Oil prices remained elevated on Wednesday, with Brent crude up 0.6% at $89.4 a barrel, as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz and fresh U.S. military action against another vessel in the waterway kept supply concerns and inflation risks in focus. Qatar said Oman-Iran talks over the strait had reached an advanced stage, but Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, said the strait would not be opened unless Washington accepted Tehran's conditions, underscoring doubts about a lasting de-escalation. The move in crude fed into broader concern about energy-driven inflation ahead of U.S. consumer price index data due later on Wednesday. The reading is expected to show a slowdown after July's 3.4% annual and 0.1% monthly figures, and investors were assessing what that could mean for Federal Reserve policy by year-end. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said inflation is the biggest problem facing the U.S. economy. Cross-asset moves reflected those competing forces. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.69%, the Dollar Index rose 0.1% to 99.8, and gold gained 0.8% to $4,401 per ounce. U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 down 0.32%, the Nasdaq off 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.34%, before opening higher on Wednesday. AI-related optimism continued to support technology shares. Supermicro posted higher orders, recovering profit margins and strong expectations for next year after Tuesday's close, while its 2027 guidance boosted sentiment further. CoreWeave's earnings also indicated sustained demand for AI and cloud services. In Asia, tech-led gains lifted South Korea and Japan, though Hong Kong lagged. European markets remained mixed as higher oil prices supported energy stocks, while drought and low river levels strained electricity supply, according to the European Commission. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.17%, France's CAC 40 lost 0.13%, Italy's FTSE MIB 30 rose 0.08% and Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.26% on Tuesday.