President Donald Trump cast doubt on his planned meeting with Vladimir Putin, saying he didn’t want a “wasted” summit after the Kremlin rejected his proposed Ukraine ceasefire. He also suggested his talks with China’s Xi Jinping could be delayed, adding to market uncertainty ahead of renewed trade discussions.
Anthropic is reportedly nearing a multibillion-dollar cloud deal with , a move that could reshape AI infrastructure and intensify its rivalry with Microsoft. The talks underscore Google’s push to expand its cloud presence, while Amazon (NASDAQ:) Web Services faced its worst outage since 2021, disrupting firms like Apple (NASDAQ:) and McDonald’s (NYSE:) amid slowing growth and rising competition in the AI race.
OpenAI is reshaping Wall Street through Project Mercury, a program training AI to handle financial modeling tasks once done by junior bankers. The company has hired over 100 former analysts from major banks to simulate deal scenarios such as IPOs and restructurings, with an entirely automated hiring process led by AI.
Wall Street was steady with the near record highs as and slumped 6% and 8%; their sharpest drops in over a decade; on profit-taking and a stronger . Despite the pullback, sentiment toward precious metals remains upbeat amid U.S. fiscal and trade uncertainty. Treasury yields eased, the dollar extended gains, edged up 0.4%.
European stocks climbed as upbeat corporate earnings lifted sentiment. Adidas raised its annual profit outlook on strong demand for retro styles and resilient consumer spending, while L’Oréal reported weaker sales, highlighting uneven momentum across the region’s retail sector.
State Street and BlackRock adjusted investment criteria to maintain exposure to French bonds after recent downgrades, helping steady markets. Meanwhile, Germany and France endorsed EU talks on new “counter-coercion tools” to address trade frictions with China, signaling a firmer stance on economic strategy.
Asian markets were mixed following the metals selloff. In China, efforts to curb hidden local debt are paying off, with bond issuance hitting a five-year low, while officials reassured investors that new export controls won’t hinder normal trade. Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi named Satsuki Katayama finance minister and Toshimitsu Motegi foreign minister, as the Bank of Korea is expected to hold rates at 2.5%. In Australia, rare earth stocks rallied after an $8.5 billion U.S.-Australia deal to boost critical minerals, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers stressing a balanced approach between Washington and Beijing.