Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets.
Big Tech earnings dominated the tape, with Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft all reporting results that underscored one central theme: AI capital expenditure is accelerating, not slowing. The spending commitments out of these three alone are reshaping expectations for infrastructure, chips, and cloud capacity well into two thousand twenty six and beyond.
Merck added a bright spot in healthcare, beating quarterly estimates on the continued strength of Keytruda, its blockbuster cancer therapy, while new product contributions helped management narrow full-year sales guidance and raise its adjusted profit outlook, a combination that signals confidence in the pipeline without overpromising on top-line growth.
Meanwhile, global investors appear to be looking past the ongoing Iran conflict, rotating back into Asian equities with conviction. Strategists at Saxo Bank note Asia was already outperforming before hostilities escalated, and the region's deep manufacturing exposure to the AI supply chain — semiconductors, components, assembly — is drawing sustained institutional interest from South Korea to Japan to China.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
