1. Tech exports drive Asian stocks to record highs.

Japan's exports rose for a seventh straight month led by demand tied to artificial intelligence that has for now blunted the impact of trade disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.
In South Korea, chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics climbed to an all-time high, leading index gains on robust export data and optimism ahead of corporate earnings.

Below: The Nikkei and Kospi indices year-to-date.

2. Riding the AI waves.

Nvidia (GPU chips) is the unexpected underperformer year-to-date. Memory is the big winner.

3. Opening Hormuz is the easy part. Restoring oil flows isn’t.

The pace of recovery will depend not just on diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, but also on logistics, tanker insurance availability, freight rates and the willingness of shipowners to risk the passage.
As tanker loadings gradually resume, producers such as Saudi Aramco and the United Arab Emirates' ADNOC will have to restart oil and gas output at fields and refineries shuttered during the fighting.
That will require careful coordination, including the return of thousands of skilled workers and contractors who were evacuated during the conflict. The pace of production recovery will also be dictated by available storage at coastal terminals, creating a feedback loop between shipping and upstream activity.
A full rebalancing of the global tanker fleet and a return of Gulf loading operations to pre-war rhythms will be uneven and likely take at least eight to 12 weeks, even under benign conditions.

4. BYD knocks Tesla off top spot in EV race.

Tesla reports earnings tonight.
The robotaxi expansion is the headline, but only four vehicles have been tracked across Dallas and Houston so far. UBS analyst Joseph Spak doesn't expect "meaningful scaling" in Tesla's target cities, rating it neutral. Longtime Wealth Fund shareholder Ross Gerber said he isn't buying the pivot either: "People just hate the brand now," he told Yahoo Finance, calling the AI push an attempt to "distract from the lack of earnings."
Jefferies warned the results will show "further widening of the gap between vision and execution."

5. EssilorLuxottica faces test to grow smart glass sales without hurting margins.

The eyewear maker has benefited from being a first mover in AI-powered glasses, and in recent quarters sales of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, developed in partnership with Meta, supported EssilorLuxottica's growth.
But the group's shares have fallen over 30% from a record high last November amid concerns over EssilorLuxottica's profitability and the prospect of new competitors in the smart glasses sector.

Below: The stock is breaking out of its down trend.

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