Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
Crude oil is pulling back today after an early rally ran out of steam, with August WTI futures slipping roughly eight-tenths of a percent as supply concerns ease and more barrels find their way to market. RBOB gasoline is bucking that trend, edging slightly higher, keeping the energy picture mixed heading into the session.
Shifting to tech, Amazon is making a billion-dollar bet on enterprise AI adoption, dispatching engineers directly to corporate clients in a move that mirrors Palantir's hands-on deployment model. It signals that the AI arms race is no longer just about cloud infrastructure — it's about boots on the ground, ensuring the technology actually gets used.
And on the macro side, a striking picture is emerging out of Russia, where a record sixty percent of citizens now report pessimism about their country's economic outlook. The sentiment shift was catalyzed in part by a viral moment from Monaco-based influencer Victoria Bonya, whose candid remarks about Russian society ignited a wave of public discontent that spread far beyond social media and into the broader national conversation.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
