Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving money.
Energy markets are front and center today, with crude oil finding its footing despite early pressure. West Texas Intermediate settled up nearly half a percent as concerns over Middle East supply disruptions kept a floor under prices. Saudi Arabia has faced a fresh wave of attacks, reminding traders just how fragile regional output can be.
Feeding into the broader energy complex, natural gas surged more than three and a half percent on Tuesday, its sharpest single-session move in weeks. The catalyst was a surge in LNG export flows to US terminals, hitting nearly twenty billion cubic feet per day — the highest level in five and a half months. Tighter domestic supply is doing exactly what the market expects it to do: pushing prices higher.
Away from the trading floor, a significant headline from Rome. Pope Leo, seventy-one years old, has been diagnosed with lung cancer following surgery to remove the lower lobe of his right lung. The geopolitical and humanitarian weight of that news is considerable, and markets will watch for any broader implications as the story develops.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
