DailyBrief: May 11

Markets & Economics

Oil Surges After Trump Rejects Iran's Peace Proposal Response
Brent crude advanced as much as 3.5% to $104.80 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate climbed to near $99 on Monday after President Donald Trump called Iran's response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal "totally unacceptable." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added to the risk premium by warning that the conflict with Iran was "not over," and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards threatened to target U.S. sites in the region if Iran's tankers come under fire. Citi maintained that risks to oil remain tilted to the upside given Iran's leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. Source: CNBC
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Kospi Closes 4.3% Higher at Fresh Record as Asia Doubles Down on AI Trade
South Korea's Kospi ended Monday's trading session 4.32% higher at 7,822.24 after opening to a fresh record, leading a broader rally in Asian technology stocks. MSCI's Asia Pacific equities gauge rose 0.6%, with China's CSI 300 climbing 1.64% to 4,951.84. Japan's Nikkei 225 was 0.47% lower at 62,417.88 in choppy trade, weighed by an 8% drop in Nintendo after the company said it would raise Switch 2 prices while expecting weaker console sales. Investors continued to bid up AI-exposed names despite escalating Middle East tensions. Source: CNBC
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China's Producer Inflation Hits 45-Month High as Iran War Drives Up Energy Costs
China's producer price index jumped 2.8% year-on-year in April, the highest reading since July 2022 and well above the 1.6% forecast, accelerating from 0.5% in March. On a monthly basis PPI rose 1.7%, the largest monthly increase in over four years, with non-ferrous metals mining prices up 38.9% and oil and gas extraction up 28.6% as the Strait of Hormuz blockade rippled across industrial supply chains. Headline CPI also beat estimates, rising 1.2% year-on-year against a 0.9% consensus, while core CPI ticked up to 1.2%, signaling that Beijing's deflation problem is now giving way to imported cost pressures. Source: CNBC
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Gold Pushes Toward $4,750 as Dollar Softens and Treasury Yields Ease
Spot gold climbed toward $4,750 per ounce on Monday, with quotes clustering around $4,715 to $4,753 depending on the venue, extending a roughly 2.5% weekly gain. The move was driven by softer U.S. Treasury yields, with the 10-year yield easing from the 4.4% area toward the low 4% range, and a weaker dollar, with the Dollar Index slipping below 98 to 97.885. Investors continued to add safe-haven exposure ahead of Tuesday's April CPI release, with consensus calling for headline CPI to rise 0.6% month-over-month and 3.7% year-over-year, a print that could heavily influence the Federal Reserve's posture after officials kept the federal funds target at 3.50% to 3.75% in April. Source: Bloomberg via Ad-Hoc News
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Tech & AI

Nvidia's AI Investment Spree Tops $40 Billion as IREN and Corning Deals Land
Nvidia's pace of AI-related investing kicked into another gear this week, with the company crossing $40 billion in cumulative equity commitments for 2026. Nvidia signed an agreement with data center operator IREN giving it the right to invest up to $2.1 billion in the company, one day after striking a pact with 175-year-old glass maker Corning allowing for up to $3.2 billion of investment. The deals extend a strategy of seeding capital across the AI supply chain, from compute capacity to optics and packaging materials, and follow Nvidia's earlier commitment to deploy more than 10 gigawatts of next-generation systems with OpenAI on the Vera Rubin platform. Source: CNBC
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Tech Layoffs Accelerate as Firms Restructure Around AI
A fresh wave of layoffs swept across the tech sector in early May 2026, with Cloudflare announcing it would cut more than 1,100 jobs, about 20% of its workforce, after disclosing that internal AI usage had increased more than 600% in three months. Payments firm BILL said it would slash headcount by up to 30%, Upwork is cutting roughly a quarter of staff, and Coinbase is reducing about 14% of its workforce, or roughly 700 employees. Year-to-date, trackers count more than 128,000 tech workers affected across some 286 events, roughly 1,000 per day, as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta together plan $725 billion in AI infrastructure spending this year, up 77% from last. Source: Yahoo Finance
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