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Chip stocks bounce back as OpenAI files for Wall Street float – business live | Business

Published

6 days ago

June 9, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Introduction: Chip stocks bounce back ahead of ‘brat summer’ for AI firms

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

For the second day running, circuit breakers have been triggered on the Seoul stock exchange. But this time, it’s because the market is rising unusually quickly, rather than tumbling like it did on Monday.

Shares in South Korea’s chip giants are surging today, as investors pile back into the market after yesterday’s sell-off.

This rally is boosting optimism that the recent drop in tech shares is a blip, rather than the long-feared AI market crash.

Samsung Electronics’s shares are up over 9% today, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix have surged by 15%.

Those two heavyweight stocks have driven South Korea’s KOSPI up by 8.4% in Tuesday’s session, a day after it tumbled by 8%. Today’s market rally triggered successive temporary suspensions of program buy orders, known as “sidecars” in South Korea.

SK Hynix was boosted by a new multiyear partnership with Nvidia to develop next-generation memory for AI systems, whicch saw Nvidia’s Jensen Huang tour Seoul, meeting tech firms and handing out fried chicken to journalists:

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang hands out fried chicken to members of the media as he eats and drinks beer with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won at Kkanbu Chicken. Photograph: Jintak Han/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, points out that the wild swings in the KOSPI are unusual, and worrying.

A day with a rise or fall of less than 5% in the Kospi has become rare – a sign of just how volatile this market has become and, therefore, how much of the move is driven by speculation. Indeed, the Kospi’s volatility index keeps rising to unbelievable levels, suggesting that when the music stops, there will be carnage.

Anyway, today we continue to observe the tech-versus-non-tech narrative play out – technology attracting flows while non-tech pockets of the market lag behind.

That narrative will be tested in the coming months, though, as several massive tech firms attempt to float on the stock market.

Last night, OpenAI filed for its initial public offering – which could value the firm behind the ChatGPT chatbot at more than $1tn. That puts OpenAI in a race with fellow artificial intelligence pioneer Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX which is due to float on Friday.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB:

The OpenAI news means that we will hear more about how much revenue it is generating and how much cash it is burning through in the coming weeks.

2026 is set to be the ‘brat summer’* for these AI names, with their soaring valuations and big promises for how AI will change the world and send their revenues soaring.

[* For the benefit of any high court judges reading, here’s a guide to Charli xcx’s recent album, Brat]

The agenda

7am BST: German trade data
9:45am BST: Treasury Comittee hearing on Financial Inclusion Strategy
11am BST: NFIB’s US Business Optimism Index
1.30pm BST: US trade data for April

Key events

Chinese exports climb as AI boom drives trade

Strong demand for AI-related products led to a surge in China’s exports last month, new data shows.

China’s exports rose by 19.4% year-on-year in May, up from 14.1% in April, with chip exports more than doubling on an annual basis.

China’s exports of hi-tech products (50.9%), semiconductors (110.9%), automatic data processing machines (66.0%), mobile phones (44.3%), autos (39.3%), and ships (31.0%) continued to grow strongly in May, reported Lynn Song, ING’s chief economist for Greater China.

The pound is strengthening against the US dollar today, as calm returns to the markets.

Sterling is up a third of a cent at $1.3376.

Enrique Díaz-Alvarez, chief economist at global financial services firm and FX firm Ebury, says:

“A light week in terms of macroeconomic news out of the UK meant the focus for sterling traders was mostly elsewhere. We did see an MPC member (Greene) stating that she would consider voting for a hike at the next Bank of England meeting later this month.

“A notable upward revision in the PMI business indices last week suggests that the initial confidence drop was overstated and that the UK economy is more resilient to the Middle East events than first feared. We look to this week’s April monthly GDP data, released Friday, to validate this modestly optimistic view.”

OpenAI to float: What the experts say

Here’s some early reaction to OpenAI filing confidential paperwork for an initial public offering on the US stock market:

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at investing and trading platform IG:

“Just when the supersized tech rally was looking a little tired, along comes the news of OpenAI’s decision to IPO.

Presumably the move has been spurred along by Anthropic’s recent move towards a public listing, but and now markets face the test of yet another superheavyweight firm listing to test demand for these highly-valued companies that promise to reshape not just the investing landscape, but the entirety of human society.”

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club:

The race is on to extract money out of the roar of enthusiasm for companies providing the backbone to the artificial intelligence revolution. There’s now a hat trick of mega listings on the cards, with OpenAI’s filing for an IPO coming hot on the heels of Anthropic and SpaceX. The research company behind the hugely successful ChatGPT had first-mover advantage, buoyed by an early deal with Microsoft, but Anthropic has gained ground and is tackling adeptly from behind, winning reams of enterprise contracts.

The price of staying at the top of the game is eye-watering for OpenAI – it’s estimated to be spending more than $100 billion a year on the infrastructure and processing power to support its services and power the next generation of AI models. To stay high and dry in its AI fortress, the company reckons that by spending at this level, it will create a moat too difficult to cross for the competition, enabling it to keep raking in revenues and eventually turn big profits.

But this is a risk, especially with technological developments moving so fast, and future models not necessarily needing the capacity. The risk is that swathes of this infrastructure could become obsolete.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB:

OpenAI is currently valued at $850bn, the ‘baby’ of the group, since Anthropic is now valued ahead of OpenAI at $965bn. The company laid out the ‘third phase of OpenAI’ on Monday and said that it is undertaking research into artificial general intelligence, and looking at becoming a ‘product company’.

The latter is interesting for investors, since it would be a major potential source of future revenue. Although it is early days, if OpenAI launches its own product range, it could become a major competitor to Apple and Google, and their share prices are worth watching closely on Tuesday.

Major Gulf stock markets have rebounded today, on relief that that Iran and Israel said yesterday they had stopped their latest spate of attacks.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index, the Tadawul, has gained 0.8%, with lender Saudi National Bank up over 3% earlier today.

Dubai’s main share index is up 0.75%, and Kuwait’s main market is 1.5% higher.

London’s stock market is slipping in early trading, down almost 0.5% or 48 points at 10,323.

Pharmaceuticals group GSK are the top faller, down 2.7%, after striking a $10.6bn (£7.9bn) deal to buy US cancer specialist Nuvalent.

Mining stocks are also lower, as are oil producers BP and Shell.

UK accounting watchdog to investigate PwC’s audit of WH Smith

The UK’s accounting regulator has launched an investigation into PricewaterhouseCoopers, over its auditing of travel retailer WH Smith.

The investigation will look into PwC’s auditing of WH Smith’s financial statements for the financial year ended 31 August 2024.

The Financial Reporting Council says:

The investigation will be conducted by the FRC’s Enforcement Division under the Audit Enforcement Procedure.

WH Smith is already being investigated by the City watchdog over an accounting error that misstated profits at its North American arm.

Surprise interest rate rise in Indonesia

We have a surprise interest rate rise, in Jakarta, triggered by the Iran war.

Indonesia’s central bank has raised interest rates by 25 basis points today, to 5.5%, as it tried to prop up the Indonesian rupiah.

The ‘off-cycle’ decision comes just a few weeks after the bank raised borrowing costs for the first time in two years,

The bank explained:

“This increase is a follow-up measure to strengthen the stabilization of the rupiah exchange rate against the impact of heightened global volatility caused by the war in the Middle East.”

Oil drops as Trump says Iran peace deal in ‘final throes’

The oil price is dropping this morning, after Donald Trump declared that negotiations towards an Iran peace deal are in their ‘final throes’.

The US president made the comments to reporters at JFK airport after attending the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden (where he was roundly booed by the crowd)

Trump insisted that Iran and Israel “were going back and forth and now they both agreed through me to stop and we’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal”.

Asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it would take “two or three days”, adding that the strait of Hormuz would “open up right away” once the deal was signed.

Brent crude has dropped by 1% this morning, to $93 a barrel – still around $20/barrel above its levels before the conflict began in late February.

The AI trade has continued to bounce back this morning, reports Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid:

The KOSPI (+7.35%) is sharply higher after its 9th worst day in 45 plus years of history yesterday (-8.29%). The Nikkei (+2.19%) is also benefiting from a recovery in technology stocks after a decline of over -3.5% yesterday.

Chinese stocks are up just over half a percent and other markets are broadly flat. S&P 500 (+0.26%) and NASDAQ 100 (+0.54%) futures are also continuing to recover after a decent session yesterday.

Full story: OpenAI confidentially files for initial public offering

OpenAI has filed confidentially to go public on the US stock market, according to a company blogpost published on Monday. The artificial intelligence giant’s debut on Wall Street is expected to be one of the most highly valued listings in market history with a valuation at more than $850bn.

“We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company’s post reads. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

An S-1 is an investor prospectus submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in advance of an initial public offering (IPO). The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them.

More here:

Introduction: Chip stocks bounce back ahead of ‘brat summer’ for AI firms

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Shares in South Korea’s chip giants are surging today, as investors pile back into the market after yesterday’s sell-off.

This rally is boosting optimism that the recent drop in tech shares is a blip, rather than the long-feared AI market crash.

Samsung Electronics’s shares are up over 9% today, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix have surged by 15%.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang hands out fried chicken to members of the media as he eats and drinks beer with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won at Kkanbu Chicken. Photograph: Jintak Han/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, points out that the wild swings in the KOSPI are unusual, and worrying.

A day with a rise or fall of less than 5% in the Kospi has become rare – a sign of just how volatile this market has become and, therefore, how much of the move is driven by speculation. Indeed, the Kospi’s volatility index keeps rising to unbelievable levels, suggesting that when the music stops, there will be carnage.

Anyway, today we continue to observe the tech-versus-non-tech narrative play out – technology attracting flows while non-tech pockets of the market lag behind.

That narrative will be tested in the coming months, though, as several massive tech firms attempt to float on the stock market.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB:

The OpenAI news means that we will hear more about how much revenue it is generating and how much cash it is burning through in the coming weeks.

2026 is set to be the ‘brat summer’* for these AI names, with their soaring valuations and big promises for how AI will change the world and send their revenues soaring.

[* For the benefit of any high court judges reading, here’s a guide to Charli xcx’s recent album, Brat]

The agenda

7am BST: German trade data
9:45am BST: Treasury Comittee hearing on Financial Inclusion Strategy
11am BST: NFIB’s US Business Optimism Index
1.30pm BST: US trade data for April

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UK News

Arrest over push of woman into bus's path in 2017

Published

53 minutes ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

A 44-year-old man is in custody over the incident where a woman appeared to be shoved into the path of a bus.

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UK News

World Cup 2026: Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture; teams hit back at Ceferin; Iran arrive in US – live | World Cup 2026

Published

2 hours ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Key events

More now on the hand gesture story mentioned earlier. Fifa’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup has called for a video assistant referee to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign.

“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network, a longtime partner of Fifa and Uefa, the European football governing body, to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, said in a statement. “Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare said in a statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”

Kick-off times are more friendly for the UK viewer today. Spain v Cape Verdi at 5pm and Belgium v Egypt at 8pm. But we need to think globally so that’s 3pm for Cape Verdi viewers cheering on their team while in Egypt it’ll be 10pm for those tuning in to see if Mo Salah can inspire his team to victory over the Belgians.

The biggest test for the UK viewer today is Iran v New Zealand at 2am BST. In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch that’ll be 1pm while in Tehran, Mashhad and Karaj it’s a less palatable 4.30am.

Thanks Sarah. As for World Cup songs, this one from the German 1990 squad always sticks in my mind. While England took the genre to a new level with New Order and John Barnes’ rap, the Germans very much went down the traditional route. A singer that looks like a cross between Chris de Burgh and Thomas Muller, Karl-Heinz Riedle on maracas, one or two playing air saxophone. Pleasingly dreadful.

The Germans’ response to New Order

I am off to grab some food and so I leave you in the hands of Dave Tindall who will take you through the next few hours of news. I’ll be back later on.

From requests of your favourite football songs to another on if you live in a World Cup host city. We want to hear from you if you have football teams in town from the atmosphere to how it is affecting business. Use the form on this page to get in touch:

We have another shout for the best/worst football song and I can’t decide which side of the forward slash this one belongs on. Graeme Neill said:

Timely given yesterday evening’s match. Japan’s Cornelius and his utterly bonkers Ball in Kick Off is worth a listen:

France will kick-off their tournament against Senegal on Tuesday and to say they have attacking quality is an understatement. The team boasts players like the captain, Kylian Mbappé, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Cherki but they all have a role to play, according to Adrien Rabiot. Read more:

Jacob Steinberg

The cat is well truly out of the bag. Nobody expected the conversation to be quite so revealing when Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers sat on the Lions’ Den sofa last week. Content controlled by the Football Association was an unlikely place for Bellingham to drop a few truth bombs, but the England midfielder was not minded to hold back when it was time to discuss his experience at Euro 2024.

“It didn’t feel like there was any kind of hierarchy,” the 22-year-old said. “I think at the Euros we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch. I don’t feel like the group connected as well as it could have – for a number of reasons.”

Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture

Fifa have been urged to remove a video review official who appeared to make a white supremacy hand gesture during Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao.

The governing body’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for Shaun Evans from Australia to be removed from the tournament.

The gesture was also spotted by several fans who posted about it on social media.

“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network said.

Fifa are yet to comment on the situation.

There have been some sights at the World Cup but Scotland fans taking over Fenway Park is one that has been one of the most surreal. The Boston Red Sox lost 6-4 to the Texas Rangers but Scotland fans stayed long after the game was over singing “super John McGinn” and during the match there was a rendition of “yes sir, I can boogie”.

Photograph: Mark Stockwell/AP

Anil Patel has emailed:

This absolute banger wasn’t attached to any particular team but is one of the best themes out there.

This is a great shout and a fun fact for you about it, it was initially written to be a baseball anthem. Some baseball news coming your way soon…

If anyone is unsure of the song I referenced, here it is:

Football songs can be iconic or occasionally cringey, that one with Dizzee Rascal and James Cordon comes to mind for the latter for me. What are your best/worst anthems for a major tournament? Get in touch and let me know.

England may have banished some penalty shootout demons in the last few major tournaments but the question of who would step up to take one is one that will always be asked. One such player who said he would take on is Eberechi Eze, despite missing one in the Champions League final. Have a read of what he said:

There will be many questions raised at this World Cup. Who will win the trophy? Who will claim the Golden Boot? What will the next standout moment be? But there is another question that has been answered in the following piece: Where have the WAGs gone?

Matt Hughes

Fox will not face any punishment from Fifa for breaking the governing body’s advertising rules during the opening game of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa last week.

The US broadcaster broke Fifa’s strict guidelines for showing commercials during hydration breaks on the first occasion they were in operation by returning to the live action 10 seconds after play had resumed during the second half at Mexico City Stadium.

Fifa’s tournament regulations, which were given to all rights holders two months ago, state that while broadcasters can show ads during hydration breaks they must return to the match 30 seconds before play resumes.

Sometimes a team needs a player to have some standout performances to jump start a tournament and Jordan Henderson believes that player for England will be Jude Bellingham. Henderson said:

I’m sure he will have a big impact for us in this tournament. I can remember five years ago I gave him his first cap, it was away at Middlesbrough. How much he’s grown, as a player and as a person since then, is incredible really. I had a good idea when I first saw him playing and training, and the way he was.

I think everybody forgets how young he is. We do rondos and it’s the youngest in, and there’s people that I think should be going in before him, but he’s always one of the first in the middle to go in. It just reminds us how young he is. I honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of him.

Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

The travel at this tournament has grabbed more than a few headlines so far and there is another one pertaining to Australia. The Socceroos beat Turkey 2-0 in their opening game with their second against one of the co-hosts, the US, on Friday. Their focus will be on that game but recovery is also high on their list. Read more here:

There have already been so many historic moments at this tournament, including Scotland’s first World Cup win in 36 years. Mo Salah is hoping to replicate the moment and end Egypt’s long wait of 92 years for a victory at the tournament. The team have their first game against Belgium today to try and make history:

Spain, who start their campaign today against Cabo Verde, are among the favourites to win the World Cup after their European Championship success in 2024. Here’s a piece on how the team are embracing the tag and how they are using one trophy-winning tournament to potentially lift another:

Uruguay will take on Saudia Arabia later today but their travel was delayed amid challenges across the tournament.

The team’s initial flight from Mexico was cancelled with their replacment delayed. The Uruguay captain, José María Giménez, described the situation as “difficult”.

There are more games to be played today with another four in store. The details for those kick-off times and match-ups are below but do get in touch to let me know what your World Cup routine is. Are you having to get up early to watch the games? Or are you in a time zone where you can get home from work and watch back-to-back football until it’s time for bed? Email me and let me know, here are today’s fixtures:

Spain v Cabo Verde (5pm BST, 12pm ET, 9am PT)
Belgium v Egypt (8pm BST, 3pm ET, 12pm PT)
Saudi Arabia v Uruguay (11pm BST, 6pm ET, 3pm PT)
Iran v New Zealand (2am BST, 9pm ET, 6pm PT)

So what happened in the matches yesterday? Four took place with the biggest win coming in Germany’s 7-1 dismantling of Curaçao. The island nation will be disappointed with the result but they also made history as they scored their first-ever World Cup goal. That came from Livano Comenencia, who plays his club football for Zürich. Have a read of that report and others for all the latest action on pitch:

Čeferin criticised for ‘uninteresting’ comment

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin was criticised by multiple nations from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean after reportedly saying the expanded World Cup creates “uninteresting” matches.

According to Zurnal 24, the boss said at a conference last Monday: “We have a huge number of matches that are completely uninteresting.”

The associations of Cape Verde, Congo, Curaçao, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan released a joint statement, which was in solidarity with the federations of Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

It said: “Football does not belong to a select group of nations. Its strength comes from its universality,” the statement said. “For many countries, participation in the FIFA World Cup is not only a sporting achievement. It is a moment that inspires a generation, accelerates football development and creates memories that last a lifetime.”

Photograph: Toya Sarno Jordan/FIFA/Getty Images

Ben Fisher

The Iran striker Mehdi Taremi has said the controversy and disruption surrounding their involvement at the World Cup undermines Fifa’s message of peace and conceded he felt the tension before arriving in Los Angeles on the eve of their opener, hours before a peace deal was announced. For the first time since the competition’s inception, a host nation has received a country with which it is at war.

On Sunday Iran flew to LA from Tijuana, Mexico, where they were relocated amid an ongoing row over visas, but are expected to face opposition from Iranians, many of whom believe the national team do not represent the country. Iran has been beset by problems in the buildup to the tournament, with several officials denied entry to the US.

Preamble

Hello and welcome to today’s World Cup news blog where we bring you the latest updates from the global event being hosted across the US, Canada and Mexico.

Any breaking news, team updates or reflections on what has happened so far will be all here for you to feast on, no matter what you are doing with your Monday.

Please do get in touch too, we always like to hear from readers. Potentially on the best underdog story at the World Cup or any quirky predictions you may have for the tournament.

Amongst several stories surrounding the competition today is Iran’s arrival in the US. The team landed on Sunday before they take on New Zealand.

More details on that story will be with you shortly, as well as the reports from the games that took place yesterday to catch up on all the latest action.

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