Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and why.
Crude oil is surging today, with West Texas Intermediate up more than two percent after President Trump rejected Iran's latest response to his peace proposal, keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed to shipping traffic. With that critical chokepoint still blocked, energy markets are pricing in sustained supply disruption, and gasoline futures are following crude higher in lockstep.
Turning to soft commodities, sugar is also catching a bid, with New York world sugar up more than two percent on the session. The catalyst there is a Citigroup projection putting Brazil's two thousand twenty six to twenty seven production at thirty-nine point five million metric tons, a figure that sits well below Brazil's own official Conab estimate and raises real questions about how tight global supplies could get heading into the next crop cycle.
And in equities, AST SpaceMobile is drawing fresh investor attention ahead of its upcoming earnings report. The satellite broadband company, which competes in the same commercial space as SpaceX's Starlink, is riding optimism around recent speed breakthroughs in its technology, with bulls betting the earnings print will validate what the stock has already started to price in.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
