Good morning, you're listening to Markets Desk.
IonQ is making headlines in the quantum computing space after securing two billion dollars in fresh capital from Susquehanna International Group affiliate Heights Capital Management. What makes this raise remarkable is the context — Heights paid ninety-three dollars a share in a previous transaction back in October of twenty twenty five, well above where the stock had ever traded. Now they're back, signaling serious conviction in IonQ's trajectory at a moment when quantum is moving from laboratory curiosity to institutional asset class.
Turning to energy markets, Brent crude is sitting at one hundred six dollars and sixty-seven cents per barrel this morning, down just over two dollars from yesterday but still running roughly seventy percent above where it was a year ago. That year-over-year surge is the number that matters for inflation watchers and central bankers alike, keeping pressure on input costs across manufacturing, transport, and consumer goods well into the fourth quarter.
And a story with both geopolitical and financial dimensions — two cargo ships have reportedly sunk near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Wall Street Journal's morning risk report, which also flags a congressional probe finding that major banks including JPMorgan cut off customers across the political spectrum. The Hormuz development bears watching closely given oil's already elevated trajectory and the corridor's outsized role in global energy supply.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
