CNBC Daily Open: Brent is back at $100 — and Trump renews tariffs - EUROPE SAYS
The crude oil tanker SEARACER unloads a cargo originating from the FPSO ONE GUYANA offshore floating production vessel at Pachi Port near Athens, Greece, on July 16, 2026. As shipping disruptions in the. . .
The crude oil tanker SEARACER unloads a cargo originating from the FPSO ONE GUYANA offshore floating production vessel at Pachi Port near Athens, Greece, on July 16, 2026. As shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz affect traditional routes, European refiners are increasingly sourcing energy from Guyana. (Photo by Nicolas Koutsokostas/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesHello, this is Anniek Bao writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open. Asia has plenty to chew on this Friday. Brent crude settled above $100 a barrel Thursday for the first time since late May, after Yemen’s Houthis claimed strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea — opening a second chokepoint in a war that has already throttled the Strait of Hormuz. With the inflation genie rattling the bottle, bonds sold off. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to its highest since January 2025, and equities — already nursing a roughly $500 billion loss from Tesla and Alphabet’s AI spending plans — logged their worst session in a month. What you need to know todayAfter Yemen’s Houthis said they hit two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, President Donald Trump said the U. S. will hold Iranresponsible for any further attacks, warning of “major military punishment” as American forces completed a13th consecutivenight of strikes on Iran. Separately, the president said under the landmarknuclear deal signed this week, Saudi Arabia will not enrich uranium and that it is contingent on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords and normalizing ties with Israel. Congress on Thursdaysplit on advancing a pair of war powersresolutions aimed at forcing Trump to abandon his war with Iran. The House voted 214-208 to direct Trump to remove U. S. forces from hostilities with Iran; hours later, the Senate rejected its version 49-47. Brent crudefutures crossed the $100 per barrel mark for the first time since May 26, gaining about 7% to settle at $100. 69. West Texas Intermediatecrude edged up about 0. 11% to $92. 28 per barrel during Asia trading hours. The reignited inflation fears sent the 10-year Treasury yield up more than 4 basis points to around 4. 7%, itshighest level since January 2025. The 30-year, at 5. 17%, is in itslongest stretch above 5%since 2007. Stocks, however, are steadying, with futures forthree major U. S. indexes little changedafter a bruising session. In regular trading, theS&P 500andNasdaqhad their worst one-day performances since June 23, dropping 1. 2% and 2. 2%, respectively. TheDowdropped around 1% for its fifth negative day in six. The European Central Bank kept rates unchanged, but traders are already anticipating a rate hike in September, as ECB president Christine Lagarde warned renewed Middle East hostilities and the resultant rebound in oil prices pose upside risk to the euro zone inflation outlook. Japan’s core inflation rate in Junecrept up from a four-year lowas higher oil prices bite. The Trump administration will imposenew tariffs, set between 10% and 12. 5%, to take effect just after midnight ET on Friday ondozens of countriesover allegedforced-laborviolations, timed to the expiry of Trump’s temporary 10% global tariffs. Investors’ reckoning around the massive AI spending continued. Shares ofAlphabetandTeslapulled back sharply on Thursday after both companies’signals of increased AI spendingunnerved investors. Stocks recovered in after-hours trade. Meanwhile, Intel posted 25% revenue growth —its fastest since 2011— sending shares up over 4% after hours. Google Cloud’s revenue also surged, with its cloud chief Thomas Kurian sayingcustomers are spending 50% more. Brussels, however, was less charitable with EU regulators slapping afine of 890 million euros ($1 billion)on Google, its first penalty under the Digital Markets Act, for favoring its own services. Oracle won a 10-year softwarecontract with the Pentagonworth up to $7 billion, driving stocks higher in extended trading. — Anniek BaoAnd finally…Moonshot AI accessed Nvidia’s chips despite Chinese export ban, White House official saysA White House official has accused the Chinese AI company Moonshot of accessing Nvidia’s advanced chips, despite export controls banning them from doing so. Moonshot unveiled Kimi K3 on Friday. It closes the performance gap with frontier models, including Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT 5. 6 Sol, even surpassing them on some benchmarks. It’s the largest open source model so far, with 2. 8 trillion parameters, referring to the size of its neural network. The Chinese company “acquired GB300-equipped servers and has accessed GB300s in Thailand, likely to train its AI models,” Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a post on X on Wednesday. Nvidia, Moonshot AI, the White House, and the U. K. embassy of the People’s Republic of China have been approached for comment. — Kai Nicol-Schwarz