By Mike Dolan
April 23 (Reuters) –
What matters in U.S. and global markets today
By Mike Dolan, Editor-At-Large for Finance and Markets
While stock markets have impressively filtered out much of the blow-by-blow news from the Iran conflict this week, they’re struggling to ignore a renewed surge in global crude oil prices back above $100 per barrel.
Even though Washington says there’s no new deadline to its unilaterally extended ceasefire, it’s not clear whether there is a ceasefire at all, with the U.S. continuing to blockade Iran’s ports and seize its ships, and Iran continuing to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
I’ll get into that and more below.
But first, check out my latest column on what could be at stake if a Warsh-led Fed shifts the inflation goalposts.
And listen to the latest episode of the Morning Bid daily podcast, where I discuss tech earnings and the latest oil jump.
Finally, don’t forget to join me later today, when I’ll discuss safe-haven assets in uncertain times in a live webinar with my ROI colleague Jamie McGeever. Sign up here.
TECH CHECKED AS OIL BOILS
Peace talks tentatively scheduled for this week have stalled as neither side showed up, and Iranian officials continue to regard the ongoing U.S. blockade as a breach of any existing ceasefire.
The ongoing tension between the two sides is being reflected in the latest rise in oil prices, with Brent crude topping $103/bbl and WTI trading at over $94/bbl early on Thursday. Both benchmarks rose more than 3% on Wednesday, with Brent closing above $100/bbl for the first time in more than two weeks.
Stocks pulled back on Thursday as a result, despite a sweep of earnings from top tech and industrial firms that helped propel the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new records yesterday.
Major Asian indexes closed lower on Thursday, despite also hitting fresh highs earlier in the session. U.S. stock futures also dialled back before Thursday’s bell, while European shares opened lower.
Tesla topped the earnings slate after the bell on Wednesday. Its share price initially jumped on news of positive free cash flow, but this was more than reversed as investors digested a sharp increase in estimated capex for 2026 to more than $25 billion.
IBM also disappointed on Wednesday, reporting slowing revenue growth in the first quarter on sluggishness in its software business. That news sent its shares down some 6.5% after hours as the fears of AI disruption that triggered late February’s software selloff appeared to resurface.
Boeing, on the other hand, saw its shares rise by 5% after reporting a much smaller first-quarter net loss than analysts had expected.
Chipmaker Intel, a big winner so far this month, will report later today. Its supercharged share price – up over 75% in 2026 so far – got an additional lift from news that Tesla would use its 14A chip technology for its Terafab chip complex project.
Elsewhere, April business surveys across Asia, particularly in Japan, showed eye-catching resilience in the face of the energy squeeze. On the other hand, business activity in the euro zone saw a surprise contraction in April as demand for services fell at the sharpest rate since October 2023.
Chart of the day
South Korea’s SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker after Samsung Electronics, set a record for quarterly profit with a five-fold jump in earnings and forecast that AI chip demand would exceed manufacturing capacity.
The outlook by the Nvidia supplier signals still-strong momentum for high bandwidth memory chips used in AI chipsets, keeping supplies constrained and prices high. SK Hynix stock has jumped nearly 90% so far this year, with market value climbing to almost $600 billion, surpassing that of Europe’s most valuable company, ASML.
Today’s events to watch
* U.S. weekly jobless claims (8:30 a.m. EDT)
* U.S. April S&P Global flash PMIs (9:45 a.m. EDT)
* U.S. 5-year TIPS auction (1 p.m. EDT)
* U.S. corporate earnings: Intel, Lockheed Martin, Blackstone
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
(By Mike Dolan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
