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Wraps & Blogs
Big Tech earnings: AI spending boom, cash flow pressure
The latest round of Big Tech earnings this week reinforced a widening divide in the artificial intelligence race, with Microsoft and Amazon benefiting from strong cloud demand while Meta faced questions over the returns from its massive AI spending programme. Microsoft: Azure growth fuels AI optimismMicrosoft shares jumped 18.2% for the week after the software giant reported stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results, with growth in its Azure cloud business and gains from its Anthropic investment supporting results. The company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.74, beating expectations of $4.24, while revenue came in at $90.01 billion compared with forecasts of $87.62 billion. Revenue increased approximately 18% year over year in the quarter ended 30 June, while net income rose to $35.77 billion from $27.23 billion a year earlier. Microsoft said results included a $3.2 billion gain from its investment in artificial intelligence company Anthropic, while lower-than-expected costs from its first voluntary retirement programme also boosted earnings. The company maintained its 2026 capital spending plans but indicated investment would continue rising as demand for AI infrastructure remains strong.
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: War risk, earnings drive the week in business
Iran expanded the battlefield, oil found a new route higher, and artificial intelligence kept rewriting the corporate playbook as markets navigated a week where geopolitics and technology collided. Washington threatened Iranian infrastructure, Houthi attacks pushed energy risks beyond the Strait of Hormuz, Tesla discovered AI spending comes with a bill, while Alphabet and Super Micro showed investors are still willing to fund the next generation of computing. Welcome back to Unpacked. All the top moves, shakes and market-defining events from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (24 July 2026).MondayThe week opened with Washington widening its campaign against Tehran after confirming two American military personnel were killed in an Iranian attack in Jordan, with U.S. Central Command launching another wave of strikes aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Away from the battlefield, American consumers offered a temporary vote of confidence. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index climbed to 54.4 in July, its highest reading since February and comfortably above expectations, suggesting households had not yet fully absorb
Wraps & Blogs
Commodities Wrap: Dr Copper diagnoses long-term scarcity
It has been an active week across the global commodities complex and the headline is the resurgence in the crude oil market, driven by geopolitical frictions in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the base metals space is witnessing structural shifts, with copper rising on the back of widening supply deficits and data centre infrastructure demand.Crude Oil (Brent US$88.60/bbl; WTI US$83.62/bbl)The international oil market has reversed its recent decline. Brent crude futures climbed to US$88.60 per barrel, representing their highest trading levels in more than a month. Renewed conflict involving the U.S. and Iran has increased concerns over shipments navigating the Strait of Hormuz. Reduced vessel traffic and rising tanker insurance costs are adding a geopolitical risk premium to the market. Further escalation near production facilities or export terminals could remove crucial barrels before producers can replace them.Natural Gas (US$2.85/MMBtu)U.S. Henry Hub futures softened to settle at US$2.85/MMBtu. Broader Northern Hemisphere summer cooling demand should continue to provide a solid baseline of fundamental support. This demand impulse is vital, particularly as Chinese imports fall due to milder regional weather condit
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: The straitest week in business, from memory
Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and Washington answered with six straight nights of strikes, Apple took OpenAI to court, the big U.S. banks printed records into a cooling inflation number, and Kevin Warsh promised a Fed regime change - all while crude clawed back above US$86 and tech dropped the most it has in recent memory. Welcome back Unpacked. All the top moves, shakes and shipping-lane closures from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (17 July 2026).MondayThe week opened with Tehran widening its Gulf campaign and declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed, a phrase the tanker market reads less as maritime law than as a pricing instruction. President Donald Trump called for all trade with Spain to be cut off, leaving traders to work out what Madrid had done to deserve it. Away from the shipping lanes, Tim Cook's Apple sued OpenAI over trade secrets, moving the AI arms race from the poaching of engineers to the discovery of documents. Apple's next chip push chooses memory over speed, an admission that the bottleneck in on-device AI is feeding the silicon, not running it. That thesis found an immediate audience in Seoul, where SK Hynix surged on its debut as inve
Wraps & Blogs
Commodities Wrap: Reality bites as Crude reclaims US$86
The undeniable headline act is the aggressive resurgence in the crude oil market as supply realities bite, while the base metals space is attempting to find a firm technical floor.Crude Oil (Brent US$86/bbl;WTI US$79.73/bbl)The international oil tape has aggressively reversed its recent downward recalibration. Brent crude oil prices had returned to around $86 per barrel as of mid-July. This aggressive price action effectively extends the year-to-date gains for major global benchmarks. Despite recent diplomatic efforts, the market is waking up to compounding global supply stress. Upstream supply remains fundamentally tight as ongoing inventory accumulation expectations fail to materialise.Natural Gas (US$2.93/MMBtu)U.S. Henry Hub futures experienced a noticeable softening to trade just below $3/MMBtu. Record domestic natural gas production is currently helping meet rising summer demand across the North American continent. This heavy influx of domestic supply has put moderate downward pressure on prompt spot prices. However, the long-term consumption baseline remains incredibly robust for the baseload transition. Infrastructure operators continue to balance this robust production against seasonal power consum

Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Business absorbs a week of ceasefire chaos
A ceasefire that had held for barely three weeks effectively collapsed this week, with Iran striking commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Washington hitting back with fresh air strikes. Brent crude jumped more than 5% in a single session, just as Tehran buried its assassinated Supreme Leader - market ructions that landed in the middle of a second, equally consequential story in tech. Samsung's record quarterly profit and SK Hynix's US$26.5 billion Nasdaq debut tried to steady an AI-memory trade already rattled by reports that China's DeepSeek is designing its own chip. All the top moves, shakes, and market-moving moments from Azzet's editorial team, right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (10 July 2026).MondayThe week opened in Tehran, where three sons of assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended funeral prayers. His own son and anointed successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, stayed away from public view amid reports he was seriously injured in the airstrike that killed his father. Khamenei was killed alongside several relatives on 28 February, the first day of a war that ran nearly four months. Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 June, reopening the str
Wraps & Blogs
Commodities Wrap: Peace deal detonates, oil spikes
A Hormuz tanker strike and a collapsed ceasefire sent Brent back above US$77/bbl this week, unwinding the dovish Fed repricing that had carried gold and silver to multi-month highs just days earlier. Commodity markets reversed sharply as the U.S.-Iran ceasefire that had underpinned early July trading collapsed within 48 hours, sending Brent surging back above $77/bbl and dragging gold and silver down from the multi-month highs they had set only days before. President Trump declared the June memorandum of understanding "over" on Wednesday, speaking from the NATO summit in Ankara, after Iran struck a Qatari-owned LNG carrier and a Saudi tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and Washington responded by revoking Tehran's oil-sale waiver and striking Iranian targets. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it hit 85 U.S. military sites across Bahrain and Kuwait in response, triggering a broad risk-off move that hammered Asian equities and pushed traders to price back in the Federal Reserve rate hike they had all but abandoned after the previous week's weak jobs report. Base metals and bulk commodities were comparatively unaffected this week, with the sharpest moves concentrated in oil and precious metals.Crude oil (Brent US$77.92/bbl; WTI
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: A drop in memory this week in business
Wall Street booked its best quarter since 2020, Beijing blacklisted America's rare earth champions, Comcast broke itself in two again, and Meta went from having its compute rationed to reselling the surplus - all while Washington and Tehran kept shooting at the deal they signed. All the top moves, shakes, and Fourth of July breaks from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (3 July 2026).MondayA weekend of tit-for-tat strikes tested the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, with U.S. jets hitting 10 Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz after a drone struck a laden crude tanker. Crude firmed on the flare-up, with WTI adding 1.9% to US$70.56 and Brent 1.3% to $72.91, as traders kept their focus squarely on Hormuz rather than the weekend's peace communiqués. Sundar Pichai's Google, it emerged, has been capping Meta's access to Gemini since March because it cannot build compute fast enough, leaving one of the world's richest companies rationing tokens like wartime sugar. American consumer sentiment edged higher in June to 49.5 from May's record-low 44.8 on the Michigan survey, which still leaves the national mood the second gloomiest in data back to the 1970s.Tuesd
Wraps & Blogs
Commodities Wrap: Crude plummets on Middle East peace
Evolving trade barriers and geopolitical shifts in the Middle East impacted price levels across primary energy infrastructure and industrial metal supply chains. Primary market movements were driven by a realignment of crude logistics as commercial shippers adjusted transit routing around the Strait of Hormuz, alongside changes in battery metal spot markets following downstream manufacturing adjustments.Crude oil (Brent US$72.30/bbl; WTI US$69.23/bbl)The international oil tape recorded a substantial downward recalibration, with Brent crude falling 23.87% over the month to trade at US$72.30/bbl. The price reduction followed a peace agreement signed by United States President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which reopened the Strait of Hormuz and halted regional military operations. Wood Mackenzie subsequently cut its Brent oil price forecast to US$78 per barrel for the next year. Upstream operators including ExxonMobil and Chevron sustained production rates to capture seasonal summer product demand.Natural gas & LNG (US$3.28/MMBtu)U.S. Henry Hub futures maintained a baseline of US$3.28/MMBtu. U.S. infrastructure operators maximised cross-border pipeline and liquefaction flows to absorb subterranean stora