Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk.
Corporate America is beating the earnings bar by a wider margin than usual, and artificial intelligence is getting a lot of the credit. The information technology sector is leading the charge, with forward guidance coming in well above consensus — a signal that AI-driven efficiency gains are starting to show up meaningfully on the bottom line, not just in executive talking points.
Shifting to geopolitics, and the Strait of Hormuz is back in focus after an Iranian cargo vessel was struck off Qeshm Island, killing one and wounding four. The attack comes just one day before Tehran planned to brief regional nations on its shipping management efforts. Oman is pushing that Hormuz dialogue as a way to assert that regional powers, not outside actors, should determine the strait's future — a framing that puts Washington in a delicate position.
And back home, election security researchers are raising fresh alarms about a vulnerability in Georgia's voting equipment that could allow ballots to be matched back to individual voters. With artificial intelligence advancing rapidly, experts say the window to fix this before the next major election cycle is narrowing fast, and state officials are drawing sharp criticism for the pace of their response.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
