The Albany Gazette - Oil steady, stocks mixed with all eyes on Mideast war prospects

Wall Street wavered at the US opening after the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all posted fresh record highs on Monday, even as oil prices soared on reports of stalled talks to end the Mideast war.

The concerns eased after US President Donald Trump insisted that the talks were moving rapidly and that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting -- though Israeli strikes resumed Tuesday.

"There is no concrete progress in Middle East negotiations... but investors appear broadly optimistic that a longer-term resolution will be reached," said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.

David Morrison at Trade Nation noted that despite the oil market turmoil, "prices remained near the bottom of their recent range", and well below the $100 a barrel seen a few weeks ago.

Even a surge in eurozone inflation in May to 3.2 percent, all but ensuring an interest rate cut later this month by the European Central Bank, was not enough to dent European stocks Tuesday.

Underpinning the optimism was a new batch of headlines from US artificial intelligence giants.

Nvidia shares opened higher after jumping more than six percent on Monday after the chip colossus unveiled a powerful laptop chip for Windows machines.

That came as Google parent Alphabet announced plans to raise up to $80 billion in stock to fund a major expansion of its AI infrastructure, with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway committing $10 billion.

And Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, said it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering that could value the AI group at nearly one trillion dollars.

The news propelled Seoul's stock market, which has been at the forefront of the AI rally this year and ended at another all-time high, with Samsung shares up more than three percent.

"Headlines around Iran grab the steering wheel but the AI trade remains the engine for stock markets," said Saxo Markets analyst Neil Wilson.

The outlook for US interest rates is also on the agenda, with the release of jobs data on Friday that could determine if the Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark rate stable, or potentially hike borrowing costs to bolster the world's biggest economy.

- Key figures at around 1400 GMT -

Brent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $94.95 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1 percent at $92.25 a barrel

New York - DOW: DOWN 0.3 percent at 50,952.18 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,592.29

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.1 percent at 27065.31

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,347.85

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 8,183.49

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 25,079.03

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 66,734.24 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 2.5 percent at 26,038.32 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 4,075.10 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1641 from $1.1632 on Monday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3469 from $1.3458

Dollar/yen: UP at 159.82 yen from 159.67 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.45 pence from 86.43 pence

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(C.Young--TAG)