Tonight's Highlights: Trump Declares End to US-Iran Ceasefire; US Index Futures Tumble as Global Oil Prices Spike

Global oil prices surged and US stock index futures fell sharply on Wednesday as Middle East tensions flared up once again, dragging down major European indices across the board.

 

Speaking at the NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran "is over."

 

Trump's remarks followed US airstrikes on over 80 targets inside Iran on Tuesday, alongside fresh moves to cut off Iran's legal oil exports in retaliation for earlier attacks on commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Global benchmark Brent crude futures jumped over 5% on the news, breaking back above $78 per barrel.

 

Energy counters caught a broad pre-market bid, with ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil gaining nearly 2%, while Chevron and ExxonMobil advanced over 1%.

 

Conversely, chip stocks extended their recent rout, with Micron Technology sliding nearly 4% in pre-market trading, leaving it 25% off its 52-week high as of Tuesday's close.

 

"Renewed Middle East friction has completely disrupted the market's increasingly complacent narrative," noted Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com. "Investors had spent the last few weeks betting on a smooth de-escalation, and now they're forced to quickly re-price geopolitical risk."

 

Investors are also bracing for the minutes from the Federal Reserve's June FOMC meeting, scheduled for release at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.

 

The minutes are expected to provide deeper insight into the policy debate chaired for the first time by new Fed Chief Kevin Warsh, where the central bank held rates steady while hinting at further hikes if inflation pressures persist.

 

"The FOMC minutes could act as an 'unknown variable' because Warsh kept his cards so close to his chest during the last press conference," said Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge.

 

"Usually, Jerome Powell would give a pretty thorough breakdown of the meeting's debates, but Warsh didn't do that, so this likely hawkish set of minutes might deliver a few surprises."

Corporate News

Apple Inks Mega $30B Deal with Broadcom to Boost US Chip Manufacturing

 

Apple announced a massive multi-year partnership with Broadcom worth over $30 billion to co-design and manufacture custom chips and advanced wireless connectivity tech across multiple Apple product lines.

 

Under the terms, Broadcom will produce over 15 billion chips in the US, injecting $1.5 billion into its Fort Collins, Colorado facility to expand capacity for advanced RF components, including FBAR radio frequency filters.

 

Apple framed the move as the single largest milestone in its "Made in America" initiative and part of its broader 4-year, $600 billion commitment to support local semiconductor supply chains and domestic jobs.

 

OpenAI to Officially Launch GPT-5.6 Series Tomorrow

 

OpenAI announced that it will officially launch its GPT-5.6 series tomorrow, July 9, rolling out three distinct versions named Sol, Terra, and Luna.

 

Musk: SpaceX AI Opens Grok 4.5 to the Public Tomorrow

 

Elon Musk posted on X on July 8 that following highly positive feedback from internal beta users, SpaceX AI will open Grok 4.5 to the general public tomorrow.

 

Musk pitched the model as an Opus-level system that runs faster, handles tokens more efficiently, and costs significantly less to operate.

 

SpaceX Applies to Deploy Massive 100,000-Satellite Gen3 Constellation

 

According to FCC disclosures, SpaceX officially applied for regulatory approval this week to launch and operate its third-generation (Gen3) satellite constellation.

 

The proposed network will stack 100,000 satellites tightly across two thin orbital shells, sitting at nominal altitudes between 323–327.5 km and 473–477.5 km.

 

SpaceX described the Gen3 grid as a resilient, ubiquitous communications infrastructure capable of carrying the bulk of global internet traffic, offering ultra-low latency and multi-gigabit symmetric throughput for government users, consumers, and billions of AI-driven devices.

 

TSMC Set to Aggressively Expand PIC Capacity Through 2028

 

Institutional forecasts project that TSMC’s photonic integrated circuit (PIC) capacity is primed for an explosive ramp.

 

The foundry is expected to scale its current output of 500 wafers per month up to 10,000 wafers by Q2 2026, hitting 15,000 by Q4 before expanding to at least 25,000 wafers per month by 2028.

 

Analysts estimate that at roughly 648 dies per wafer, scaling monthly capacity to 10,000 wafers will boost TSMC's annualized PIC output from 4 million dies to a staggering 78 million dies, eventually reaching 194 million dies at the 25,000-wafer milestone.