U.S. escalates military action against Iran despite economic pressure strategy; Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs; AI stocks rise on Qualcomm and Corning deals

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.

Washington says economic pressure will help bring its war with Iran to an end. But the missiles still seem to be flying — U.S. forces destroyed five Iranian crude carriers after Tehran twice targeted a U.S. warship. Meanwhile, the Treasury sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines.

Elsewhere, Canada's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods took effect, while new infrastructure deals from Qualcomm and Corning gave AI stocks a lift.

What you need to know today

Despite the U.S. claiming to want to focus on economic pressure to force an end to the Iran war, Washington's military campaign is still very active.

U.S. Central Command destroyed five Iranian oil tankers after Tehran attempted to strike U.S. Navy warships, while playing down the Iranian capture of an unmanned U.S. submarine.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines and a handful of other entities as part of its ongoing effort to isolate Iran's economy.

The moves come as Tehran continues to launch attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding region, extending the war with the U.S. to over six months and placing more pressure on global energy prices.

Oil prices inched closer to the $100 a barrel mark, with West Texas Intermediate futures climbing to $94.31 in early Asia trade.

International benchmark Brent was at $99.21, after climbing as high as $99 in extended trading.

Elsewhere, Canada's trade rift with the U.S. deepens, with tariffs worth C$27.6 billion ($20 billion) going into effect Tuesday stateside.

Ottawa had vowed to impose a "dollar for dollar" response after trade talks between the two sides collapsed last month.

Washington had then slapped new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian wine, hockey sticks and other key goods.

AI rally

Over in tech, deals announced by glass maker Corning and semiconductor firm Qualcomm lifted the AI sector, with chipmakers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices rising 9% and 6% respectively.

Other companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise climbed 8% while photonics company Coherent added 7%.

Qualcomm shares had unveiled a data center infrastructure partnership with Amazon Web Services, with the company helping to build out AWS' AI infrastructure, specifically focused on inference.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it has issued warrants to Amazon to acquire 25 million shares in the company at $161.26 apiece for a total investment of $4 billion.

Corning said it's entering into a multibillion-dollar partnership with Verizon to build fiber-optic cables for AI connectivity, just three months after striking a multibillion-dollar deal with Amazon.

And finally...

Chinese giants Xiaomi, Huawei race to get ahead of Apple’s rumored foldable iPhone

Huawei and Xiaomi this week rolled out their latest foldable phones as the Chinese tech giants look to steal a lead on rival Apple, which is rumored to launch its first foldable iPhone on Wednesday.

Xiaomi, the world's third-largest smartphone player, introduced the Xiaomi 18 Fold on Monday, a passport-sized device similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold8, which was released earlier this year.

Huawei on Monday unveiled the Mate XT2, the third generation of its trifold smartphone, which it pioneered.