Crude led the macro narrative. WTI futures jumped 5.6% to $105.49 a barrel, while Brent climbed 5.9% to $117.81, approaching March highs amid renewed Hormuz disruption fears. Refined products followed: gasoline rose 4.5% and heating oil gained 5.7%.
Rates moved in tandem with oil. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose for a third straight session to 4.40%, the highest in over a month, as markets repriced for more persistent, energy-driven inflation. The 2-year yield reached 3.90%, while the 30-year approached 4.98%.
Focus now shifts to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is set to deliver what is expected to be his final press conference following the confirmation of Kevin Warsh.
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave rates unchanged at 3.75%, but the investor focus will be on the whether policymakers see renewed inflationary risks.
Across U.S. equity markets by midday Wednesday, the action was mixed with defensive flows offsetting weakness in megacap tech ahead of after-the-bell prints from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The four hyperscalers—worth roughly $11 trillion combined—fell between 1% and 2% after reports that OpenAI missed internal revenue and adoption targets, raising fresh questions about AI spending.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 7,131. The Dow Jones ...
