Asian markets traded unevenly Tuesday morning, with Tokyo up about 0.7%, Hong Kong down 0.8%, Shanghai flat and Seoul higher by 1.2%. At the same time, U.S. stock-index futures were up as much as 0.6%.
Wall Street finished Monday mixed, with investors shifting from technology into more traditional sectors. The Nasdaq fell 1.1% and the S&P 500 lost 0.6%, while the Dow Jones gained 0.9% to another record, its second straight session at a new high. It was the Dow’s 17th record this year, and it has risen more than 8.5% since the start of 2026. Tech shares, including the XLK ETF, dropped more than 2%, while financials and industrials, led by Caterpillar, helped lift the Dow. Chip stocks also weakened, with SOXX down about 6%, Intel and AMD among the main decliners, and Nvidia also falling; dual-listed Israeli names Camtek and Tower were also lower.
SpaceX surged during trading and briefly surpassed Amazon and even Microsoft in market value, nearing $3 trillion. The stock later slipped to about $2.6 trillion, below Amazon, after trading as high as $225.64 a share, implying a market capitalization of roughly $2.97 trillion. Yahoo Finance said only Nvidia, Alphabet and Apple are worth more. Separately, SpaceX announced it will acquire Anysphere, the maker of the Cursor AI coding tool, in a $60 billion deal, one of the largest artificial intelligence transactions so far.
In mergers and acquisitions, Yum! Brands said it signed binding agreements to sell Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion, subject to customary price adjustments. The global Pizza Hut business will go to LongRange Capital for $1.5 billion, and Pizza Hut China will be sold to Yum China for about $1.2 billion. The total price is more than twice Papa John’s market value, though still far below Domino’s Pizza, which is worth about $10.2 billion.
Oil prices fell about 5% yesterday to their lowest level in three months amid optimism over a possible Iran-U.S. deal, and were edging lower again this morning. Brent was near $78 a barrel and WTI around $75. Goldman Sachs cut its Brent forecast for the fourth quarter to $80 from $90 and lowered its 2027 average to $75 from $80, while Morgan Stanley said production restoration will likely be slower, with about half of lost output back by September, 80% by December and the rest early next year. On monetary policy, Pictet expects the Federal Reserve to leave rates unchanged at 3.75% at the first meeting under new chair Kevin Warsh, while EY-Parthenon’s Greg Daco said Warsh’s challenge will be proving decisions are based on economics, not politics. Bank of America expects the Fed’s updated dot plot to show rates unchanged through year-end, with a potentially hawkish tilt in 2026.
