CNBC Daily Open: Trump lashes out at electoral system and China in fiery speech

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London.

Happy Friday! We are ending a volatile trading week with President Donald Trump dominating the headlines. His overnight speech in Washington started with a bang, as he called for TV networks refusing to broadcast the speech to have their licenses revoked.

Here are the details...

President Donald Trump has used his prime-time address to the nation on Thursday night to accuse China of extensive meddling in the 2020 election. Further sowing doubts on the U.S. voting system, Trump said there are "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure."

He alleged that newly declassified documents posted to the White House website show China carried out the "illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files" starting in 2020, when Trump was president.

The accusations could complicate a fragile trade truce between the U.S. and China, while also casting a shadow over Chinese President Xi Jinping upcoming visit to Washington DC, set for September 24.

Meanwhile, President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator has been suspended after coming under federal investigation over alleged bets made on prediction market platform Kalshi. The operator allegedly made more than $90,000 in trading profits related to statements made by Trump.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the operator had been placed on unpaid leave, saying the President believes "it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace."

Separately, Trump Media and Technology Group has launched a paid-for data feed that will allow trading firms "the fastest" access to Trump's Truth Social posts. The product, due to be released on August 1, is called "Truth API" and will cover the 10 accounts on Trump's social network for algorithmic trading firms.

Asian chip stocks are tracking Wall Street's AI sell-off lower, with the declines concentrated in Japan. South Korean markets are closed for a public holiday, so stocks like Softbank and TSMC have attracted the most intense selling.

"Another wipe out for U.S. tech and AI with recent momentum winners taking another leg lower after TSMC's earnings yesterday in Asia were not seen as strong enough to justify further upside for the sector and raising concerns over excessive spending," said Andrew Jackson, strategist at Ortus Advisors.

Shares in Netflix fell over 8% in after-hours trading after the streaming giant disappointed investors with its latest earnings forecast. The group described content engagement as "healthy," with live events as a particular area of strength.

But co-CEO Greg Peters told the earnings call that "there is not a linear relationship between viewing hours and revenue and profit, because all hours are not created equal."

— Leonie Kidd

Has Nike lost its ‘cool’ factor? LeBron James weighs in

LeBron James has still not picked which NBA team he will play for next. In one of his first public appearances since telling the Los Angeles Lakers that he would become a free agent, James, appearing at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit, told Boardroom's Rich Kleinman that he will be playing somewhere else and that he "won't hold you guys up too much longer."

But what is not up in the air is what shoes he'll be wearing, with James' storied career being closely tied to Nike

— Ian Thomas