CNBC Daily Open: Trump's Strait of Hormuz claim meets crude reality

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

U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that the U.S. Navy has "100%" control of the Strait of Hormuz — investors aren't so sure.

Oil prices have continued to climb, with both U.S. crude and international benchmark Brent up by around 2% in early trading.

Over in Asia, chip giant Nvidia is eyeing the possibility of turning its artificial intelligence chips into Wall Street's newest asset class, partnering with an all-star cast of six U.S. asset managers.

"It's open now," President Donald Trump told reporters, adding that the U.S. was "the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now."

Not quite, it seems. It seems that fear, along with its old sidekick, uncertainty, has control.

Oil futures are still climbing, demonstrating that the supply crunch wrought by the closure of the critical waterway is not expected to abate soon.

Prices of U.S. crude rose 2% early on Tuesday, adding to an over 5% rise on Monday to trade at $82.80 per barrel, as of 3:53 a.m. ET, while Brent crude was up 2.2% at $89.62.

An agreement between Tehran and Washington is yet to materialize, with prospects for a deal appearing to deteriorate over the weekend.

The question now is where oil goes from here.

While the rise remains contained as of now, market moves won't be so "benign" if the current deadlock runs into next week, Jefferies economist Modupe Adegbembo told CNBC.

Asian markets were trading mixed on Tuesday, with South Korea's Kospi in positive territory, but Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets down.

Chip giant Nvidia is eyeing the possibility of turning its artificial intelligence chips into Wall Street's newest asset class.

The effort aims to mobilize more than $500 billion in third-party capital for hyperscalers, frontier AI labs and enterprises to build out data centers and acquire Nvidia hardware.

CEO Jensen Huang, along with an an all-star cast comprising executives from firms including Blackstone, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR, were on CNBC to discuss the announcement.

By using institutional credit, insurance funds and private capital to underwrite GPUs and data centers, Nvidia is helping its end users secure financing without tapping their own balance sheets.

Over in Asia, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani saw his bribery case dismissed by a U.S. judge. Adani and seven others had been indicted in November 2024 in a New York federal court on criminal charges related to an alleged bribery and fraud scheme. 

Adani Group is one of the biggest Indian conglomerates, with a significant presence in crucial sectors of the country's economy—from ports to cement, from energy to media.

— Lim Hui Jie

‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’ come courting the massive filmgoer market in China

America's movie stars are back in China.

From Timothee Chalamet selling tofu in Chengdu, to Tom Holland and Zendaya enjoying sheep-themed matcha in Shanghai, Hollywood is actively courting a massive market that's tightly controlled by Beijing.

Some of it's paying off. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" has already broken into the 10 highest-grossing movies in China this year, according to ticketing site Maoyan. As for "The Odyssey," it has already made more than $7 million in China, in just two weekends of limited screenings ahead of its official Aug. 14 release.

— Evelyn Cheng