UBS says AI-driven demand and ongoing long-term supply agreement talks are strengthening the storage-chip cycle and that a structural supply shortfall will persist at least through mid-2028. UBS forecasts total storage-chip industry revenue of $992 bln in 2026, rising to $1.76 tln in 2027. The growth driver is high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a DRAM used in AI accelerators such as NVIDIA GPUs; UBS projects HBM demand up 90% YoY in 2026 to about 33.1 bln Gb and up a further 77% in 2027 to about 58.7

Iranian foreign minister Araghchi and Saudi foreign minister Faisal held a phone call to discuss regional developments and consult on the Middle East situation following recent U.S. action.

US mortgage rates rose to 6.49%, reversing last week's decline, as renewed US-Iran escalation raised concerns that oil prices and borrowing costs could climb. Freddie Mac said on Thursday its 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average rose to 6.43% from a week earlier; it was 6.72% a year ago. The conflict since late February has weighed on the housing market, and hopes that a prior ceasefire would ease geopolitical risk and stabilise borrowing costs have dimmed after this week's escalation. High mortgage rates are hindering buyers and may prevent sales improvement in 2026, and the current Iran situation could keep rates elevated, Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berna said.