Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving markets right now.
Crude oil is taking a sharp hit today, with West Texas Intermediate down more than four percent as the Middle East ceasefire continues to hold. Easing geopolitical risk is pulling the risk premium out of energy markets, and gasoline futures are falling in tandem, off more than three percent on the session.
Shifting to soft commodities, sugar prices are climbing to one-month highs, extending a two-week rally on the back of a stronger Brazilian real. Because Brazil is the world's dominant sugar exporter, currency strength there makes dollar-denominated sugar more expensive on global markets, and traders are pricing that in accordingly.
And on the legal front, five major publishing houses along with author Scott Turow have filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg personally, alleging the company used millions of copyrighted books without authorization to train its Llama artificial intelligence system. This opens a significant new front in the broader fight between content creators and AI developers over intellectual property rights.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
