Dollar Steady as Oil Climbs, Bond Selloff Deepens

 A man counts US dollar currency notes at a foreign exchange office in Amritsar on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
A man counts US dollar currency notes at a foreign exchange office in Amritsar on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
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Dollar Steady as Oil Climbs, Bond Selloff Deepens

 A man counts US dollar currency notes at a foreign exchange office in Amritsar on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
A man counts US dollar currency notes at a foreign exchange office in Amritsar on May 16, 2026. (AFP)

The dollar was on the defensive against most major currencies on Monday as fresh Middle East tensions lifted oil prices and a global bond selloff stoked rate-hike bets, while yen weakness kept traders on alert for a possible intervention.

The euro was last at $1.1621 and sterling fetched $1.3320, both down roughly 0.03%.

The risk-sensitive Australian dollar weakened 0.2% to $0.7132, while the New Zealand dollar was little changed at $0.5837.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was flat at 99.325.

"It appears conditions for risk and bonds are deteriorating and conditions for the dollar rally to extend this ‌week are ripe," analysts ‌at Barclays wrote in a note.

Signs that the Strait ‌of ⁠Hormuz will remain ⁠closed for longer are also exerting upward pressure, with the dollar gaining 0.5% to 1% for every 10% rise in oil prices, they added.

Oil prices climbed on Monday, with Brent crude futures rising more than 1% to over $110 a barrel, after a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates came under attack and efforts to end the US-Israeli war on Iran appear to have stalled.

Further denting risk appetite, a global bond rout deepened on Monday ⁠as rising energy prices fanned inflation fears and stoked wagers ‌on rate hikes from global central banks.

Benchmark 10-year ‌US Treasury yields jumped to 4.6310% and the two-year yield hit a high of 4.1020%, both near ‌their highest points since February 2025.

"Near term, USD may stay better bid on ‌dips if yields remain elevated and markets continue to price a more hawkish Fed reaction function," Christopher Wong, FX strategist at OCBC, said in a note.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting and US flash purchasing managers' Indexes later this week should help clarify how concerned the central bank ‌is about persistent inflation and whether activity momentum is holding up, Wong added.

Markets are now pricing in a more than 50% chance ⁠that the Fed would ⁠raise rates by December, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Investors are also watching as the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers meet in Paris on Monday and Tuesday to discuss how to bring a lasting end to the war in Iran.

The yen was last traded at 158.97, the weakest level since April 29, with its renewed weakness putting investors on alert for a possible intervention.

Japan's government is likely to issue fresh debt as part of funding for a planned extra budget to cushion the economic blow from the Middle East war, a government source with direct knowledge of the deliberations told Reuters on Monday.

Elsewhere, the offshore yuan weakened to 6.8150 yuan per dollar. The meetings between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week offered no major breakthroughs, while data released on Monday showed China's growth lost momentum in April.



Google to Pay Musk $920 Million a Month for AI Computing Capacity

The headquarters of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in California. (AFP)
The headquarters of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in California. (AFP)
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Google to Pay Musk $920 Million a Month for AI Computing Capacity

The headquarters of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in California. (AFP)
The headquarters of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in California. (AFP)

SpaceX on Friday signed a blockbuster cloud computing agreement under which Google will pay the Elon Musk-founded rocket company $920 million per month for access to a massive cluster of AI chips, according to a disclosure in its initial public offering filing.

The deal, which will bolster SpaceX's finances ahead of its IPO on June 12, covers a computing infrastructure of approximately 110,000 Nvidia GPUs -- the crucial hardware needed to power Google's Gemini AI models.

The filing says Google will begin paying the full monthly rate in October 2026, with a reduced fee applying during a ramp-up period until then, AFP reported.

The agreement runs through June 2029, implying total payments of roughly $30 billion over the life of the contract.

The deal resembles one struck with AI giant Anthropic, in which SpaceX leased compute capacity at its Colossus data centers in Memphis, Tennessee for $1.25 billion a month.

The facilities were originally built to power Musk's rival AI venture, xAI.

SpaceX's IPO filing revealed that xAI last year posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion on total revenue of $3.2 billion.

"This is a short-term, timely agreement to ensure we have bridge capacity to meet surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected," a Google Cloud spokesperson said in an email to AFP.

The filing adds that after December 31, "the agreement may be terminated by either party upon 90 days' notice."

The deals with Google and Anthropic come just days ahead of SpaceX's IPO, which will be the biggest in history, valuing the company at $1.8 trillion.

That valuation is largely based on faith that Musk can deliver on his ambitions to vastly expand his Starlink satellite business, put data centers into space using SpaceX rockets, as well as begin colonizing Mars.


Rosneft: US Companies Benefit from Strait of Hormuz Closure

Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 5, 2026 (Reuters).
Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 5, 2026 (Reuters).
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Rosneft: US Companies Benefit from Strait of Hormuz Closure

Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 5, 2026 (Reuters).
Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 5, 2026 (Reuters).

Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin said on Saturday that US energy companies were the main beneficiaries of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz but warned that continued tensions in the artery for one fifth of the world's crude would undermine long-term demand for oil.

Iran blockaded the Strait, the main route for about a fifth of world oil supplies and other vital goods including fertilisers, after the United States and Israel attacked Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February. The US has blockaded Iranian ports.

Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and one of the most influential men in Russia's energy sector, cast the US actions as an attempt to change the fundamental contours of the global energy markets to suit US interests, but added that the strategic risks had not been fully assessed.

"The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is an attempt to reshape global energy market regulations to benefit the United States. The measures taken to block the strait were aimed at Iran, but backfired on the entire world. The strategic risks were underestimated," Sechin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"The main beneficiaries, of course, were American companies, which gained non-competitive advantages and the ability to secure high-cost supplies," he said.

"Continued tension in the Strait of Hormuz for a long time undermines the long-term demand for oil. It may also trigger another surge of interest in alternative energy."

If the Strait opens in the near future, then the oil price will be at $95 to $96 per barrel by the end of the year, and in a year it will drop to $80 to $85, and by the second half of 2027 there will be a return to market fundamentals, he said.


First Two of Riyadh Air’s Custom-Built 787-9 Dreamliners Arrive in Saudi Arabia

The arrival of Riyadh Air's two aircraft marks a historic milestone in the company's journey towards launching its flights (SPA)
The arrival of Riyadh Air's two aircraft marks a historic milestone in the company's journey towards launching its flights (SPA)
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First Two of Riyadh Air’s Custom-Built 787-9 Dreamliners Arrive in Saudi Arabia

The arrival of Riyadh Air's two aircraft marks a historic milestone in the company's journey towards launching its flights (SPA)
The arrival of Riyadh Air's two aircraft marks a historic milestone in the company's journey towards launching its flights (SPA)

Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier and a company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced the arrival of its first two custom-built Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

The aircraft arrived in tandem on Friday at approximately 10 a.m. local time, receiving a water cannon salute upon touchdown.

The aircraft – using the call signs Riyadh 1 and Riyadh 2 and registered as HZ-RXAA and HZ-RXAB – are the first of Riyadh Air’s 72 state-of-the-art Dreamliners.

Their arrival marks the commencement of the carrier's broader strategy to expand its fleet to more than 180 narrow-body and wide-body aircraft.

Leveraging Saudi Arabia’s strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, Riyadh Air aims to connect the capital to over 100 global destinations by 2030, with plans to fly to nearly 20 destinations by the end of this year.

Commenting on the arrival, Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas said: “To see our very first custom-built Dreamliners touch down in Riyadh is a truly historic moment for us, and a momentous day for Saudi aviation as part of Vision 2030. I could not be more excited or more confident about the future and the legacy we are creating.”

“Not only are we building an airline, we are opening a new gateway to the world from the heart of the Kingdom. We are absolutely ready and excited to welcome the world to Riyadh,” he added.