Good morning, you're tuned in to Markets Desk, let's get you caught up on what's moving.
Oil is pulling back sharply today after President Trump announced what he's calling an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, signaling potential progress toward winding down a conflict that has kept a floor under global energy prices for years. Adding to the downward pressure, Iran has reportedly offered to mediate between Yemen's Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which traders are reading as a meaningful reduction in Middle East supply risk. Brent and WTI are both sliding on the combination.
Turning to tech, all eyes are on Microsoft heading into its earnings report on October twenty-eighth. The company guided investors toward Azure cloud revenue growth of forty-four to forty-five percent in constant currency for the quarter ended September thirtieth. That's an extraordinarily high bar to clear, but given the AI infrastructure buildout driving enterprise cloud demand, the market will be watching closely for any sign of deceleration.
And in Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are both expected to open higher on Monday after a rough stretch. The Hang Seng stabilized just above twenty-four thousand two hundred after a two-day drop of roughly five hundred points, while the Taiwan Stock Exchange is looking to recover from a slide exceeding five hundred ten points over consecutive sessions. Regional sentiment appears to be steadying.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
