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 – […]

House Dems Launch Effort To Impeach Secretary Linda McMahon For Downsizing Education Department Authored by Jennifer Kabanny via The College Fix, A Democratic representative from Oregon, backed by numerous fellow lawmakers in the House, has filed articles of impeachment against Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon, alleging she is illegally dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Congresswoman Suzanne […]

Goldman Sachs Warns Oil Inventory Rebuild Won’t Prevent 2027 Supply Glut The global race to rebuild depleted oil inventories will not be enough to offset a massive glut that’s coming to the market next year, as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz appears to be headed toward normalization, according to Goldman Sachs commodity strategists.   First, arguing the bullish side, stockpiles of crude and refined petroleum products in […]

Elon’s Next Move: Your Money Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com, For years, Elon Musk has dreamed of turning X (formerly Twitter) into the “everything app”. Now that X is part of SpaceX (SPCX), and the combined company just raised $112 billion, the time looks ripe. Elon envisions X as a single place where you can bank, chat, earn, advertise, use AI, shop, and more. X Money is a key part of that vision. And we […]

Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Ousts 15-Term Rep. Diana DeGette In Colorado Primary As we’ve been noting of late, the Democrats have a problem: socialists are on the move. The latest – in a striking upset, democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. The victory extends a recent winning streak for the party’s left wing and […]

Is The SpaceX Asteroid About To Impact The TelCo & Cable Dinosaurs? Authored by Simon Duff via BondVigilantes.com, SpaceX’s IPO was a gargantuan event by any measure: US$75 billion proceeds raised, over US$2 trillion enterprise value, and an almost US$29 trillion total addressable market to feast on.  Few other companies can rival its industrial span and potential seismic impact on consumers and competitors.  SpaceX’s […]

Miller: Every Single Haitian Migrant Is Going Back To Haiti Under Trump Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, White House Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller delivered a clear and forceful message: every Haitian national on Temporary Protected Status will be returned to Haiti under President Trump. The Biden administration’s last-year extension of TPS turned what began as a short-term response to a 2010 earthquake […]

Russia Closes Border Crossings With Several NATO States After Finland Lifts Nuclear Ban Finland’s parliament has finally followed through with a previously threatened move to reverse its decades-long ban on nuclear weapons. The June 17 vote to lift the ban in effect legally authorizes the Nordic country to receive, transport, and facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory as part of allied operations, with the […]

Largest US Power Grid On Verge Of Cracking Due To Historic Heat Dome Summary: PJM Grid Mix Now Dominated By NatGas, Nuclear, Coal Washington, DC Temps Expected To Push Into Low Triple Digits PJM Warns Power Demand Could Test 2006 Record High PJM Declares Emergency To Reduce Blackout Risk PJM Grid May Test 2006 Record  Cooling demand across PJM Interconnection’s operating area will surge today and into late week as tens of […]

WTI Holds Losses As SPR Drain Slows, Cushing Just Off ‘Tank Bottoms’ Oil extended its biggest quarterly drop since the pandemic this morning as traders monitored US-Iran peace talks and a market for real-world barrels that’s been in freefall. WTI is holding below $70 as US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had positive discussions in Qatar and technical talks with Iran are moving ahead, a senior administration official […]

Microsoft Plans Thousands Of Job Cuts As Stock Suffers Worst Start In Years Microsoft shares are on track for one of their worst starts to a year in two decades, down roughly 21% year to date as of Tuesday’s close, as a cloud and sales hiring freeze and a broader “reset” of the Xbox unit have made recent headlines. This comes on top of growing concern over Microsoft’s AI spending boom. Like much of the technology sector, […]

Still The (Military) Base Case By Michael Every of Rabobank Hormuz traffic is climbing, but refined product prices are lagging, and crack spreads are blowing out: one can’t just look at the oil price to understand the overall energy dynamic. On the geopolitical front, things are also still mixed. Talks about the US-Iran MoU in Doha, without either side speaking to the other, went well according to the US, who are staying on […]

US Manufacturing Expanded For 6th Straight Month In June As Inflation Fears Ease With ‘hard data’ having deteriorated recently (except in the labor market), ‘soft’ survey data has been surprisingly strong (especially in the Manufacturing side of the economy). S&P Global’s US Manufacturing PMI dipped from multi-year highs at 55.1 to 53.9 final in June (below the 55.7 expected). ISM Manufacturing also dipped from 54.0 to […]

Zelensky’s Secret Police Being Looked At By Investigators For Monaco Bomb Attack The manhunt continues, chiefly focused in France or also nearby Italy, for the culprit who committed a Monday parcel bomb attack on an exiled Ukrainian oligarch and his family at their luxury apartment building in Monaco. The victims – Vadym Iermolaiev, his ‘partner’ (or wife, according to contradictory reports) and his 13-year-old child, all […]

Meanwhile In The UK, You Simply Will Not Believe This… Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, A convicted predator who helped destroy the lives of vulnerable girls as young as 13 is days away from freedom in Britain, while Pakistan refuses to take him and archaic rules shield him from removal. Shabir Ahmed’s case lays bare how legal technicalities, political cowardice, and a refusal to enforce borders have turned the […]

Preview And Watch Live: Kevin Warsh Speaks At Sintra ECB Forum Watch live here: Today’s main event takes place in Sintra, Portugal and the ECB’s annual symposium, where Warsh joins President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey at 9 a.m. New York time.  Bloomberg Economics expects Warsh to strike a carefully balanced tone after signaling different messages to hawks and doves at the June FOMC meeting […]

Did META Just Expose The First Crack In The AI CapEx Boom? If you’re wondering why the Nasdaq is suddenly tumbling this morning, wonder no more… Nasdaq moves lower after Meta announces it has capitulated in the race to build a leading frontier LLM it is to build a cloud business to sell its excess AI compute, weighing on cloud peers like AMZN, ORCL, MSFT, neoclouds like Coreweave and Nebius (who will now be racing to the bottom […]

Futures Fall To Start Now Quarter With Warsh Sintra Comments On Deck US equity futures point to a softer start to the third quarter as investors await a fresh batch of economic data and the first major overseas appearance by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. As of 8:20am ET, S&P futures are down 0.2%, off session lows, while Nasdaq futures are down 0.6: techs lags following NDX’s 3.9% gain over the last 2 days; in premarket trading, […]

ADP Employment Report Shows 12th Straight Month Of Job Gains With jobless claims still hovering near multi-decade lows and Job Openings soaring, and despite near record low consumer sentiment (particularly about the labor market), ADP was expected to report another strong employment report this morning with the US economy adding 120k jobs. The actual print was a disappointing +98k, but still represented the 12th straight month of […]

Nike Turnaround Falters As UBS Says There’s “No Reason To Buy” Stock Nike shares fell 3% in premarket trading after the struggling athletic apparel giant warned on its earnings call that revenue declines over the next two quarters will be worse than previously expected, underscoring that there is still no immediate turnaround to halt a multi-year bear market that has driven the stock to decade lows. “We are not expecting the […]

Outgoing UK PM “Proud To Have The Gayest Parliament Of All Time Anywhere In The World” Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, As outgoing Kier Starmer prepares to depart amid cratering approval ratings and deep public disillusionment, his ‘Pride’ reception remarks this week reveal a leader more focused on cultural signalling than addressing Britain’s pressing crises. Starmer took to the stage at a Downing Street Pride […]

Container Ship Runs Aground In Hormuz Chokepoint Hormuz vessel traffic continues to flow, but at a sharply reduced pace compared to the previous week, as US-Iran technical talks resume in Doha without senior negotiators meeting face-to-face. Data research firm Kpler noted, “Hormuz traffic holds steady.”  Hormuz traffic holds steady The Strait of Hormuz remained open and active on 30 June, with 34 verified crossings recorded […]

The World Is Becoming Increasingly Divided By Fertility The world is becoming increasingly divided by fertility. One group of countries now has too few births to naturally replace its population, while another continues to see population growth driven by higher fertility rates. This demographic divide has major implications for aging populations, labor markets, immigration, and future economic growth. This map, via Visual […]

The US Should Exit The UN Authored by Wendy McElroy via The Brownstone Institute, The future of the United Nations (UN) is in play, largely because of its refusal to censure Iran—a member nation. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reprimanded the UN: “If you’re telling me that the international community and hundreds of countries cannot rally behind that, then I don’t know what the utility of the UN system […]

Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order curbing birthright citizenship.  President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) In a massive 194-page, 5-4 ruling, the Court affirmed a District Court ruling, […]