Markets caught between oil jitters and AI optimism

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Washington was only “semi-negotiating” with Iran, as economic pressure mounts on the country. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

That offers little solace to a world watching oil prices surge past $82 per barrel, while the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dipped to its lowest level since 1983.

Crude oil stockpiles in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve have fallen below 300 million barrels, the lowest level in more than four decades, as global inventories stay under pressure due to the Iran war.

The SPR fell by 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Energy on Monday. The reserve, created in 1975, is at multi-decade lows.

President Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels in March after Iran choked off oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering the largest disruption of crude oil supplies in history.

International benchmark Brent rose around 5% to $87.72 a barrel on Monday, rallying for a fourth straight day, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed about 5% to close at $82.13 per barrel. U.S. stock futures were mixed on Tuesday, while Asia markets were trading slightly higher.

Trump, who last week projected confidence in a deal between Washington and Tehran, told Axios on Sunday that he was prepared to wait for economic distress to mount in Iran, backing away from a renewed military offensive.

“We are low-keying it,” Trump said, “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

While investors fret over oil, the tech world is going full speed ahead.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the chipmaker and six asset firms are working to turn artificial intelligence chips into Wall Street’s newest asset class in a $500 billion dollar push.

The effort aims to mobilize more than $500 billion in third-party capital for hyperscalers, frontier AI labs and enterprises to build out data centers and acquire Nvidia hardware.

By using institutional credit, insurance funds and private capital to underwrite GPUs and data centers, Nvidia is helping its end users secure financing without tapping their own balance sheets.

Meta, meanwhile, said it would open source its most powerful AI models and launch new ones for consumer devices, stepping up its challenge to OpenAI and Anthropic.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would open the weights for its latest AI model Muse Spark 1.2, meaning it can be downloaded and used by…