Amazon and Intel sink as AI costs bite — and Lagarde announces an early exit from the ECB Amazon fell around 12% after hours on Thursday as a profit miss and $42.4 billion of negative free cash flow overshadowed its fastest cloud growth in five years, and Intel dropped 22% on weak PC demand, pushing Nasdaq 100 futures down 1%. Asian chip stocks took another hit: Seoul fell 3.48%, Taipei 2.49% and Tokyo 2.12%, even as the Bank of Japan held rates and signalled increases ahead.

Microsoft soars, Alphabet sinks — and the ECB decides after the Fed holds in a split vote Big Tech delivered a split verdict on AI. Microsoft rose about 5% after hours as its Azure cloud business grew 48% and spending came in below forecasts, while Alphabet fell around 9% after a profit miss, an advertising slowdown and heavy investment, pulling Nasdaq futures lower. The Fed held rates in a 10–2 split vote, saying it needs more information, and Treasury yields rose.

SK Hynix's record quarter sends Seoul up 6.6% — on a day of the Fed, Big Tech and the UK budget SK Hynix reported a seven-fold jump in profit to a record and said memory shortages will last until 2030, and Seoul's KOSPI surged 6.64% to close back above 6,000, with Taipei up 2.04% and Tokyo 1.08%. On Tuesday the Nasdaq rose 1.18% on revived AI momentum, while Europe gained 0.47%, led by chipmakers, although London fell as HSBC dropped 5.4%. Oil has jumped 1.8% to $116.30

Anthropic's IPO filing revives the AI trade — as Brazil's markets crash after Lula's win Anthropic filed for what could be a record stock market listing, and the AI trade came back to life: the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.09% on Monday, and this morning Seoul jumped 3.09% after South Korea's economy grew three times faster than expected, with Tokyo up 1.73%. In Brazil the reaction to Lula's surprise re-election was brutal, with São Paulo's Bovespa index down 13.9% and the real down mor

Oil eases on hopes of talks and Lula wins in Brazil — as a week of central banks and Big Tech begins Brent climbed above $117 on Friday, its highest in nearly six months, but has eased 1.4% to $115.05 today as Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials prepare for talks with Iran and President Trump said the United States would not strike Iran "today". The relief is fragile: a US intelligence memo warns that Tehran has stepped up efforts to target American personnel. In Brazil, L

Brent hits $114 as Iran widens its threats — while bonds rally on a tech rout Brent reached $114 this morning, its highest since May, after Iran threatened to strike economic and civilian targets across the region if US attacks resume. The oil surge follows a sharp sell-off in technology shares on Thursday: Meta fell 7% on the cost of its AI build-out, the Nasdaq lost 2.60%, and investors piled into Treasuries, which posted their biggest one-day fall in yields since the 2023

Iran says it hit seven vessels as Washington pulls diplomats from Riyadh — and Asia slides to a three-month low The Gulf escalated sharply overnight. Iran's Revolutionary Guards navy said it had hit seven vessels and threatened US bases if tankers keep using what it called illegal routes, the United States ordered non-emergency diplomats out of Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks intensified, and Israeli media reported that Washington and Israel have drawn up plans to resume strik

Brent breaks $110 and UK inflation jumps — while Seoul stages a rebound British inflation rose more than expected to 3.5% in September, its highest in almost a year, as the war pushed up fuel prices and core and services inflation also accelerated. Brent has climbed above $110 this morning as Iran insists the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut. On Wall Street the Dow rose 1.02% as investors moved into healthcare, while Netflix fell after hours on a weak outlook. Europe slipped

France's unrest hits European markets — as Asia's chip sell-off returns Riots across France, with curfews in parts of Paris and Nice and more than 2,400 arrests, together with protests in Italy, triggered a sell-off in European stocks and bonds on Monday and pushed the euro lower. The STOXX 600 fell 0.80%, with banks hit hardest. Wall Street went the other way: the Nasdaq rose 1.11% as chipmakers bounced, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's remarks were read as confirming a pause in

US troops killed, US strikes resume — yet oil falls on a Russian sanctions waiver The war with Iran escalated over the weekend. Two US service members were killed in an Iranian attack in Jordan, the United States launched new air strikes on Iran in response, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards said another tanker had hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent touched $110 on Friday for the first time since May, but has fallen 2.3% this morning to $107.33 after Trump waived sanctio