Brent crude oil surged 3.3 per cent to $94.02 a barrel on Wednesday, briefly breaching $95 for the first time in nearly six weeks, as the United States expanded airstrikes against Iran and both sides signalled no near-term return to diplomacy. The spike in energy costs weighed on US equities, leaving the S&P 500 down 0.14 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite 0.57 per cent lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually flat. Australian futures, however, pointed to a 0.8 per cent gain at the open, reflecting a partial decoupling driven by commodity exposure.

The oil rally followed an eleventh consecutive day of hostilities, with Washington targeting Iranian infrastructure and President Donald Trump vowing to destroy a bridge or power plant for every attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran was not “talking seriously” about peace, while Tehran indicated only an exchange of messages was possible. The disruption to the world’s most critical energy chokepoint pushed Brent from under $72 earlier this month, reviving fears that higher fuel costs will reaccelerate inflation and force central banks to keep interest rates elevated. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note edged up to 4.66 per cent.

Investors in New York and across European markets were also bracing for quarterly results from Alphabet and Tesla after the closing bell, the first of the so-called Magnificent Seven megacaps to report. The reports arrive at a moment when the artificial-intelligence euphoria that drove stocks to records a month ago has faded, and pressure is mounting for companies to demonstrate returns on their massive capital expenditures. A gauge of the seven tech giants is trailing the S&P 500 in 2026, a rarity for the group that led the market for most of the past four years. Chip stocks rebounded during the session—Nvidia climbed 3 per cent, Super Micro Computer soared 21 per cent on strong order news—but the broader tech sector remained cautious.

European bourses advanced, with London’s FTSE 100 up 1.4 per cent and Frankfurt’s DAX adding 0.6 per cent, as energy shares benefited from the oil surge. In Sydney, the ASX 200 added 0.3 per cent on Wednesday, and traders looked ahead to Australia’s June jobs report due at 11:30 a.m. AEST, with consensus expecting the unemployment rate to hold at 4.4 per cent. The next factual milestones are the Alphabet and Tesla earnings releases, which will set the tone for the US tech sector, and the Australian labour-market data, which will inform the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy stance.