers to buy, sell, and hold digital assets, covering registration, regulation, disclosure, custody, asset segregation, market integrity, conflicts of interest, fraud prevention, and bankruptcy matters.Since the collapse of FTX nearly four years ago, many consumers have been unable to confirm the location of their assets, whether their assets are separated from platform funds, and how their assets will be handled in the event of the company's failure. Regulatory agencies, bankruptcy courts, and law enforcement agencies have since addressed these issues.