Finance

Crude oil futures surged after the U.S. Treasury Department revoked a license that previously allowed Iran to sell oil, responding to new attacks on commercial vessels in the Middle East. Benchmark U.S. crude futures jumped as much as 5% to top $72 a barrel, signaling a significant escalation in regional energy market volatility.

Bitcoin and Ethereum maintained modest gains on Tuesday, with Bitcoin holding in the low $63,000 range. Despite a large sale by Strategy that the market successfully absorbed, analysts remain cautious as rising oil prices and persistent weakness in global tech shares add layers of macroeconomic uncertainty to the digital asset space.

A disappointing earnings forecast from Samsung, which saw its shares plunge nearly 10% in South Korea, had immediate ripple effects on U.S. memory and chip-making stocks. Market analysts described the previous day's rebound as a "head fake" as selling trends accelerated across the broader artificial intelligence buildout sector.