(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening flat to slightly lower on Monday as an escalating conflict in the Gulf pushed Brent crude prices above $90 a barrel for the first time since mid-June and fanned fears of inflation.
U.S. forces struck Iran for a ninth consecutive day, with Iranian media reporting blasts in cities in the far north and far south, including Tabriz and Chabahar. Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry activated warning sirens and urged residents to seek shelter. Kuwait Petroleum said an Iranian strike hit one of its oil facilities.
Analysts said the damage inflicted by Iran on America's regional military network may be significantly wider than Washington has publicly acknowledged.
A global tech sell-off may also keep investors on edge ahead of this week's rush of earnings results from U.S. heavyweights, including Alphabet, Intel, Tesla and IBM Corp.
Investors are questioning sky-high valuations for chip and AI stocks amid fears that a bubble is forming.
Closer home, Reliance Industries beat Q1 expectations, powered by strong performance across its oil-to-chemicals and telecom business.
HDFC Bank reported a 5 percent year-on-year increase in standalone net profit for the June quarter, while ICICI Bank's Q1 consolidated net profit jumped 14 percent on improved asset quality.
Kotak Mahindra reported a 22.55 percent rise in Q1FY27 consolidated profit while Axis Bank's quarterly profit jumped 23 percent.
Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Green Energy, Adani Power, Bajaj Auto, BPCL, Dr Reddys Laboratories, HPCL, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, JSW Energy, Nestle India, One97 Communications and UltraTech Cement are among the prominent companies scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings results this week.
Asian stocks were broadly lower this morning, even as Chinese and Hong Kong markets surged after Chinese startup Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, a new open-source model that the company said closes much of the gap with models such as Open AI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.
The dollar strengthened against global peers and gold weas subdued around $4,000 an ounce after Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said persistently high inflation is her bigger concern, joining other hawks arguing interest rates may need to rise.
Brent crude futures rose over 2 percent to $90.28 a barrel, after having risen nearly 16 percent last week, as the Middle East conflict expanded beyond military targets, with bridges, utilities, and port facilities coming under attack. WTI crude futures were up 2.2 percent at $83.61 a barrel.
U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday as Netflix provided disappointing third-quarter guidance and oil prices jumped over 4 percent to their highest in more than a month amid concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Chinese startup Moonshot AI launched what it claims is the world's largest open AI model, Kimi K3, raising concerns that the AI spending spree driving this year's market rally could be at risk.
In economic news, a measure of U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in July, while single-family housing starts and building permits dipped, and industrial output edged up a slightly less-than-expected 0.1 percent month-on-month in June.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 dipped 1 percent and the Dow dipped 0.8 percent.
European stocks closed broadly lower on Friday as fighting between the U.S. and Iran escalated and a global tech sell-off intensified.
The pan-European STOXX 600 declined 0.3 percent, France's CAC 40 dropped half a percent and the German DAX eased 0.3 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent.
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