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Xi Jinping used a high-profile address to position China as the AI partner of choice for the developing world, pledging five thousand training and seminar opportunities and deepening cooperation across regional blocs. The move is a clear strategic play — Beijing framing itself as a benign alternative to Western tech infrastructure while quietly expanding its sphere of influence through AI diplomacy.
Shifting to earnings, Intuitive Surgical delivered a strong second quarter, posting higher net income year over year and offering full-year two thousand twenty six guidance that signals management confidence in procedure volume recovery. The robotic surgery platform has been a bellwether for premium med-tech spending, and investors will watch that guidance closely for signs of durability in hospital capital budgets.
Meanwhile, IBM is commanding attention for the wrong reasons — shares are down twenty-six percent after the company flagged weak preliminary results for the second quarter, erasing all of its year-to-date gains in a single session. The question now is whether that selloff has created a value entry point given IBM's dividend, or whether the earnings miss signals deeper structural pressure in its consulting and infrastructure segments. That debate is very much live on the floor today.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
