Europe Capitulates, Sees Iranian Hormuz Fee Collection As ‘Inevitable’  Europe capitulates at a moment Washington and Tehran (and possibly Oman) continue to be directly at odds over how future shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz energy chokepoint will be administered. Bloomberg reports Thursday, “Some leading European powers now accept that ships transiting the vital Strait of Hormuz will have to pay fees to Iran and […]

America Bets $50 Billion On Coal And Gas Power, More Than China, As Electricity Demand Soars By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com US companies are set to spend some $50 billion on power generation from coal and natural gas this year, the International Energy Agency has said, as quoted by the Financial Times. This would be the first time in decades that US spending on coal and gas generation would be higher than what China is investing in […]

Vegas Cops Disrupt Alleged Casino Terror Plot By Trans Gunman As Pattern Of Left-Wing Violence Raises Alarms The nihilistic accelerationism spreading through the revolutionary left is becoming an increasingly visible security threat, as years of radical rhetoric and political demonization by Democrats and their aligned, billionaire-funded NGOs bleed into real-world violence. The pattern is becoming increasingly troubling and harder […]

Yen Surges As Jittery Traders Expect Imminent Intervention After Japan Reveals New Strategy To Wipe Out Shorts After plunging to a fresh 40 year low overnight, the yen strengthened sharply against the dollar amid rising speculation that the currency’s continued weakness may prompt a fresh round of intervention by Japan. The yen then surged again after the June US jobs report showed a much weaker picture than expected. But let’s […]

Core Durable Goods Orders Soar Most In 4 Years US durable goods orders plummeted 4.5% MoM in May (as expected), dragging orders down 4.3% YoY – the worst annual decline since Nov 2024… Source: Bloomberg However, ex-transports, orders rose 1.4% MoM – up for the 14th straight month – with orders soaring over 10% YoY, the strongest annual surge since May 2022… Adding more confusion, US factory orders fell 1.3% MoM in May […]

US Adds Only 57K Jobs, Missing Estimates, As Unemployment Rate Slides On Plunge In Workers In our jobs preview post we quoted Goldman Delta One head, Rich Privorotsky, who said that “equities marginally want something weaker than consensus: with no forward guidance, hot NFP means hikes in play, which is unfriendly for pockets of equity risk.” Well, they got it because moments ago the BLS reported that in June the US added just 57K […]

‘Something Has Gone Completely Wrong’: Palantir’s Alex Karp Goes Ballistic On OpenAI, Anthropic On Wednesday, Palantir CEO Alex Karp delivered a blistering critique of frontier AI labs, accusing them of having an “effing insane” business model that leaves enterprises paying escalating token costs for limited value while risking their proprietary data and intellectual property. He said that top AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI […]

Buried On The 4th Of July: Mediators Pledge Quiet Between US, Iran To Allow For Ayatollah Khamenei’s Funeral President Trump by mid-week told reporters that the “denuclearization of Iran is moving along well” and that “very good meetings” are being held in Doha – even though no direct talks have taken place, but only an exchange of messages via mediators. On Wednesday US officials told regional media that no frozen Iranian funds […]

Tesla Reports 480,126 Q2 Deliveries, Crushing Estimates Tesla delivered a much stronger-than-expected second quarter, reporting 480,126 vehicle deliveries, well ahead of Wall Street forecasts of roughly 406,600. The company also produced 451,758 vehicles during the period, signaling a meaningful improvement after a slow start to the year, according to CNBC. Shares were volatile on the news and have settled near unchanged into the […]

Egg Producers Reach State And Federal Settlement Over Price-Fixing Allegations Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, Three major egg producers have reached a $3.3 million settlement to resolve allegations of price fixing after being sued by the Justice Department (DOJ) and 17 U.S. states’ Attorneys General. Just the News reports that the complaint—filed in Iowa’s Northern District Court—contends that the […]

Initial Jobless Claims Continue To Signal No Labor Market Stress The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time dipped last week to 215k (218k exp), continuing to show labor market resilience in the face of slumping sentiment. …basically unchanged in five years. Continuing claims ticked higher but remains well off cycle highs from last fall… So once again, claims data shows no signs of the […]

Ukrainian Capital Suffers ‘Night Of Hell’ In 11-Hour Russian Assault That Kills At Least 20 Just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of an impending “massive” escalation by Moscow, the skies over the Ukrainian capital erupted in a flurry of inbound drone and missile activity. At least 20 people were killed and several dozen injured in the overnight multi-wave Russian missile and drone assault that overwhelmed […]

Futures On Edge As Sliding Chips Spark Another Korea Crash, Payrolls On Deck US equity futures have reversed all overnight losses which were driven by the latest crash in South Korean stocks, which plunged 8% and closed at LOD, driven by a plunge in memory stocks. Still, the Nasdaq is still lower with tech stocks depressed on news that Sam Altman’s OpenAI is seeking to offer a 5% stake to Trump in what is clearly an attempt to […]

“Set Your AC To 78F”: NYC Socialist Pleads With Residents As Fragile Grid Faces Blackout Risk “Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can,” New York City Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X late Wednesday. New Yorkers are now getting a real-world lesson in what Mamdani’s recent “warmth of collectivism” comments actually mean: shared sacrifice, including being told to dial […]

Sam Altman’s OpenAI Discusses Handing Trump Admin A 5% Stake The U.S. government’s equity portfolio could be expanding again, this time with a potential 5% stake in Sam Altman’s OpenAI at an $852 billion valuation, according to a new report. The proposed stake would mark another step toward taking direct financial positions in tech giants. For OpenAI, buy-in from the Trump administration could ease mounting political pressure ahead […]

Japan Takes Next Step In $2.3 Trillion Plan With Domestic AI Model And 10M Robots The Japanese government has unveiled plans to create a domestically developed artificial intelligence model and put roughly 10 million AI-equipped robots into operation across 18 sectors by 2040 – building on a 14-year growth strategy announced last month, which targets ¥370 trillion ($2.3 trillion) in combined public and private investment across 17 […]

Why Bernie Sanders’ AI Bill Is Fascistic And Dangerous Authored by Amirhossein Eshtiaghi via The Mises Institute, Bernie Sanders is a socialist populist. His unfamiliarity with the fundamentals of economics explains why he considers Denmark to be socialist. A former Danish Prime Minister once implicitly addressed such claims, noting that Denmark’s economy is not socialist, but rather a market economy. But the truth does not […]

Vance Warns ‘US Has Options’ As Iran Rejects Direct Doha Talks – Trump Insists Diplomacy Is ‘Very Good’ Update(1315): The American side is keeping up the illusion of progress on Iran talks, even as Tehran has once again on Wednesday confirmed no direct meeting has taken in place in Doha – nor are there plans for direct dialogue, its deputy FM has said. President Trump has simultaneously hailed “very good” talks on Iran in Doha – […]

Treasure Hunters Recover $100K Silver Bar From Legendary 1622 Shipwreck Treasure hunters searching the waters off the Florida Keys have uncovered a 22-pound silver bar believed to have come from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, according to a new report from SlashGear.The artifact, estimated to be worth about $100,000, is the first silver bar recovered from the legendary wreck site in nearly three decades. […]

KKR And SK Launch South Korea’s Largest Renewable Energy Platform By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com Global investment firm KKR and South Korea’s industrial conglomerate SK Inc are launching the single biggest renewable energy platform in South Korea to help meet growing power demand from AI and chip manufacturing. KKR and SK Inc are creating the platform, valued at about $1.3 billion, or 2 trillion South Korean won, to […]

Paris Deputy Mayor Blames US Air Conditioning For French Heat Wave The peasantry is not allowed to have creature comforts, otherwise, they might start thinking like free men.  So, let them eat cake (and fight each other over the last few box fans).   As we covered last week, over 1.2 million tourists have traveled to each US city hosting a World Cup game, and the resulting culture shock has gone viral across social media.  […]

The Collapse Of Schengen… Over 1 Million Illegal Migrants Apply For Spanish Citizenship Via Remix News When the socialist-communist government of Pedro Sánchez first announced he was going to begin the mass legalization of migrants in his country, his government claimed this would amount to 500,000 people. Now, twice as many people are being legalized than first claimed, and importantly for the rest of Europe, those migrants now […]

Russia Buying Gasoline From India To Tackle Shortages Russia, whose refining capacity has come under significant strain in recent months, has started seaborne imports of gasoline from India (the same country it exports millions of barrels of oil to), Reuters reported citing industry ​sources, in an effort to mitigate fuel shortages triggered by ‌Ukrainian attacks on its energy infrastructure. Fuel shortages are being felt […]

Alastair Crooke: Russia Hearing The European Clamor For War, Announces It’s Ready Authored by Alastair Crooke The de-escalation framework that unfolded in the US-Iran Lucerne talks largely stayed true to the original Iranian 10-point plan. Meanwhile, President Trump and Vice-President Vance deliberately muddy the waters, claiming that Iran has already agreed to IAEA inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities (a claim repeatedly […]

What’s Behind The Plunging Won And Sudden Liquidity Collapse In Korean Markets South Korea’s won weakened for a fourth day as overseas investors accelerated their relentless sales of local stocks. In response, USD/KRW rose 0.1% to 1,552.60, extending its four-day gain to 1.2% (i.e. KRW drop). According to Barclays, pressure from both resident outflows and more recently in the case of Korea, heavy foreign outflows, could pose […]