Risk assets faced renewed pressure on Wednesday as Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel for the first time since July 24, with the benchmark trading at $101.19, up 3.36% on the day. The move followed escalating Middle East hostilities, including reports that Iran fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan, while both sides claimed attacks on vessels. Brent has risen roughly 25% since early August, with disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz reducing global supply and raising concerns about energy-driven inflation.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose 3.26 basis points to 4.837%, their highest level since November 2023. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet on September 15–16, while U.S. producer and consumer price reports are due later this week. The Japanese yen also strengthened to levels last seen in February, with traders watching short positions and expectations for a 0.25% Bank of Japan rate hike at its September 28 meeting. Saxo chief investment strategist Charu Chanana warned that yen strength could contribute to an unwinding of the carry trade, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated further currency market intervention was possible.
Bitcoin remained below the $80,000 level, trading around $78,360 after failing to sustain an attempt to revisit the threshold. The cryptocurrency was caught between rising oil prices, higher yields, Middle East tensions, and a firmer yen, all of which weighed on risk appetite.
In the technology sector, Meta shares gained about 5% after launching Muse, a personal AI agent that can send emails, book travel, and make purchases on behalf of users. The assistant connects to other apps and can work in the background, launching in the U.S. through Meta’s app and WhatsApp with free and paid versions. Meta’s AI spending is expected to reach as much as $145 billion this year, and Muse is being viewed as a direct effort to turn that spending into products and revenue.
Google announced plans to invest at least $15.1 billion in Finland over the next two years, including three new data centers in northern Finland and a 22-year nuclear electricity agreement with Finnish utility Fortum. The move highlights how AI infrastructure spending is expanding beyond chips into data centers, utilities, and nuclear power.
Apple introduced its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, under new CEO John Ternus. The device folds from a smartphone into a tablet-style screen and is aimed at premium buyers, with pricing expected to start above $2,000. Apple also unveiled iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models priced $100 higher than their predecessors, AirPods 5 starting at $129, and Apple Watch Series 12 starting at $399. New iPhone colors include glacier and burgundy.
Cloudflare shares climbed 8–9% to around $307 as investors warmed to its partnership with OpenAI and the new Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation service. The product combines Cloudflare’s global network with OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Cyber model to find software vulnerabilities, flag potential attacks, and generate code fixes automatically.
Meanwhile, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from the company, warning that frontier AI labs are moving toward self-improving systems faster than safety measures can keep pace. Anthropic Alignment Science Lead Evan Hubinger said his personal estimate is that there is a greater than 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade, while stressing that current models pose relatively low risks and that Anthropic does not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence.
