Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the broader economy.
Oil is back in positive territory after a choppy session, with prices recovering from an early morning slide as tensions across the Middle East show no sign of cooling. Traders are watching the conflict closely, and any escalation from here could tighten the supply picture considerably.
Shifting to tech, Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone, and the question on Wall Street isn't whether they can build it — it's whether consumers will actually buy it. Foldables have struggled to gain traction beyond early adopters, and Apple, famously disciplined about product launches, is taking a genuine risk entering a category that Samsung and others have spent years trying to normalize.
Meanwhile, in the quantum computing space, three companies have landed a combined one hundred million dollars in government funding, with Rigetti emerging as a name worth watching given its lead in processing speed. Federal backing of this scale signals that Washington is treating quantum as a strategic priority, not a science experiment, and that kind of institutional validation tends to move capital quickly.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
