A ship remains anchored in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran, on May 16, 2026. Negotiations between the United States and Iran over the opening of the vital waterway have largely stalled as the two sides mutually reject proposals to end the war that began when the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Majid Saidi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Hui Jie from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
US President Donald Trump has said a peace deal with Iran could be “days away,” but US actions in the Middle East show a resolution to the conflict is not that close.
Once again testing the limits of the term “ceasefire,” the U.S. government launched an attack on Iran on Tuesday in retaliation for Iran’s downing of an Apache attack helicopter.
On the technology side, Anthropic has released Claude Fable 5, a powerful Mythos class AI model available to enterprise customers and paid subscribers. Meanwhile, SpaceX is gearing up for an expected multi-trillion dollar IPO.
What you need to know today
The situation in the Middle East has distorted the meaning of “ceasefire” and distorted the bodies of even avid yoga practitioners to the point of shame.
On Tuesday, the US government carried out an attack on Iran at the direction of President Trump, which US Central Command said was “in response to yesterday’s downing of a US military Apache helicopter.”
The attack came despite President Trump previously saying a deal to end the Iran war could be reached within “a few days.”
Crude oil prices rose early Tuesday Asian time after falling during US trading hours, with US West Texas Intermediate futures up 1.8% to $89.79 per barrel. Meanwhile, international benchmark futures rose 1.8%. brent It rose 1.8% to $93.06.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said there was a “very meaningful increase” in shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, but did not provide data on increased oil flows through the Strait.
The market was mostly sluggish, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite falling due to a rebound in semiconductor stocks. The only outlier was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rose 0.17%. Asian markets were broadly lower in Wednesday trading.
Meanwhile, developments in the field of AI continue to attract attention. Anthropic announced Claude Fable 5, a Mythos-class AI model available to enterprise customers and paid subscribers.
This comes two months after the release of Mythos AI, which had been restricted from access by the company over concerns that the model could cause damage if it fell into the wrong hands.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has also offered an IPO price of $135 per share, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion.
— Lim Huijie
