All three major US stock indexes were down in late-morning trading Wednesday, as hostilities re-escalated in the Middle East, sending oil prices surging and raising the risk of a return to all-out war between the US and Iran.
President Donald Trump said the US may attack Iran again on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. The US military had struck Iranian targets in response to Iran's attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which elicited retaliation on US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was "over" during a news conference at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
In company news, Apple (AAPL) said Wednesday that Broadcom (AVGO) will produce chips to be used in its products in a deal likely worth more than $30 billion. Broadcom will manufacture more than 15 billion chips in the US, Apple said. The deal will allow Broadcom to invest $1.5 billion to expand its manufacturing facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado. Apple shares were marginally lower, while Broadcom shares were up 4.1% around midday.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is raising about $10 billion in its first external funding round, valuing the rocket company at about $130 billion, multiple news outlets reported on Wednesday. The reports said Bezos is expected to invest $2 billion, while Coatue Management plans to contribute about $4 billion. The remaining $4 billion has attracted strong investor demand and is expected to come from several major investors, CNBC reported.
Amazon.com-backed (AMZN) Anthropic's Claude Code was flagged by China's National Vulnerability Database over an alleged security "backdoor" risk in versions 2.1.91 through 2.1.196, Reuters reported Wednesday. The agency advised users to uninstall the affected versions or upgrade to the latest release and urged organizations to strengthen network monitoring to help prevent unauthorized data transfers, the report said. Reuters noted that Alibaba (BABA) had recently banned employees from using Claude Code at work after the tool came under scrutiny for features that could identify China-linked users. Amazon shares were down 2.1%.
Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI will launch its latest GPT-5.6 artificial intelligence model on Thursday, the company said in a post on X late Tuesday. OpenAI said it is set to release its flagship Sol model, along with Terra, a balanced model for everyday work, and Luna, a fast and affordable model. Microsoft shares were down 1.7%.
Apple has lost a major court battle in the EU, which paves the way for regulators to apply the bloc's toughest antitrust rules to the App Store and iOS, the EU General Court said Wednesday. The court dismissed all actions brought by Apple, confirming its designation as a "gatekeeper" under the Digital Markets Act for the App Store and iOS.
Price: $309.98, Change: $-0.69, Percent Change: -0.22%