Finance

Crude oil benchmarks fell sharply, with West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude futures declining over five percent to settle under eighty dollars a barrel. The sell-off was triggered by comments from the Treasury Department indicating progress on diplomatic talks to secure and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This cooling of geopolitical tensions simultaneously eased pressures in the bond market, dragging the ten-year Treasury yield lower.

Shares of Palantir Technologies soared by roughly twenty-nine percent after the software company delivered robust spring quarterly results and elevated its forward-looking guidance. Concurrently, industrial giant Caterpillar recorded strong gains of over five percent following reports of record quarterly revenues. These stellar performances heavily underpinned the broader market upswing.

Digital assets traded within a relatively flat, tight consolidation phase as Bitcoin stabilized near sixty-four thousand dollars despite minor variations. Market participants are balancing news of the first upcoming liquidation of a spot U.S. Bitcoin ETF with ongoing legislative discussions regarding the Clarity Act in Congress. Meanwhile, global institutional shifts were noted as some European banking entities reorganized their exchange-traded fund allocations between Bitcoin and Ethereum.