Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving and why.
Cotton futures are the standout commodity story right now, posting gains of one hundred ninety three to two hundred seventy six points at midday. The weakness in the dollar index, off roughly a quarter point to just under ninety nine, is giving raw materials room to breathe, and crude oil climbing a dollar thirty three to one hundred six seventy five is reinforcing that broader commodity bid.
Shifting to utilities and what could be a defining infrastructure deal of the AI era, NextEra and Dominion are in talks over a proposed megadeal that would effectively consolidate control over what's known as data centre alley in the United States. The appetite for power from AI infrastructure is no longer a future concern — it's a present pricing event, and this deal would put two of the country's largest utilities at the center of that conversation.
Meanwhile, Horizon Kinetics made a notable first quarter move into Hawaiian Electric, picking up roughly two point two million shares at an estimated cost of nearly thirty four million dollars. For utility investors, a bet that size from a value-oriented fund suggests the market may be pricing in too much downside on Hawaiian Electric following its wildfire liability exposure — a contrarian signal worth watching.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
