Partly on some disquiet about delays in its latest Gemini AI model, as well as the rising cash burn, markets shrugged at the headlines and knocked Alphabet's stock down 3% ahead of today's bell.

Lapping up the higher spend, however, chip-heavy South Korean stocks jumped more than 4% on Thursday. But it wasn't all good news in the chip world either, with Europe's STMicroelectronics dropping 14% first thing on a slight miss in its earnings.

Stateside, Tesla stock also flubbed and lost 4% on Wednesday after it reported its first negative free cash flow in over two years. Intel's earnings are due out later today, a test for the U.S. chipmaking giant as its shares remain up nearly three times so far this year, even after tumbling from a record high in late June.

Wall Street futures were down before the bell on Thursday, while European shares also edged lower as tech stocks there slipped, led by chipmaker STMicro after its below-expectations results.

More broadly, oil climbed further toward $98 per barrel overnight amid the raging conflict in the Gulf and the new shipping hiatus in the Red Sea, as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis targeted Saudi oil tankers and shipping data showed tankers changing course.

The resurgent oil prices are pressuring oil and natural gas futures, as well as interest rate and bond markets in turn. Short-term U.S. Treasury yields rose to their highest in around 17 months on Thursday.

With the European Central Bank meeting today, the inflation impact from spiraling natural gas prices as winter storage starts to get rebuilt will mean the signals are likely to be hawkish.

Futures markets now price two ECB hikes by year-end and two Federal Reserve hikes within nine months. 

With that, onto today's column.