Good evening, this is Markets Desk with the stories moving the tape right now.
Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, striking a commercial vessel it claims was using an unauthorized route. The IRGC confirmed the hit, with Centcom reporting a crew member missing. The White House has not commented, but US forces have already launched retaliatory strikes in the waterway, putting one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints in direct conflict.
The geopolitical pressure on oil markets compounds an already fragile macro environment, and traders will be watching crude futures closely at the open. Roughly twenty percent of global oil supply transits the Strait daily, meaning any sustained closure would send energy prices sharply higher and ripple through inflation expectations and Fed rate path assumptions almost immediately.
Separately, Meta is walking a careful line on privacy after updating its Ray-Ban AI smart glasses to disable recording if the indicator light is tampered with. That sounds like a safety measure, but the company is simultaneously testing a so-called super-sensing prototype, raising fresh questions about where consumer hardware ends and surveillance begins, a conversation regulators in both Washington and Brussels are watching closely.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
