Finance

Crude oil futures jumped significantly following reports that the United States is deploying additional troops and a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. International benchmark Brent crude crossed the $102 threshold per barrel, while domestic West Texas Intermediate also notched solid gains. This rise underscores a persistent geopolitical risk premium affecting energy models amidst stalling diplomatic negotiations.

The tech sector experienced a notable boost driven by robust quarterly earnings results from memory manufacturer Micron Technology, which underscored enduring market demand for artificial intelligence hardware infrastructure. The buoyant AI trade was additionally bolstered by news regarding Alphabet rolling out its latest Gemini 4 Argon model. Despite corporate margin worries regarding increased employee compensation, chipmaker stocks managed to lead the broader indexes out of early afternoon losses.

The digital asset market observed stable but cautious trading as Bitcoin kicked off the historically bullish month of October just above the $83,000 range. This follows a strong performance in September, which historically tends to yield negative returns for digital currencies. However, near-term momentum cooled as a consecutive nine-day run of institutional inflows into Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds officially concluded with notable capital outflows.