finance

Brent Crude Hits Wartime High with Little Mideast Progress

Source: Bloomberg Business

Good morning. Oil hits a wartime record. Big Tech delivers a flood of earnings. And Europe's central bankers will decide on rates today. Listen to the day's top stories.

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures	7,154.50	-0.2%
Nasdaq 100 futures	27,276.25	-0.2%
WTI crude oil futures	$109.46	+2.4%

Market data as of 06:34 AM GMT. Data is subject to provider delays.

Brent crude rallied to a wartime high of $126 after Axios reported that Donald Trump will be briefed today about new military options in Iran. The US president had earlier told the news outlet that he would not lift his naval blockade without a nuclear deal.

A frenzied Wednesday of earnings showed Alphabet and Amazon outpacing Meta in artificial-intelligence progress. Microsoft posted firmer revenues. European banks including Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale outstripped expectations.

The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged but was deeply divided at Jerome Powell's last meeting as chair, with some dissenting over its easing bias. That means incoming Trump pick Kevin Warsh may meet more resistance toward immediate rate cuts as he moves closer to heading the central bank.

The European Central Bank and Bank of England are up next, with both set to hold rates today while policymakers bide time on responding to economic fallout from the Iran war.

Anthropic's plan to expand access to its Mythos AI model is being opposed by the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported. Separately, the company is considering funding offers that would value it at more than $900 billion, according to people familiar.

Deep Dive: Kosovo's Tech Saviors

From the rooftop terrace of Kosovo's innovation center, Shpend Lila pointed out a red-brick building. The modernist structure was Pristina's tallest until it was dwarfed by high-rises housing a growing mix of tech companies.

That vibrant IT scene isn't just changing the city's skyline, but helping it curb one of its most stubborn postwar economic problems: high youth unemployment.
Education, urban infrastructure and tax incentives still need improving before the nation can set off a tech boom and slow a long-running brain drain.
In the meantime, Pristina’s innovation center has seen thousands of students come through its doors to work in tech. SPEEEX, a business processing outsource firm based in the city, is one of Kosovo’s largest private employers and looks on track to become the country’s first unicorn.
That would "change the entire economy," said Vigan Disha, a 33-year-old chief business officer at SPEEEX. "My message is simple: Don't leave Kosovo, find your path here."

The Big Take

India's Homegrown $1 Billion High-Speed Trading Unicorn Goes Global

Graviton is expanding in Singapore and London as competition and regulatory hurdles build in its home market.

Opinion

The royals' visit to Washington missed an opportunity to tell a uniquely American story, writes Nia-Malika Henderson. By keeping the King and Queen within the White House's walls, the Trumps offered few moments for average citizens to feel like they were part of a historical moment, highlighting how sequestered the first couple has become in their second term.

Before You Go

The Pentagon's $25 billion price tag for war may be missing key costs. Top US officials put the figure forward at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, but analysts say it fails to fully factor in costs of repairing damaged Middle East facilities, operational expenses, munitions and the Pentagon's own rising fuel bills. Watch one senator's statement earlier this month that even the $2 billion-a-day estimate he'd been given was "a low-ball figure."