Top stories for the morning: oil rises on US and Iran strikes, Dell gets Pentagon contract

Brent crude oil topped $98 a barrel and WTI rose above $92 amid fresh strikes by the U.S. and Iran over threats to progress in opening the Strait of Hormuz. Dell was awarded a five-year Pentagon contract worth nearly $9.7 billion to supply Microsoft software to the military and intelligence community. These and other topics are covered in our review of key events on the morning of Ma. 28.

Oil prices rose sharply after new attacks in the Persian Gulf and US sanctions against the Iranian structure that controls shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg writes. Brent rose above $98 per barrel, WTI - $92 per barrel after the U.S. strikes on military facilities near Hormuz and the retaliatory attack of the IRGC on the U.S. base.

Kuwait's reported repulsion of missile and drone threats caused additional concern. Despite market hopes for a temporary agreement between Washington and Tehran, talks remain stalled, with Iran demanding the lifting of sanctions and control of the Strait, and Donald Trump saying the US will not make a "bad deal" and will continue to press Tehran.

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Dell a five-year contract worth nearly $9.7 billion to supply Microsoft software for the agency, the intelligence community and the Coast Guard, CNBC reports. The agreement includes Microsoft 365 office suite, cloud services and licenses for the Pentagon's internal systems.

The Pentagon claims that the consolidation of IT purchases will save about $422 million a year. The contract was awarded to Dell Federal Systems following a competitive bidding process amid Michael Dell's close ties to Donald Trump and the US administration, CNBC points out.

LG Energy Solution shares jumped more than 16% after the company's U.S. unit was awarded a contract to supply batteries for DTE Energy's power projects in Michigan, CNBC reported. The deal, worth about $1.6 billion, calls for 1.5 GW or 6 GWh of energy storage systems.

The South Korean company is actively expanding its energy storage systems business in the US and plans to increase its production capacity in North America to more than 50 GW⋅h by the end of the year. LG said that the growing number of localized projects in the US supports demand for domestically produced batteries.

US federal authorities have accused Google engineer Michele Spagnolo of insider trading on the Polymarket betting platform, Bloomberg reports. According to the investigation, he used Google's internal data on search trends and earned about $1.2 million by betting that singer D4vd would become the most popular person in Google searches in 2025.

Prosecutors allege that a Google employee tried to hide trades through crypto-transaction anonymization services and changed his nickname on the platform after users' suspicions. Against the backdrop of the case, Polymarket is stepping up its fight against insider trading and has partnered with Chainalysis and Palantir to track suspicious bets.

- Japan's broad Topix index was down 1 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was down 1.2 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 2.3 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 index was down 1 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was falling 4% but then slowed to a 2.7% decline, while the Kosdaq index was losing about 5%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.5 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were falling by 0.3% amid rising oil prices. Futures on Nasdaq Composite were losing 0.8%. Exchange contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor