Welcome to Markets Desk, here's where things stand.
Equities are splitting along a familiar fault line today. The Dow is holding gains of nearly seven tenths of a percent, but the Nasdaq one hundred is off one and a half percent as chipmakers drag the index lower. The S&P sits just below the flat line, caught between those two competing forces.
Pulling in the same direction as that tech weakness, crude oil is having a rough session. West Texas Intermediate is down nearly four percent, falling to a one-week low after optimism around Iran nuclear negotiations added pressure on top of Monday's sharp losses. Gasoline futures are also sliding, which takes some heat off the inflation picture but signals demand concern is creeping back in.
Meanwhile, the bond market is watching Big Tech's spending habits very closely. Alphabet and Tesla have already shown the strain of soaring artificial intelligence investment on free cash flow, and the question now is whether Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon face similar pressure when they report. Investors are beginning to price in the possibility that this AI buildout has a cost that earnings alone cannot easily absorb.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
