Brent crude surged above $100 a barrel as U.S. strikes on five Iranian tankers triggered retaliatory attacks across the Persian Gulf, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.85%. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% while a disappointing $6 billion Treasury buyback deepened the bond sell-off. ASX 200 futures point to a 1% drop as markets await Thursday’s PPI and Friday’s CPI for Fed rate hike clarity.
Wall Street posted a second straight week of gains as markets shrugged off a fresh round of US strikes on Iran and Tehran’s declaration that the Strait of Hormuz is closed. SK Hynix surged 13% on its record $26.5 billion Nasdaq debut while the RBA flagged rising default risks across Australia’s $250 billion private credit sector.
A chip-led rebound powered Wall Street higher as the S&P 500 rose 0.8% to 7,541.83 and the Nasdaq surged 1.3%, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index clawing back more than 5% over two sessions. SK Hynix priced its record $26.5 billion U.S. ADR debut while crude pulled back sharply after Trump said Iran wanted a deal. SPI futures point to a flat ASX open at 8,741.
Trump declared the U.S.–Iran ceasefire “over” at the NATO summit in Ankara as the military launched a second day of strikes, sending Brent crude surging 5.9% to $78.55 after briefly topping $80. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.2% gain on a chip rebound after China signalled it would allow AI firms to buy Nvidia H200s. Fed minutes revealed an evenly split committee on rate hikes, and ASX 200 futures point to a 49-point drop at the open.
Chip stocks hammered as Samsung’s record profit fails to impress. US strikes Iran, revokes oil waiver after Hormuz tanker attacks. Crude surges 5%. Most S&P 500 stocks rose — rotation, not retreat.
US stocks rallied to close out what’s shaping up as the best quarter in six years, with the Dow hitting a record 52,182 as Alphabet made its blue-chip debut. Tech bounced hard after last week’s AI-driven selloff, while the yen slid to 40-year lows and US-Iran talks in Doha offered a fragile path to de-escalation.