Today's Edition
LONDON (REUTERS)
Global stocks edged higher on Tuesday after a rally the day before on news of a US-Iran peace framework, while the dollar held firm against the yen after the Bank of Japan raised rates to a 31-year high.
Markets settled into a more measured tone on Gulf developments as the initial excitement over the preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran began to fade.
Technology stocks got a lift as investors took heart from SpaceX's blockbuster IPO late last week, which pushed its shares up nearly 20% on Monday, taking the space exploration company's market value past the $2 trillion mark. They were up another 10.5% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Separately, the company said it would buy Anysphere, the software firm behind the popular AI coding agent Cursor, for $60 billion, in a bid to ramp up its presence in the enterprise AI market.
Nasdaq futures rose 0.3%, while S&P 500 e-mini futures edged up 0.1%.
The Nikkei 225 hit the 70,000 mark for the first time after the Japanese central bank voted 7-1 to raise its benchmark policy rate to 1%, a level last seen in 1995. Against the dollar, the yen was flat at 160.31.
In Europe, the STOXX 600 rose 0.4% to hover near Monday's record high.
Nvidia, the world's most valuable maker of AI chips, surprised investors by tapping the bond markets for $25 billion. The company said the cash would be used for general corporate purposes and the debt sale was to establish a liquid benchmark for future issuance. Nvidia shares were a touch lower in premarket trading.
Oil slid another 2.2% to a three-month low just above $81 a barrel.
The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against six others, was steady around 99.6.
The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1605, as did the pound, which traded at $1.342, with two days to go before a Bank of England meeting that is unlikely to yield any change in monetary policy.
The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.707 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates on hold as expected.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note fell 2.6 basis points to 4.44%, while gold, which is also sensitive to US interest rate expectations, rose 0.7% to $4,336 an ounce.
