Huang on, Nvidia is on the China trip

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from London.

Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily Open, and it is also a welcome for Jensen Huang to President Trump’s China trip — it seems.

A few Truth Social posts and accusations later, here’s how that last-minute addition to the U.S. delegation traveling to Beijing came together…

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to China, after initial indications the executive had not been invited.

After seeing the media coverage of Huang’s absence from the delegation, Trump called the Nvidia executive and asked him to join, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC.

Huang flew to Alaska to board Air Force One, the source said.

Trump is bringing more than a dozen U.S. executives to Beijing this week, where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday.

And while this about-turn is leading headlines today, the war in Iran continues to cast a shadow over the trip.

Concerns over the ongoing tensions in the Middle East are expected to eclipse tariff woes during the trip. While Chinese exporters have spent the past year scrambling to diversify away from the U.S. as punishing tariffs have upended their business models, now the Iran war has heaped fresh pressure on those businesses, choking critical shipping lanes, triggering a historic energy shock, and threatening to crimp global demand for Chinese goods across the board.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer has survived a torrid 24 hours for his Labour Party, with four ministers having resigned over his leadership. Today, he will try to see off a potential challenge from his own Health Minister Wes Streeting, while later the State Opening of Parliament will see King Charles lay out legislation for the year ahead.

Yields on U.K. government bonds surged to multi-decade highs on Tuesday morning, as pressure mounted on Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

It’s been a volatile week for both stock and bond markets so far. Today, trading is mixed across Asia as investors digest a hotter-than-expected inflation reading for April amid concerns over higher oil prices and the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Pre-market trading indicates small gains across Europe and the U.S.

— Leonie Kidd, Kristina Partsinevelos and Evelyn Cheng

This metal just set a new record, boosted by AI data center demand. Citi says it’s time to ‘chase the move higher’

As demand from artificial intelligence data centers drives copper to new records, Citi believes that there’s still more room for the metal to run.

“Practically all copper demand growth since 2022 has come from energy transition and AI related sources,” the strategist wrote. “Another, more recent, channel for demand growth arises from strategic inventory stockpiling, where Citi specialists have mapped out potential price implications of strategic inventory build scenarios.”

— Lisa Kailai Han