Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the macro landscape.
The U.S. and Iran have now held fire for a second consecutive day, with Tehran engaged in active talks through Oman toward an interim ceasefire. The pause follows nearly two weeks of escalating strikes on Iranian coastal infrastructure. Hormuz remains the pressure point — any disruption to that strait would ripple hard through global energy markets.
Turning to equities, the Buffett indicator is flashing again. That's the ratio of total U.S. market capitalization to gross domestic product, and it's back in territory Buffett himself has called playing with fire. Historically, readings at these elevated levels have preceded significant drawdowns, though timing the turn has humbled plenty of investors who acted too early.
And in the AI software space, Palantir is drawing fresh comparisons to ServiceNow as a long-term compounder. Palantir posted eighty-five percent revenue growth year over year in its most recent quarter, with two point four billion dollars in total contract value. ServiceNow remains the enterprise incumbent, but Palantir's government and commercial AI pipeline is closing the credibility gap faster than skeptics expected.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
