Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving and why.
Crude oil gave back early gains Thursday, with June WTI settling down nearly one point seven percent as demand signals out of global markets continued to soften. Gasoline told a different story, touching a three-and-three-quarter-year high, reflecting tight domestic refinery supply even as the broader energy complex weakened.
Shifting to equities, Apple's incoming chief executive John Ternus made his first public remarks since being named to succeed Tim Cook, crediting what he called the most popular iPhone ever for driving a strong sales period. Ternus pledged continued discipline in product development, a signal to investors that Apple's measured approach to margins and innovation isn't changing at the top.
And in index news, S&P Dow Jones Indices is weighing fast-track entry rules that would relax profitability requirements for companies seeking inclusion in the S&P five hundred. The timing is notable — SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are all reportedly moving toward public offerings, and a structural change of this kind could reshape how mega-private companies enter benchmark indices and, by extension, passive fund portfolios.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
