Finance

Oil prices continued their upward trajectory after Yemeni Houthi militias targeted a Saudi Aramco administrative facility in Dhahran and Iran admitted to tactical shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures settled higher near $106 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose to a three-week high of $95.09, stoking broader economic worries that elevated energy costs will keep inflation sticky.

The tech sector bore the brunt of the market selloff, fueled by expanding anxieties over the massive capital financing requirements for the ongoing AI infrastructure buildout. Semiconductor stocks and infrastructure providers plummeted, highlighted by a 15.5% drop in cloud-computing firm CoreWeave, an 8.8% decline for Oracle, and a 4.3% correction across major chip manufacturing giants.

Bond yields spiked in response to the stubborn inflation data, with the short-term 2-year Treasury note jumping over 10 basis points to reach 4.89%. The sudden rise in borrowing costs drastically altered monetary policy expectations, causing market odds for a Federal Reserve rate hike later this month to shoot up to 46%.