Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving right now.
Oil is pulling back Friday as Saudi Arabia signals it can cover supply gaps left by Houthi disruptions in the Red Sea. The market read that as enough cushion to sell into, with prices easing despite the ongoing strike activity. When supply assurances come from Riyadh, traders tend to believe them.
Shifting to commodities across the board, agricultural futures are under broad pressure. Cotton is off as much as one hundred eighty-eight points on weak export demand, with just seventy-one thousand round bales sold in the latest week. Corn is also slipping one to two cents, and lean hog futures are mixed after thin volume left the USDA's national base price unreported Thursday morning. It's a soft tape across the ag complex.
And in the labor story that keeps building, Uber employees are pointing to artificial intelligence as a quiet factor behind the company's recent layoffs. Workers say AI tools were already handling customer support responses and fielding internal Slack questions. Uber framed the cuts as a management restructuring, but the line between automation and headcount reduction is getting harder to draw.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
