The infoshot to help kick-start your week
Coming up this week:
Burnham becomes PM – Today
We’ll get a better idea of Andy Burnham’s plans for growth during his speech today and should find out who will be in his cabinet, and perhaps most importantly, who will be Chancellor. Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood is the current favourite to replace Rachel Reeves.
Several AI and big tech firms reporting – Tuesday to Thursday
Following a tumultuous period for the tech sector and AI sentiment, Alphabet, Intel, IBM and Tesla all report earnings this week. Capital expenditure, continued cloud revenue growth, and shifts in AI software spending will all be closely watched by analysts.
Last week:
Oil back above $90 a barrel
The price of brent crude oil surpassed $90 a barrel again after another week of fighting in the Middle East. Last night, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said “not a single drop” of oil or gas will get through the Strait of Hormuz if US attacks continue.
Vessels passing through the Strait dropped to just 13 last Wednesday and maritime traffic appears near another standstill. Diplomatic talks between the US and Iran are continuing despite the strikes from both sides, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.
Another week, another tech selloff
US markets fell again while under pressure from the conflict in Iran and another week of tech selloffs.
Apple overtook Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company for the first time in a year on Thursday. Nvidia shares had fallen on the announcement from Chinese firm, Moonshot AI, which unveiled new models that narrow the performance gap with US systems at lower costs. Moonshot AI’s new Kimi model has been so popular the company has had to temporarily limit access to new users. Apple also launched legal action against OpenAI, suing the company for the theft of trade secrets by gaining insider information through hiring former Apple employees.
News from rivals in China also hit Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The share price took more damage after the Chinese Long March 10B rocket booster was filmed being caught by an offshore recovery platform, demonstrating a major stride in reusable rocket technology. SpaceX shares have now fallen below their original $135 IPO price, shedding $1tn off their market value since the post-IPO high.
Outside of tech, several US banks released record-breaking reporting numbers. An increase in investment banking fees, and fees earned from the SpaceX IPO helped JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs all exceed expectations. JPMorgan posted the highest quarterly profit ever by a US bank.
Selloff in Asia continues
Following the “black Monday sell-off” on Monday, Korea’s leading market bounced back in the middle of the week before tumbling again on Thursday and today. It’s still up 51.20% in 2026 but in the last month alone we’ve seen the market lose -28.51%. Tech heavyweights, Samsung and SK Hynix, continued to lead the decline.
Japanese and Chinese markets also fell last week. Concerns about the valuations of AI firms combined with renewed conflict in Iran have dragged Japan’s main index down -6.24%. Despite the AI and rocket ship announcements, the tech sell-off crossed into China too sending their major indexes down between -2% and -3%.
UK markets exempt from selloff
Here in the UK, our home markets made small gains last week largely thanks our lack of AI-tech exposure. Higher oil prices provided a tailwind for energy giants like BP. Optimism around Andy Burnham’s potential housing policies also pushed up housebuilders like Persimmon plc.
The latest GDP data from the ONS showed the UK economy grew, as expected, by 0.1% in May. The biggest contributor to the growth was scientific research and development which was up 5.1%.
Notice:
For regulated financial advisers and investment professionals only, Copia does not provide financial advice, and the contents of this document should not be taken as such.
The performance of each asset class is represented by certain Exchange Traded Funds available to UK investors and expressed in GBP terms selected by Copia Capital Management to represent that asset class, as reported at previous Thursday 4:30pm UK close. Reference to a particular asset class does not represent a recommendation to seek exposure to that asset class. This information is included for comparison purposes for the period stated but is not an indicator of potential maximum loss for other periods or in the future.
