U.S. Navy sailors work on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington as it transits the Arabian Sea to support U.S. military operations in the war with Iran on August 20, 2026. U.S. Navy | Via ReutersHi, I’m Hui Jie, writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open. Washington has reportedly deployed a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East, raising prospects that an escalation of tensions in the region could be on the cards. That sent oil rising again as markets factor in continued conflict and disruption to energy supplies. What you need to know today Washington has reportedly deployed the USS Theodore Roosevelt to the Middle East, making it the third aircraft carrier headed to the area. The aircraft carrier will join the USS George HW Bush and USS George Washington, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal also added that Marine Corps ships and up to 10,000 additional troops are also deploying to the region and are expected to arrive in November. This has fueled concerns that the conflict with Iran could flare up again, causing crude oil prices to rise sharply on Thursday. Brent crude oil rose 4.4% to close at $102.31 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.7% to close at $92.87 per barrel. The US Treasury also continued its efforts to economically isolate Iran, sanctioning the country’s automobile and railway sectors. The measures also included additional sanctions on the A7 network, described as a “shadow banking network with ties to Russia used by the Iranian regime to evade sanctions.” A judge on Thursday dismissed the criminal case accusing former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and permanently barred prosecutors from bringing the same charges again. Trump has repeatedly insisted that the damage to the reflecting pool was due to intentional vandalism, alleging that the vandals made a hundreds of feet-long gash in the pool’s protective coating. On the financial front, US markets rose despite rising oil prices, with the S&P500 adding 0.19% and both the Dow and Nasdaq making marginal gains. The rise was helped by the pullback in Treasury yields from multi-year highs, and Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial, told CNBC that “there is some fatigue in the bond market.” In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost ground. Corporate DevelopmentsAnd finally… Google introduces the latest AI model, but Wall Street wants a top personal agent. Google may have returned to the frontier of artificial intelligence, but investors and consumers are increasingly focusing on what people can build with the technology as personal agents rise in popularity. The company presented its long-awaited Gemini 4 Argon model on Wednesday, which promises major advances in coding, cybersecurity and complex tasks. Based on industry benchmarks, Argon ties OpenAI in key cybersecurity test and publishes leading software engineering results.—MacKenzie Sigalos
