Good morning, you're tuned in to Markets Desk, and here's what's moving the tape.
ASML raised its full-year sales forecast for the second time this year, citing relentless demand from chipmakers scaling up artificial intelligence production capacity. When the world's only maker of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines lifts guidance twice in a single year, it tells you the AI buildout is not slowing down — it's accelerating.
Shifting to energy, crude oil is pushing to a one-month high after the US-Iran truce collapsed, with West Texas Intermediate up roughly one percent and gasoline futures climbing nearly one and a half percent on the session. Supply risk premiums are back in play, and traders are watching the Middle East corridor closely for any further deterioration that could tighten global supply further.
And on the regulatory front, trust in the FDA is under serious pressure, with confidence among patients, innovators, and investors eroding over concerns that science may be losing its grip on agency decision-making. For biotech and pharmaceutical markets, regulatory predictability is not a soft issue — it directly affects how capital prices drug development pipelines and clinical trial risk.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
