Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara said Japan and the United States are maintaining close communication on foreign exchange and Tokyo would not hesitate to take further FX action if necessary.

BofA says Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are sharply increasing AI capital spending: combined capex is forecast to exceed $860bn in 2026 (roughly +80% YoY) and reach about $1.2tn in 2027 (+~38% YoY). The expansion is backed by more than $2.3tn of customer long-term contracts and order backlog (up ~16% q/q), boosting demand visibility. AI and cloud sales are still growing near 80–100%+ with improving margins, but higher capex will squeeze free cash flow: capex is projected at roughly 100–115% of operating cash flow, pushing industry FCF margin to about -1% in 2026 and -5% to -6% in 2027–28 before recovery as AI returns materialize. The five hyperscalers have raised about $270bn year-to-date, mainly long-term debt and equity to bolster liquidity and optimize balance sheets, not indicative of acute funding stress. Primary supply-chain beneficiaries listed are compute chips, storage, semiconductor equipment, power semiconductors and optical communications.

Fars News said some "media linked to adversaries" had reported Iran agreed to a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Sources denied the report and said Iran’s policy toward the strategic waterway has not changed.