This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Geopolitical uncertainty  
Major U.S. indexes all closed slightly above the flatline on Wednesday. Oil prices continued rising, helping energy stocks outperform. Nike fell 6.8% and Tesla lost 3.5%. Asia-Pacific stocks traded mixed Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose about 2% as the yen slipped, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped around 1.4% after enjoying a strong rally on Wednesday.

Yen slides on Ishiba’s dovish comments 
The Japanese yen fell to as low as 147.15 against the U.S. dollar during Asia trading hours today on dovish comments from new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. “I do not believe that we are in an environment that would require us to raise interest rates further,” Ishiba said Wednesday. Analysts, however, think the Bank of Japan will still raise rates by early 2025. 

OpenAI’s $157 billion valuation 
OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion in its latest funding round, putting it at a valuation of $157 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital – which planned to invest $1 billion – and included participation from Microsoft, Nvidia and Softbank, said a person with knowledge of the matter.  

Behind India’s booming market 
India Nifty 50 index is up 18.7% year to date, hitting record highs on its way there. Several factors are driving its rally: public infrastructure investments by the government, companies diversifying their supply chains away from China to India, healthy economic growth, a growing population and lower U.S. Federal Reserve interest rates.  

[PRO] Opportunities amid disruptions 
Strikes by longshoremen at U.S. coastal ports are only the latest in a series of supply chain disruptions we’ve experienced in recent years. While those interruptions are generally bad for the global economy by increasing shipment prices and delivery times, Goldman Sachs thinks some stocks can benefit from such events.

The nature of today’s globalized world means that the manufacturing process of one smartphone may take it to more places around the world than I will ever be. 

It may begin with designing a blueprint in the U.S., sourcing minerals from China, manufacturing semiconductors in Taiwan, assembling the product in India and working with the European Union to meet standards. 

But supply lines are so intricately connected that the moment one link in the chain snaps, the whole process can be interrupted. 

That’s why the recent tension in the Middle East – already simmering for a year, now bubbling slightly more furiously – has weighed on investor sentiment across the world. The conflict’s effects are magnified because the region is the epicenter of oil production, and oil is, well, literally the fuel for the global economy.  

Furthermore, producing oil is not like manufacturing a smartphone, in which a company can shift assembly to another country. Either there is or isn’t oil in the land. Oil suppliers are bound to where they are. 

You’d expect that markets would have been shaken by that threat to the global economy. But all major U.S. indexes managed to close just a tad above the flatline. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.09% gain and the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.08%. 

Headwinds blowing from Middle East might have been tempered by optimism in China.  

Lifted by Beijing’s recent announcement of economic stimulus, Chinese stocks have been on a tear. That’s caused U.S. exchange-traded funds that track Chinese stocks to rally, helping to keep the U.S. market afloat amid worries over the escalating Middle East conflict. 

Indeed, U.S. stocks tend to benefit whenever the Chinese government unleashes economic stimulus and credit expansion, according to Ryan Grabinski, strategist at Strategas Securities. 

Here’s the flipside of globalization: Negative developments in one part of the world may weigh down others, but positive ones will radiate optimism beyond their origin. 

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Alex Harring and Samantha Subin contributed to this story.   

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Geopolitical uncertainty  
Major U.S. indexes all closed slightly above the flatline on Wednesday. Oil prices continued rising, helping energy stocks outperform. Nike fell 6.8% and Tesla lost 3.5%. Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 inched up 0.05%. Defense stocks like Saab and Thales rose in response to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.  

OpenAI’s $157 billion valuation 
OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion in its latest funding round, putting it at a valuation of $157 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital – which planned to invest $1 billion – and included participation from Microsoft, Nvidia and Softbank, said a person with knowledge of the matter.  

Tesla’s deliveries missed expectations 
Tesla stocks fell 3.5% after it reported deliveries that missed expectations. In the third quarter of 2024, Tesla delivered 462,890 vehicles, slightly below the 463,310 estimate compiled by FactSet StreetAccount. Tesla doesn’t report sales numbers for specific models or regions, so deliveries are the closest approximation to them. 

More-than-expected private jobs added 
The U.S. private sector added 143,000 jobs in September, according to a report by payrolls processing firm ADP. That’s more than the 128,000 predicted by economists polled by Dow Jones and higher than August’s upwardly revised figure of 103,000. It’s a sign that the labor market isn’t as flabby as some had feared. 

[PRO] October’s volatility has begun 
The S&P 500 moves an average of more than 1% in either direction each day in October, according to CNBC Pro analysis, based on FactSet data going back to 1950. And October is already living up to that reputation, writes CNBC Pro’s Fred Imbert. Here’s how one Wall Street analyst is preparing for the historically choppy month.

The nature of today’s globalized world means that the manufacturing process of one smartphone may take it to more places around the world than I will ever be. 

It may begin with designing a blueprint in the U.S., sourcing minerals from China, manufacturing semiconductors in Taiwan, assembling the product in India and working with the European Union to meet standards. 

But supply lines are so intricately connected that the moment one link in the chain snaps, the whole process can be interrupted. 

That’s why the recent tension in the Middle East – already simmering for a year, now bubbling slightly more furiously – has weighed on investor sentiment across the world. The conflict’s effects are magnified because the region is the epicenter of oil production, and oil is, well, literally the fuel for the global economy.  

Furthermore, producing oil is not like manufacturing a smartphone, in which a company can shift assembly to another country. Either there is or isn’t oil in the land. Oil suppliers are bound to where they are. 

You’d expect that markets would have been shaken by that threat to the global economy. But all major U.S. indexes managed to close just a tad above the flatline. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.09% gain and the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.08%. 

Headwinds blowing from Middle East might have been tempered by optimism in China.  

Lifted by Beijing’s recent announcement of economic stimulus, Chinese stocks have been on a tear. That’s caused U.S. exchange-traded funds that track Chinese stocks to rally, helping to keep the U.S. market afloat amid worries over the escalating Middle East conflict. 

Indeed, U.S. stocks tend to benefit whenever the Chinese government unleashes economic stimulus and credit expansion, according to Ryan Grabinski, strategist at Strategas Securities. 

Here’s the flipside of globalization: Negative developments in one part of the world may weigh down others, but positive ones will radiate optimism beyond their origin. 

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Alex Harring and Samantha Subin contributed to this story.   

LONDON — European stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday as investors attempted to look beyond escalating tensions in the Middle East and await fresh employment data out of the region.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.17% in opening trade, with the majority of sectors and major bourses in the green. Oil and gas stocks added 1.54% on the prospect of supply disruptions in the Middle East, while travel and leisure stocks dipped 0.55% as airlines diverted flights out of the region.

On the stock front, Defense companies ticked higher on the rising conflict risks, with Saab and BAE Systems adding 2.2%, while Thales and Rheinmetall both rose more than 1.3%.

Meantime, shares of British sports retailer JD Sports fell 3.5% even as the company reported expectation-beating revenues and profits for the first half. It comes as revenues at Nike, whose products it sells, fell short on Tuesday.

The cautious uptick follows a negative start to the trading month on Wall Street, with the Nasdaq Composite shedding 1.5% and the S&P 500 losing 0.9%, after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel in retaliation for its recent killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian commander in Lebanon.

The attack came on the heels of Israel’s deployment of ground forces into south Lebanon, escalating its offensive on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.

Oil prices spiked following the attack, while the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, topped 20 at its high of the day.

U.S. futures remained lower in overnight trading, while Asia-Pacific markets were mixed.

Mainland China markets were closed Wednesday for the Golden Week holiday and will remain closed for the rest of the week. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded more than 6% higher, signaling more optimism about Beijing’s stimulus policies.

Back in Europe, investors are awaiting fresh unemployment data from the region as well as U.K. house price data.

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.