Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets right now.
Brent crude touched one hundred ten dollars a barrel today as Iran escalated attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, tightening one of the world's most critical shipping chokepoints. Ukraine's pledge to strike Russian refineries added further pressure, and ExxonMobil is already positioned to benefit, with refining margins expected to lift third quarter profits by four and a half billion dollars for the energy giant.
The broader market is feeling the strain from a different direction. CoreWeave dropped twelve percent Friday, putting the AI infrastructure company down twenty five percent on the week after Bloomberg flagged a sharp rise in its bond yields, raising serious questions about whether cash flow can keep pace with its aggressive expansion. Wall Street's fear gauge, the VIX, crossed twenty two for the first time in four months on the back of that AI selloff, and a cluster of options trades is signaling traders expect volatility to climb even further from here.
Meanwhile, Apple raised eyebrows with a pricing move that has even loyal customers balking. The new Apple TV four K arrives at two hundred ninety nine dollars, more than double the one hundred twenty nine dollar entry price it carried earlier this year, and the early consumer reaction has been decidedly cold.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
