International markets update:
The Trump administration has launched an economic onslaught against Iran, raising questions about potential impacts on global entities including China. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency and precious metals show strong upward momentum.
- The US Treasury detailed a plan to isolate Iran’s economy with secondary sanctions, explicitly warning against entities facilitating money laundering for Iran and raising immediate questions about potential targeting of China, Iran’s biggest oil buyer.
- Bitcoin surged past the $80,000 mark for the first time since May, extending a sharp rally fueled by resurgent inflows into spot ETFs and improving risk sentiment.
- Gold reached a three-month high, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and the U.S. Treasury’s bond buyback plan which slowed yield spikes, gaining over 15% this month.
- Porsche secured a $1.5 billion AI deployment deal with India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consulting, while Chinese EV maker Xpeng saw its shares sink following a weaker-than-expected delivery forecast despite a large raise for its robotics business.
- BlackBerry is transitioning beyond its traditional smartphones, focusing on building its next chapter around software for cars, robots, and secure communications, leveraging its QNX operating system for software-defined vehicles.
- French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have agreed to build a $7 billion manga-inspired ‘Dragon Ball Z’ theme park near Paris, expected to create over 20,000 jobs.
Stock Market News summarised for the Wall Street Investors Club community.