CNBC Daily Open: Faith in markets, doubts in diplomacy
Markets remain optimistic as talks inch toward an Iran deal.
Konoly
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign and economic policy event in the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse at SUNY Rockland Community College on May 22, 2026 in Suffern, New York.
Roberto Schmidt | Getty Images
Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.
Chinese philosopher Lao Zi once said: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
But that pretty much assumes forward progress, something that isn't necessarily happening for the U.S. in the Iran war.
What you need to know today
The timing of any deal in Iran remains nebulous, but traders are relatively optimistic after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the talks were "proceeding nicely."
Oil prices continued to fall, providing some relief for energy markets, with Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures at $96.14 and $90.30 per barrel respectively. U.S. equity market futures rose, with futures for all three major indexes advancing about 1% as markets come back from the Memorial Day weekend later today.
Ex-CIA director and retired four-star general David Petraeus suggested Iran could be blinking over the Strait of Hormuz, a flashpoint that has defined the conflict.
This comes even as U.S. forces conducted "self defense" strikes in South Iran early Tuesday, with U.S. Central Command saying that this was to "protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces."
CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins said targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.
However, Trump also has introduced a new wrinkle into the negotiations, linking the Iran peace deal to Arab countries also signing the Abraham Accords, an agreement to normalize relations with Israel.
Pakistan has roundly rejected the demand, reportedly saying that the two issues were "not interlinked and cannot be made so." And Saudi Arabia said it would not sign the accords unless there is a pathway to Palestinian statehood, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel.
And with Trump insisting "It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all," the question is whether the Abraham Accords demand will be the latest thing to cause negotiations to fall through.
— Lim Hui Jie
And finally...
Beware the boom and bust cycle of memory stocks, investors warn amid AI excitement
Outsized returns for memory-related stocks have helped fuel substantial gains in U.S. and South Korean equity markets in recent years — but market watchers warn investors forget the market's cyclicality at their own risk.
The memory industry has been in a period of sustained growth since the launch of ChatGPT in December 2022, which triggered huge demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM.
William de Gale, portfolio manager at BlueBox Asset Management, told CNBC on Wednesday that the industry tends to have "enormous ups and downs." "In the long run it's a pretty dreadful industry," he said.
— Joseph Wilkins
