(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a

columnist for Reuters.)

By Mike Dolan

June 2 (Reuters) - What matters in U.S. and global

markets today

By Mike Dolan, Editor-at-Large, Finance and Markets

On the surface, global markets looked pretty serene early on

Tuesday, masking both the latest twist in the AI story and

another set of confusing signals on the Iran war front.

Meanwhile, AI startup Anthropic stole the show on Monday as it

announced it had confidentially filed for an IPO, seemingly

beating rival OpenAI to the punch and catching the slipstream of

the giant SpaceX IPO expected this month.

I'll get into that and more below.

But first, check out my latest column on how the AI investment

frenzy could prove a bigger inflation worry than the Iran energy

shock.

And listen to the latest episode of the Morning Bid daily

podcast. Subscribe to hear Reuters journalists discuss the

biggest news in markets and finance seven days a week.

EQUITY SUPPLY SHOCK?

While investors parsed the implications of the Anthropic

announcement, Alphabet announced it was raising some $80 billion

of equity financing, including a $10 billion private placement

with Berkshire Hathaway. The Alphabet stock price fell back

about 2% after hours on that news.

We've already seen these hyperscalers raise tens of billions

of new debt to fund their AI investments, but raising new equity

is a twist. The wider debate is whether there's appetite for all

this new equity at these sky-high valuations, or whether some

indigestion will set in.

The numbers are staggering. Anthropic's latest funding round

put its overall valuation at some $965 billion, above OpenAI's,

while SpaceX's planned $75 billion offering values it at $1.75

trillion.

The question is where that leaves the leaderboard of top

companies, relative index weightings and the concentration of AI

in overall equity benchmarks. It's also good to remember that

huge IPO waves in the past have sometimes marked the high

watermark of speculative market frenzies.

Away from Wall Street, the real AI demand picture continues to

pack a punch, with Europe's STMicroelectronics jumping 10% on

Tuesday to its highest since 2000 after it doubled its

data-center revenue forecast for this year to $1 billion.

How much the AI buildout and chip scramble is affecting

input and consumer prices is also increasingly a concern,

especially as investors parse a foggy picture on the energy

front as U.S.-Iran peace talks sputter.

Brent crude prices unwound a little of yesterday's 5% spike

after President Donald Trump indicated that talks with Iran

would continue and potentially reach some conclusion this week.

But we've been here before, and the fear on Monday was that

military exchanges would continue and Iran would hold firm on

its red lines.

While oil prices are off a bit today, year-end futures have

been little changed over the past week and remain more than 30%

higher than before the war started.

The combination of that and the AI story was distilled in a hot

U.S. manufacturing reading from the ISM survey for May. While

the headline factory activity index hit its highest in four

years, there was some question about whether this was flattered

by precautionary stockpiling. The input price component ebbed a

bit but remains historically high.

Across the pond, euro zone inflation rose to an expected 3.2% in

May, with a European Central Bank interest rate rise now widely

expected later this month.

STMicro helped Europe's main stock indexes gain early on

Tuesday, while Asian markets once again rode on the back of

Monday's tech excitement on Wall Street.

Ahead of Tuesday's bell, Wall Street stock futures had backed

off Monday's latest record closing high, long-dated U.S.

Treasury yields were a touch softer and currency markets

remained quiet.

Chart of the day

The S&P 500 software sector index logged its strongest monthly

gain since October 2002 in May and ended last week at its

highest level since late January after strong results from Dell

and Snowflake.

After a jarring slide earlier in the year on concerns that AI

agents could threaten traditional business models, the sector

has almost recouped all 2026 losses to date. Stocks such as

ServiceNow, IBM, Adobe, Salesforce and Workday all continued

that rally this week, and the index climbed another 4% on

Monday.

Today's events to watch

* U.S. April JOLTS job openings (10 a.m. EDT)

* Cleveland Fed's Beth Hammack speaks

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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect

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