Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money.
Crude oil is holding just above seventy dollars a barrel as traders parse contradictory signals out of Washington and Tehran over whether talks in Doha are actually happening. The uncertainty is doing what uncertainty always does — keeping a floor under prices without giving bulls a clear reason to push higher.
Turning to equities, the Magnificent Seven shed two point three trillion dollars in combined market value as investors grow increasingly impatient waiting for returns on staggering AI infrastructure spending. The selloff reflects a broader question the market is finally asking out loud — when does capital expenditure become earnings, and how long are shareholders willing to wait?
That AI spending pressure connects directly to what's happening in India, where IT stocks led the Sensex lower on Tuesday. Fed rate hike concerns and foreign institutional selling were already weighing on sentiment, but with the first-quarter earnings season approaching, investors are reassessing valuations in a sector that has priced in a great deal of optimism.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
