Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving.
Crude oil extended its slide Wednesday, falling to a three-week low as diplomatic progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz continued to weigh on prices. West Texas Intermediate settled down nearly three quarters of a percent, and gasoline futures hit their lowest level in nearly five months, signaling that the geopolitical risk premium built into energy markets is unwinding fast.
Shifting to tech, Meta entered the coding agent race with a new product called Muse Code, positioning it as a lower-cost alternative to Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex. The move puts Meta squarely in one of the most competitive corners of the AI market right now, where software engineering automation is quickly becoming a key battleground for enterprise customers and developer loyalty.
And in the EV space, Lucid's new chief executive Silvio Napoli made a candid admission — the company launched its first two vehicles before they were ready, leaving customers with software problems and eroded confidence. Napoli is now pushing the midsize Cosmos back to two thousand twenty seven, prioritizing quality over speed to market in a segment where trust is already razor thin.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
