Finance

Crude benchmarks climbed sharply after international peace talks stalled and a regional trade proposal regarding the Strait of Hormuz was rejected. Brent crude futures moved back over $100 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures surged 4% to reach $96.13. The renewed energy rally is stoking fresh concerns over sticky inflation and a potentially more aggressive monetary policy response.

Nvidia announced a historic $150 billion share repurchase plan, reinforcing corporate confidence in the artificial intelligence sector despite broader market headwinds. This comes as analysts highlight an increasingly narrow equity rally, with a small cluster of mega-cap technology firms driving the vast majority of the market's recent gains. The technology sector now commands an outsized 59% weighting in the Nasdaq 100, prompting warnings about portfolio concentration risks.

Financial markets are adjusting to a higher-for-longer interest rate environment following a recent rate increase and restrictive signaling from the Federal Reserve. Strong manufacturing and service sector data have given policymakers more confidence to combat persistent inflationary pressures, forcing market participants to lift the probability of an additional interest rate hike at the upcoming October meeting to 66%. Upcoming jobs data and inflation prints are expected to further dictate the near-term path of monetary policy.