The United States is stepping up a wartime response posture, adding pressure on the auto industry. The Pentagon has contacted top executives at major automakers such as GM and Ford to sound out slowing some EV output and expanding weapons and military supplies production. Separately, Ford’s CEO warned about Chinese EVs and the company reshuffled its organisation. Volkswagen accelerated battery work, while Tesla completed its AI5 chip design and updated its FSD app amid complaints over HW3 limits.

U.S. stocks rose across the board on expectations that Middle East risks could ease, pushing major indexes to fresh records. The S&P 500 ended up 0.8 percent at 7,022.95 and the Nasdaq gained 1.59 percent to 24,016.02, while the Dow slipped 72.27 points. Technology shares led, and Tesla jumped 7.95 percent to $391.95 after CEO Elon Musk said the AI5 chip reached a key engineering milestone.