Midday Mashup
Published
The morning's Iranian denial of a Hormuz reopening deal has given way to real diplomatic movement. President Trump says a US official met with Iran's delegation for three hours in a "very productive" session, with envoy Witkoff feeling good and another meeting scheduled soon, even as a White House official tells Al Jazeera no formal meeting is yet on Trump's calendar. Iran's IRGC spokesman says Tehran has toughened its conditions after an earlier deal collapsed, and Iran's parliament is weighing a 20% fine, with detentions threatened, on ships transiting the strait. Arab mediators are pushing for a US-Iran meeting at the UN, and Tehran wants China to take a more prominent role in talks.
Energy policy is shifting in response to the diesel squeeze. Trump backs a possible ban on US diesel exports, an idea Treasury Secretary Bessent says he is studying, while Senator Sullivan has separately called for a moratorium. The US is also floating a $10 billion fund with Arab allies to help bypass the strait, and Trump argues more oil is flowing than at any point since the conflict began, predicting prices "plummet" once it ends.
On the Fed, Boston's Collins reiterated support for last week's hike and flagged an increased chance inflation stays notably above target, while Richmond's Barkin said the Fed cannot assume markets alone will keep rates tight enough to cool prices, hoping instead for a 1990s-style soft landing.
Markets show a rotation out of financials into AI-linked technology, pushing the Nasdaq 100 toward its first record close since June. Shopify jumped 7.7% on a Muse AI partnership with Meta, with Sandisk up 7.2%, Astera Labs up 7.1% and Monolithic Power Systems up 6.7%. On the downside, Gen Digital fell 7.3%, Cisco dropped 5.5%, Allstate slid 5.4% and Charles Schwab lost 5.3% as financials broadly lagged.
Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs is reportedly in talks to buy credit firm Palmer Square, which holds $37 billion in assets. Curtiss-Wright named Kevin Rayment as its next CEO, effective January 2027, succeeding Lynn Bamford. Anthropic unveiled its cheaper Opus 5.5 model ahead of an expected IPO, and Microsoft is cutting jobs in its Xbox division while folding studios under Activision.