Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Awaits Opening Amid Nasdaq Gains and Strengthening Shekel

The US dollar weakened below 3 shekels in local and global markets following yesterday's decline in the American currency. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is set to open later this morning after a mixed session on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq rose 0.9%, the S&P 500 increased by 0.4%, and the Dow Jones closed steady. This comes alongside the shekel's continued strengthening and ahead of Israel's June inflation data, scheduled for release at 18:30 local time.

Asian markets also showed gains, with Tokyo climbing 1.2%, Hong Kong up 1.5%, and Seoul surging 8%. On the TASE, Kamtek returned with a positive arbitrage of 3%, while Ormat traded with a negative gap of 1.9%. Oil prices rose moderately, with Brent crude up 1.1% and WTI up 0.8%. The US 10-year Treasury yield increased slightly to 4.60%, and Israel's 10-year bond yield stood at 3.79%.

In security developments, the US military continued strikes on Iranian targets overnight, following the reimposition of a blockade on Iranian ports that took effect at 23:00 yesterday, as declared by President Trump two days prior.

Yesterday, the TASE closed positively, with the TA-35 index up 0.7% and the TA-125 up 0.5%, despite a 1% drop in banking stocks. Tower Semiconductor stood out with an 8.4% surge after announcing expansion plans in Japan and raising its forecast.

In corporate news, Pelephone, part of the Bezeq Group, is acquiring mobile company Wecom for 265 million shekels. Bezeq reported the deal to the stock exchange last night. The agreement currently is a non-binding memorandum of understanding, with the purchase expected from Yariv Lerner, ClearMark Capital, and other partners. Pelephone anticipates that the acquisition and resulting operational and network synergies will contribute 50 million shekels in the short term and 100 million shekels in the long term to the group's results.