U.S. President Donald Trump speaks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Office of the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Dylan Butts from Singapore. Welcome to today’s Daily Open Newsletter.
The ebb and flow of U.S.-Iran talks continued to move markets on Wednesday, with oil prices plunging and stocks surging after officials indicated diplomatic efforts were continuing.
However, reports of new U.S. airstrikes on Iran mean this rise may be short-lived, adding to uncertainty. Meanwhile, investors will be keeping an eye on key inflation indicators for clues about the Fed’s next interest rate move.
What you need to know today
Oil prices fell more than 5% on Wednesday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was giving Iran negotiations “every chance of success.”
Rubio also said at Wednesday’s White House Cabinet meeting that negotiations with Iran have made some progress, but warned that President Donald Trump still has options if diplomacy fails, apparently referring to renewed military strikes.
However, US officials told MS NOW on Wednesday that the military carried out a new attack overnight inside Iran, targeting military positions believed to pose a threat to US forces and commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Immediately after the news broke, oil prices began to rise, with Asia-Pacific markets opening lower on Thursday morning.
President Trump also said Wednesday that he opposes Russia or China controlling Iran’s highly enriched uranium as part of a potential deal, adding new hard-line tactics and complications to fragile negotiations.
Still, the earlier decline in oil prices eased pressure on the overall energy market and provided a tailwind to the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising nearly 200 points to a new record.
Investors are now focused on April’s key inflation numbers, due out Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET, which could shape expectations for future rate cuts. The market is likely to welcome any signs that price pressures are easing.
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told CNBC on Thursday that curbing inflation remains a top priority and warned that consumer prices remain “way too high.”
“My focus is on inflation. I’m not ignoring the labor market at all. We need to pay attention to both sides, but while the labor market is in decent shape at the moment, inflation is simply too high,” he said.
Meanwhile, a new wave of tech corporate profits continued to push the market further.
Stock prices of cloud-based AI/data platform companies snowflake Shares soared 36% after the company reported strong results and announced plans to invest $6 billion. Amazon Web services cloud infrastructure. It signals aggressive investment to meet the surge in AI-driven demand.
Salesforce also reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street expectations, but its full-year outlook was slightly lower than expected.
In other technology news, Dell Technologies has signed a huge $9.7 billion Defense Department software contract, highlighting its growing relationship with the Trump administration.
— Dylan Butts
And finally…
Low-income households face ‘significant’ increase in food insecurity in K-shaped economy: New York Fed
The so-called K-shaped economy is currently associated with a “significant increase in food insecurity,” according to a new blog post from the New York Fed.
A large portion of the population faces high levels of financial strain, according to a post published Wednesday based on data from the Consumer Expectations Survey.
Within this group, low- and middle-income households have been hardest hit by long-term inflation. The researchers found that a larger proportion of their spending was allocated to items such as housing, food and utilities that have increased in price since the pandemic, and as a result they refrained from buying groceries.
— Jessica Dickler
