Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the NYSE Options Market on Wall Street on Tuesday in New York City. UPI-Yonhap
NEW YORK/LONDON — Global stocks rallied on Tuesday, buoyed by AI optimism, while oil prices and bond yields fell on renewed hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal.
Brent crude futures fell 0.1 percent to just below $95 a barrel, paring the previous session's sharp gains, after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with Iran continued.
His comments came despite a report that Tehran had suspended indirect negotiations with Washington to end hostilities, keeping investors cautious about efforts to end the three-month war and underlining the fragility of an ongoing ceasefire.
Anthropic said on Monday it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, edging ahead of rival OpenAI in a closely watched race to reach public markets. Google parent Alphabet is also seeking to raise $80 billion in equity to fund the expansion of its AI infrastructure.
"This speaks to the huge sums involved in keeping pace in the AI arms race. It represents a significant shift from a period of bumper free cash flow to going cap in hand to the markets to help fund its expansion," Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said.
On the economic front, U.S. job openings, a measure of labor demand, increased more than expected in April, hitting the highest level in nearly two years, according to Labor Department data on Tuesday.
That came after data showed on Monday that U.S. manufacturing beat expectations to hit a four-year high, likely driven by firms front-loading orders amid rising prices and supply concerns linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
"The jobs data was significantly higher than expected and you would think that it would have boosted rates but they didn't go up," said Gerry Sparrow, chief investment officer at Sparrow Capital Management.
"Employment is strong, which is a good thing for consumer spending. So I think the market is healthy because of the jobs data."
Source: Korea Times News
