Trump Targets Big Oil Over High Gas Prices, DOJ Probe Looms

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from London. Welcome to today's edition of the Daily Open newsletter.

Drill baby drill — but not too much.

That is President Trump's message to big oil, as he berates them for higher crude prices at the pump.

And the threat of a DOJ probe could raise some energy eyebrows...

What you need to know today

U.S. President Donald Trump has turned his sights on the world's largest energy companies.

Taking to Truth Social this morning, he switched from posting about results in the primaries to saying, "The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being "gouged." I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I'm seeing! President DJT."

Crude prices are moving lower in early trading, with WTI and Brent under pressure. While both benchmarks have retreated from the highs of the Iran crisis, crude remains much higher than pre-war levels.

In broader markets, South Korea's Kospi is leading a rebound in technology stocks, with shares in Samsung and SK Hynix sharply higher.

The recovery followed a bruising session on Wall Street on Tuesday, when technology stocks extended a global selloff that began in Asia a day earlier.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid as investors dumped chipmakers and AI-linked stocks. Memory-chip maker Micron Technology and Sandisk dropped 13%, while Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm each lost more than 5%.

Private markets are still under pressure. In a filing on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley revealed it has limited redemptions at its $7 billion private credit fund after withdrawals topped 11%. The move adds to jitters throughout the week, find more details here.

In political news, the Financial Times reports that U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is unlikely to keep her role in a new Labour government. Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham is facing growing calls for more clarity among investors and economists on his economic agenda, for analysis watch here.

— Leonie Kidd

And finally...

Meta is building a prediction markets app. These stocks fell in response

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has directed staff to create a prediction markets platform, a person familiar with the company's plans who asked not to be named confirmed to CNBC.

The New York Times was first to report the development on Tuesday.

The person familiar, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the company's plans, also confirmed to CNBC that the prediction markets app would not use actual money to trade on the platform, a contrast to other prediction markets where traders use cash to speculate on future events.

The Times report said Meta's app would instead rely on a video game-style points system, but that money may be used on the app in the future.

— Davis Giangiulio, Stephen Desaulniers