Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving capital and conversation.
Goldman Sachs is sounding the alarm on the Strait of Hormuz, warning that tightening conditions in that critical chokepoint are pushing energy costs sharply higher. The bank's commodities team notes the energy index climbed five point two percent in September alone, with rising fuel prices feeding directly into broader consumer goods inflation — a feedback loop that complicates the Fed's path considerably.
Shifting to crypto, Kraken's parent company Payward has agreed to acquire Saldo Bank, a Lithuanian regulated institution, in a deal expected to close in twenty twenty seven pending regulatory approval. The move signals Kraken's ambition to embed itself into everyday banking — deposits, lending, the full stack — well before and well after any Bitcoin transaction clears. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic will be watching closely.
And in enterprise software, SAP delivered a number long-term investors will want to sit with — current cloud backlog surged twenty six percent year over year to twenty four point one billion euros. That figure speaks to the durability of SAP's transition away from legacy licensing and toward recurring cloud revenue, which tends to command a premium multiple in any rate environment.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
