Amazon joins US$3 trn market cap club as cheaper oil buoys markets

Amazon extended its rally to join the US$3 trillion market capitalisation club as stocks in the US and Europe were buoyed by President Donald Trump’s return to diplomacy in the Middle East, with cheaper oil prices easing pressure in bond markets.

Tech companies shrugged off the pull back in South Korea on Monday and China’s Alibaba intensifying the artificial intelligence race with its new Qwen 3.8-Max model, with the Nasdaq Composite powering gains on Wall Street and ahead of Palantir Technologies’ quarterly report after the bell.

The UK’s FTSE was an outlier in the bubblier mood, with the British bourse weaker as AstraZeneca tumbled on concerns about the proposed US$400 billion tie-up with US rival Bristol-Myers Squibb.

And Japan’s Nissan reported its first quarterly profit in two years, reaffirming its annual guidance on sales growth in its home market and in the US.

An august start

US and European markets started the month in a buoyant mood, with oil prices falling as the US paused new strikes on Iran to allow diplomatic efforts resume in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, despite conflicting reports on which parties were involved. Brent crude oil futures for October fell 4.6% to US$83.86 a barrel at 7am in Auckland.

Stocks on Wall Street were stronger with the Nasdaq up 2.3% in late trading as tech companies extended their rally. Amazon climbed 5%, following its 15% surge on Friday, to join Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet in achieving a US$3 trillion market cap.

“Wall Street's rally gathered further momentum overnight as investors embraced a broad-based risk-on move led by the technology sector,” Moomoo market strategy consultant Greg Boland said in a note.

Apple remained in the doldrums, slipping 1.3% as investors remained sour on the iPhone maker’s quarterly results. Separately, the Financial Times reported that the company mounted a new legal challenge to the UK government’s latest attempt to create a backdoor to encrypted British customers’ data.

Strategy advanced 2.1% after the crypto treasury firm said it sold 1,638 Bitcoin last week to pay for preferred stock dividends and repurchases. Bitcoin rose 0.7% to US$63,824 at 7am.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3%, with Boeing leading gainers after the aircraft maker’s 737 Max 7 planes received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration in a drawn-out consultation process. The S&P 500 climbed 1.6%.

Damp squib

Across the Atlantic, Germany’s DAX rose 1.5% and France’s CAC 40 gained 1.2%. The UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% as AstraZeneca sank 8.8% as investors gave the proposed Bristol-Myers Squibb deal the thumbs down over concerns about the US drugmaker’s outlook given the number of patents expiring in coming years.

In California, Gilead Sciences won a case in the state’s Supreme Court dismissing a negligence claim against the pharmaceutical company over its decision to stop developing an alternative drug for treating HIV with fewer side effects.

The kiwi dollar traded at 92.04 yen at 7am from 91.99 yen yesterday as investors continued to digest the coordinated currency intervention by the US and Japan. The local currency traded at 58.71 US cents from 58.81 cents.

Jason Wong, senior markets strategist at Bank of New Zealand, said the intervention’s impact would likely be short-lived without considerable tightening by the Bank of Japan.

“The BoJ’s ultra-easy policy stance remains the key reason behind the yen’s steady depreciation over recent years,” Wong said in a note. “The aim of joint US-Japan intervention, or the threat of it, will be to encourage speculators to think twice before loading up on short-yen positions.”

Japan’s Nissan reported a net profit of ¥3.7 billion in the June quarter and committed to returning to profitability for the March 2027 year for the first time in three years. The Japanese automaker hadn’t turned a quarterly profit in two years, with the weak yen providing a tailwind for the company’s US sales.

Futures indicated a flat start for the S&P/ASX 200 index when trading opens across the Tasman, with Australian household spending figures due today.

No local data is scheduled for today.

Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Bryan Angelo on Unsplash.