Brookfield said it raised US$2billion in a first close for its Brookfield Middle East Partners (BMEP) private equity fund, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as the anchor investor. The company is also participating alongside Blackstone and KKR in a US$16billion lease-and-leaseback deal covering Kuwait Oil Company’s 13 pipelines, providing US$7.85billion in upfront proceeds to Kuwait. The report notes that the Iran attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG complex was a prior event and that the conflict has not seen a new escalation, with investment activity in the region continuing.

Teck Resources reported second-quarter results with copper production up 25% year over year to 136,000 tonnes and an average copper price up 40% to US$6.05 a pound. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.93, well above the $1.25 analysts had forecast. The company has completed the sale of its coal business and is now focused on copper. Its agreed acquisition by Anglo American has been approved by shareholders in Canada and the UK and by the Canadian government, and is awaiting China’s antitrust clearance.

SpaceX (SPCX) joined the Nasdaq-100 on Monday, but the stock slid 6.8% on Tuesday to $149.47, its lowest close on record. The move came as technology shares broadly sold off. The decline coincided with Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. revoking Iran’s oil export license, helping push crude benchmarks up more than 2%.

New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told a central bank gathering in Sintra, Portugal, that the Fed will remain politically independent and keep its 2% inflation target. He rejected President Donald Trump’s calls for rate cuts and said he opposes forward guidance. Inflation rose to 4.2% in May, driven largely by the Iran war’s impact on oil prices, though easing prices after a peace agreement have led some to say inflation may have peaked. Investors are pricing in a possible rate increase in September to 3.9% from about 3.6%, with unemployment at 4.3% reinforcing expectations of rates staying “higher for longer.”

Copper hit an intraday record of US$6.71 a pound on COMEX on May 13. Supply has tightened after disruptions at Indonesia’s Grasberg mine, flooding at Congo’s Kamoa-Kakula complex, and a 10% year-on-year drop in Chilean output in March. At the same time, demand is being boosted by AI data centers, EVs and industrial robots, with S&P Global projecting copper demand will reach 42 million tonnes by 2040. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have raised their copper price targets to $13,735–$15,000 per metric ton.

Micron Technology’s stock surged 18.4% to US$1,236, lifting its market capitalization to US$1.398trillion and briefly putting it ahead of Meta Platforms and Tesla on Thursday. The company said customers have committed US$22billion to secure supplies of memory chips. Micron also raised its fourth-quarter revenue and profit outlook, extending a rally tied to demand for AI infrastructure.

SK Hynix said it plans to raise up to US$29.4 billion through a Nasdaq listing of American Depositary Receipts. The company is seeking to tap strong U.S. investor demand for AI-linked stocks as a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems by customers such as Nvidia and Google. Proceeds are slated for expanding chip production in South Korea and buying manufacturing tools including ASML’s extreme ultraviolet scanners.

U.S. stock index futures diverged in early trading, with Nasdaq 100 E-minis up 0.48% as investors returned to technology shares after a sharp selloff. Chip names were in focus, with Micron Technology rising premarket as markets looked ahead to its earnings and weighed concerns about whether gains can extend after prior post-results declines. AI-chip sentiment was hit after Cerebras Systems cut its full-year profit-margin outlook in its first report since going public. A firmer dollar and rising rate expectations ahead of the PCE inflation reading weighed on commodities, pushing gold toward a two-week low while oil extended losses by more than 1%.

U.S.-Iran talks were called off and Israel intensified attacks in Lebanon, dimming the outlook for a Middle East truce. Brent is on track for a weekly decline of more than 8%, even as it held at US$79.78 a barrel on Friday. Expectations have cooled for a quick recovery in Strait of Hormuz shipping and for more than 85 million barrels of stranded crude to return to global markets. Goldman Sachs and Citi cut their mid-term oil price forecasts, with Citi’s base case projecting US$60–65 per barrel by the first quarter of 2027.