Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets right now.
The biggest macro shock hitting trading floors today is Washington's reinstatement of a naval blockade on Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with the Trump administration proposing a twenty percent transit fee on cargo moving through the waterway. Crude is surging on the news, and the ripple hit Asian markets hard, with Indian equities opening sharply lower as traders repriced energy risk across the region.
Turning to China, monthly data out ahead of second-quarter GDP figures is painting a troubled picture, with weakness in both retail sales and fixed investment raising serious questions about the durability of Beijing's recovery. With trade tensions already biting, economists are watching whether stimulus measures can offset what's becoming a broadening domestic demand problem.
And in the tech space, Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami is pushing back against the AI euphoria gripping Silicon Valley, saying the technology gets too much credit and is still too error-prone to replace meaningful human work. His candor carries weight given Wix is itself running an AI coding platform, and his comments land as Wix shares have shed nearly half their value this year amid broader SaaS sector anxiety.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
