Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk.
Amazon Web Services is raising prices on key AI cloud offerings by twenty percent, following a fifteen percent hike just this past January. The driver is a tightening memory chip market, where surging demand has pushed Micron and SK Hynix to record highs. Cloud customers are absorbing the costs, and there is no relief in sight as AI infrastructure spending accelerates.
Feeding directly into that chip story, Apple is now seeking White House approval to purchase memory chips from a blacklisted Chinese supplier. The iPhone maker is feeling the squeeze from rising semiconductor prices and is betting the Trump administration will grant an exemption rather than watch supply chains tighten further. It is a delicate diplomatic and commercial calculation with real consequences for Apple's margins.
Meanwhile the dollar is softening today as crude oil falls more than three percent. Lower oil prices ease inflation expectations, which in turn reduces the urgency for the Federal Reserve to hold rates elevated. A more dovish rate outlook pulls capital away from dollar-denominated assets, and that dynamic is playing out in real time across currency markets this session.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
