Happy Wednesday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest political and business headlines from around the world.
First up, Iran says the United States has committed a “gross violation” of their ceasefire agreement with the launch of new air strikes on the country, the BBC reported.
US Central Command said it targeted Iranian missile sites and boats attempting to place mines in what it called “self-defence strikes” yesterday in the Hormozgan region, which has a coast along the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s foreign ministry said it held the US responsible for the consequences of its “aggressive and unjustified actions”.
"Without a doubt, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation," the Iranian statement said.
The strikes come as US President Donald Trump, earlier this week, said negotiations to end the war were “proceeding nicely”.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel through which about 20% of global oil flows.
Oil prices, which had been trending downwards in recent days, have jumped. The global benchmark, Brent crude, has gained close to 3.5% as of 6:30 am NZT to be back around US$100 per barrel. But the fresh attacks have done little to dampen the enthusiasm for US equities.
The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq shrugged off the strike and reached new heights, as memory chipmaker Micron topped a US$1 trillion market capitalisation for the first time, CNBC reported.
The stock surged as UBS tripled its price target from US$535 per share to $1626, citing long-term agreement opportunities. “We believe the market will start to put a more ‘normal’ multiple on the stock and MU will continue to re-rate higher as more details emerge about the structural changes AI has driven to the entire memory complex,” the firm wrote.
The company is among a fresh crop of chipmakers benefiting from the next stage of the AI race, as investors snap up stocks tied to central processing units and memory that are needed to run and process gigantic workloads.
While Micron accelerated, Ferrari’s shares slammed into reverse, as the launch of the company’s first electric vehicle triggered an investor and social media backlash. As the Financial Times reported, the company’s “polarising” bid to be the leader in EVs among luxury marques has deepened division within the industry over whether the super-wealthy are prepared to move away from the combustion engine.
Its shares closed down 8.5% overnight as online commentators called the Luce an “insult” and “hideously underwhelming”. Before the launch, Ferrari chief executive Benedetto Vigna told the FT he was “not scared” by how people would react, and the group accepted it was a “polarising” strategy.
Industry executives have been split over whether there is a demand for battery-powered luxury cars, which present challenges for manufacturers to recreate the emotional thrill of petrol vehicles due to the lack of noise and the weight of the batteries.
Regardless, analysts said the initial reaction was not surprising, and the priority for the company is to fill the order books with the highly specific clients it had targeted for the car.
The all-electric Ferrari Luce. (Source: Ferrari).
Staying with business, oil giant BP has ousted its chair, Albert Manifold, with immediate effect, citing governance and conduct issues, Reuters reported.
In a statement announcing his exit, BP said his departure followed “serious concerns raised to the board related to important governance standards, oversight and conduct”. The board said it was surprised and disappointed to learn of Manifold’s conduct, which it deemed unacceptable, and took decisive action.
Reuters reported that four sources with knowledge of the matter cited unacceptable and aggressive behaviour with different colleagues as one reason for his dismissal. One source said the board had received enough information from a whistle-blower report to determine there was a pattern of unacceptable behaviour.
Manifold joined the company close to eight months ago to oversee a strategy revamp. His departure follows a period of scandal and repeated leadership changes at the company.
The company’s shares fell almost 10% on the announcement and were briefly halted before they recovered some of their losses to be down 4%.
Finally, this morning, a searing heat wave in Europe has shattered records and triggered warnings about risk to life, Associated Press reports.
The United Kingdom smashed a century-old record for the second time in 24 hours, as a temperature of 35.1 degrees Celsius was recorded in London.
Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 36 degrees in the country’s south-west.
France’s national weather service said heat was being held in place by a high-pressure weather front, which was producing temperatures 10 degrees hotter than what was normal for this time of year.
