Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets right now.
Oil is the story driving global risk appetite today. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude posted their steepest single-session declines in two months after Washington paused its strikes against Iran, stoking hopes of a broader truce. Eased Middle East tensions pulled the geopolitical premium right out of crude pricing.
That oil selloff sent ripples east almost immediately. Indian equities rallied sharply as cheaper crude eases the country's import bill and takes pressure off inflation expectations. With the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan all meeting this week, markets are reading lower oil as a gift to central bankers navigating a delicate policy moment.
Meanwhile in tech and energy, Meta has quietly exited a major clean energy pact it had signed more than a decade ago, pivoting toward natural gas to power its expanding artificial intelligence data centers. The move signals a hard-nosed acknowledgment that AI's electricity demands are outrunning what renewables can reliably deliver at scale, and it puts real pressure on the sector's green commitments.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
