CNBC Daily Open: Apple's new iPhone bends. Bond vigilantes, not so much

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

Apple has released new devices, including the company's first foldable phone — and iPhone18 in new colors.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Treasury announced it was stepping into the bond markets again, tripling the normal buyback operation.

And in the midst of the jolts in the markets due to the Hormuz conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump's energy portfolio has surged by millions, a CNBC analysis found.

Seven years after rival Samsung launched its first foldable phone, Apple has done the same, releasing the iPhone Duo.

While the marketing material promised many new features, such as an external and internal screen, a fingerprint sensor on its side and a titanium case, social media commentary seemed to zero in on just one thing: will it have a prominent crease?

Much (digital) ink has been spilt debating how visible it is, how the screen seemed different in the crease, and how many times it can opened and closed before issues worsen. The overarching view seemed to be that the crease was there, but it's less visible.

Besides the Duo, Apple also rolled out the rest of its lineup, offering new iPhones, watches and Airpods. The iPhone 18 Pro and Max are priced at $100 more than last year's models, while the foldable Duo starts at $1,999.

Less then a month after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. Treasury will double its bond buybacks to $4 billion, the department has now said it will buy up to $6 billion for an operation that will happen Thursday. This is triple the normal buyback amount.

Treasury also said future operations will be at least $4 billion, and will focus on the 10- and 20-year notes.

Though the operation is supposedly aimed at keeping government debt markets liquid, the extraordinary measure has also been seen as an effort to put a lid on Treasury yields, which had hit highs not seen since prior to the global financial crisis in 2008.

Market reaction, however, was negative. Treasury yields rose further, but were volatile with long-dated securities gaining as much as 5 basis points each before easing.

Elevated yields, combined with surging oil prices, pushed down stocks, with all three major indexes down for a third straight day.

International benchmark Brent crossed the $100-a-barrel mark on Wednesday to $101.21. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 3.3% to close at $96.05, marking the highest close since May for both. Oil was higher in early Asia trading Thursday.

While there is no evidence found that Trump or his investment managers traded on advance knowledge of his decisions or that his financial interests influenced policy, the filings are the latest example of Trump holding a multimillion-dollar financial stake in an industry directly affected by his administration's military and diplomatic decisions.

Trump on Wednesday said energy prices that have been elevated due to the Iran war will not come down until after the midterm elections, which are due in November.

— Lim Hui Jie

Experts weigh in as researcher says AI has more than 10% chance of ‘killing all humans’

An artificial intelligence researcher quit his job at Anthropic on Tuesday and accused the company, and its chief rival, OpenAI, of acting irresponsibly, igniting a frenzy of concern on social media about the rapid pace of the technology's development.

Jacob Coxon, who has worked as a researcher at both companies, said in a post on X that he resigned out of concern that Anthropic and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives." He said the people building AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

"Do not underestimate the power of this technology," Coxon wrote. "These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources."

— Ashley Capoot, Arjun Kharpal