Micro-Cap Oil Stock Soars On Helium Offtake Deal As Gulf Shock Spurs Hunt For Reliable Supplies The Hormuz chokepoint, with the U.S.-Iran conflict about to enter its third month, remains closed, and global energy flows are being rewired. One industrial gas we’ve identified as facing supply disruption risks is helium, which threatens to upend end markets ranging from semiconductor production to medical imaging. Earlier this month, […]

Kalshi, Polymarket Among 27 Prediction Platforms Banned In Brazil Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, Brazilian authorities have moved to shut down 27 prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket. The decision, announced Friday, follows a directive from the Ministry of Finance and enforcement by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), according to state-owned news outlet Agência Brasil. […]

5Y Auction Tails Despite Jump In Foreign Demand, Yields Hit Session High After a mediocre 2Y auction to start the week’s coupon issuance this morning, moments ago the Treasury sold 5Y notes in another average auction. The sale of $70BN in 5 Year paper stopped at a high yield of 3.955%, down fractionally from 3.980% last month, and tailing the When Issued 3.950% by 0.5bps. This was an improvement from last month’s 1.4bps tail, but […]

Supreme Court To Review Geofencing In Pivotal Case For Privacy Rights Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times, The Supreme Court on April 27 will hear oral arguments in a case with major implications for privacy rights—and how law enforcement uses Americans’ cell phone data while investigating crimes. The case, Chatrie v. United States, centers on law enforcement’s use of “geofencing warrants”—judge-authorized […]

Apple Fixes Bug That Allowed FBI To Read Deleted Signal Messages Authored by Brian Quarmby via CoinTelegraph.com, Tech giant Apple has fixed a security flaw that had allowed the FBI to access a Signal user’s deleted messages through their phone’s push notification database, despite the app being deleted and messages being set to disappear. In a security advisory released on Wednesday, Apple said it had fixed a bug that […]

Supreme Court Hands Texas GOP Redistricting Win, While Virginia Judge Backs Democrats The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted Republicans a significant boost in the ongoing battle over congressional boundaries, issuing a summary reversal that allows Texas to proceed with its 2025 mid-decade congressional map for the November 2026 elections. In the case, Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens, the justices overturned […]

Average 2Y Auction Is A Big Improvement From Last Month’s Debale In today’s first of two coupon auctions (due to the week’s truncated schedule as the Fed is on Wednesday), the US Treasury sold $69BN in 2 year paper in a mediocre auction, yet one which was notably stronger than last month’s issuance. The sale stopped at a high yield of 3.812%, down from last month’s 3.936% and tailing the When Issued 3.811% by 0.1bps. This however […]

Rubio Insists US ‘Will Not Tolerate’ Deal Which Makes Iran Gatekeeper Over Hormuz, As Putin Tells Araghchi Tehran ‘Fighting For Its Sovereignty’  Summary Putin tells FM Araghchi that he’s been in contact with the new Supreme Leader, and says Iran fighting for ‘sovereignty’ After a weekend of stalemate malaise, Iran reportedly offers new proposal for opening ship traffic, while postponing the thorny nuclear issue; Rubio […]

Germany’s Merz Says US ‘Humiliated’ By Iranians & Trump Lacks Strategy, Exit Plan German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a rare moment torched US foreign policy and the Trump administration’s Iran war gambit. There’s been plenty of criticism out of Europe since Operation Epic Fury kicked off on February 28, but Merz’s Monday words are especially direct and scathing. He proclaimed that Iran’s leadership was embarrassing the US, […]

Hold The Horses By Rabobank There are five G10 central bank meetings scheduled this week and not a single policy move is expected between them. That said, the signalling of policymakers will be crucial. For each of the BoJ, Fed, BoC, ECB and the BoE, the market will be watching to see how rate setters are gauging the two sided the risks to growth and inflation implied by the Iran war. It remains Rabo’s view that the Fed will […]

MAHA Advocates To Converge In Washington For ‘People Vs. Poison’ Rally Authored by Jeff Louderbeck via The Epoch Times, A bipartisan crowd of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) proponents is set to converge on the U.S. Supreme Court steps on the morning of April 27 and bring attention to the Trump administration’s handling of glyphosate and alleged health hazards stemming from use of the chemical. Glyphosate is the main […]

“Blockbuster Week” Preview: Fed, ECB, BOJ On Deck, Earnings Avalanche, GDP, PCE Tomorrow marks exactly two months since the strikes on Iran began. As DB’s Jim Reid writes, while there is currently a rolling, open ended ceasefire that started on 8 April, the risk of it collapsing at any point remains real. Just as the weekend news looked like it was leaning negatively though, last night reports came through that Iran have offered the […]

Tillis Gives Warsh Green Light After DOJ Drops Powell Inquiry The last roadblock to Kevin Warsh’s nomination to lead the Federal Reserve is getting out of the way, as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (R) said on Sunday that he’s ready to lend his support towards Warsh’s confirmation.  Tillis had refused to advance Warsh or any other Fed nominee until the DOJ dropped its investigation into current chair, Jerome Powell over cost […]

Starmer Faces ‘Sleaze Inquiry’ Vote Over Epstein Pal Mandelson’s Appointment Trouble has been brewing for UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador – despite Mandelson’s well-known past associations with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson, a senior New Labour figure and former EU Trade Commissioner, has long faced questions over his friendship with […]

Microsoft Slides After Amending OpenAI Partnership, Will No Longer Pay Revenue Share Microsoft and OpenAI announced an amended agreement to “simplify” their partnership structure and to change Microsoft’s license to be non-exclusive and it no longer paying a revenue share to OpenAI. As a result of the amendment, Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products will ship first on Azure. Microsoft will […]

Musk, Altman Court Battle Commences Over The Future Of OpenAI Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times, A contentious battle years in the making between Tesla owner Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman begins this week before a federal court in Oakland, California, where nine jurors will be asked to decide whether Altman and others betrayed OpenAI’s founding mission as a nonprofit artificial intelligence (AI) lab […]

“This Is Not Normal”: China’s DeepSeek Cuts New AI Model Fees, Again DeepSeek senior researcher Victor Chen announced on X that the company’s newly released DeepSeek-V4-Pro model will be offered at a huge discount over the next week, a move that threatens to unleash an AI platform price war just as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are rolling out newer, more expensive models. “Second price drop in two days! On top of the base 75% off, […]

Futures Flat At All Time Highs Ahead Of Huge Week, Semis Set For 19th Day Of Gains Risk sentiment improved overnight on another Axios report that Iran has given the US a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with more detailed nuclear talks expected later. Oil pares early gains, and US equity futures jumped although they have also pared gains since and are trading flat as traders await a huge week of earnings (44% of the […]

Israel Bombs Deep Into Lebanon For First Time Of 3-Week Ceasefire There’s supposed to be a 3-week Lebanon ceasefire in effect, but that increasingly appears something merely on paper or in name only, as Israel has stepped up and expanded its attacks on Lebanon – now for the first time of the ceasefire including strikes on the far away Beqaa Valley. “The IDF says it has launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure […]

Beijing Abruptly Blocks Meta’s $2BN Takeover Deal Of Manus AI In Move That Will “Chill” China AI Sector With just weeks to go before the Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, China’s National Development and Reform Commission unexpectedly blocked Meta Platforms’ acquisition of the AI-agent startup Manus on Monday morning, signaling that Beijing has no problem with tightening control over high-value AI assets in a move that could have a […]

Battered Budget Airlines Ask White House For $2.5 Billion Lifeline Budget airlines have requested a $2.5 billion relief package from the Trump administration following a meeting with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy early last week. This comes as elevated jet fuel prices squeeze operations, and after President Trump confirmed late last week that a possible U.S. takeover of bankrupt Spirit Airlines is under consideration. The […]

WHCA Shooter’s Tweets Found, Suggesting Radicalization Fueled By Democratic Messaging Update:  Shooter’s archived tweets emerge  Shooter’s Manifesto explained about Trump admin target kill list. He wrote, “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest” …  Shooter’s intent was to Target Trump & admin officials  Shooter donated to “Harris for President” via ActBlue  Shooter apprehended and taken into […]

Axon’s Ukraine Drone Deals Signal Big U.S. Counter-UAS Push Axon, formerly TASER International, has evolved beyond its roots as a police-tech vendor and is now positioning itself to soon be a major importer of drone and counter-drone technology after a series of deals with Ukrainian defense companies. Axon currently sells hardware to local police forces, federal agencies, security, and military-adjacent markets. Some of this […]

If The British Lose The Falkland Islands It Will Be Their Own Fault This month, after four years of tensions between Europe and Russia, the Russian Navy executed an operation in the North Atlantic on the doorstep of British waters.  Using an Akula-Class nuclear submarine as a decoy, the Russians sent covert spy subs to map underwater infrastructure, including vulnerable internet cables and pipelines.  Given the precarious nature […]

Outrage As Taliban Afghan Illegal Who Sexually Assaulted 7-Year-Old Gets Just 2.5 Years In Prison Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, An Afghan small boat migrant with admitted ties to the Taliban kidnapped and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl inside a taxpayer-funded hotel – and a UK court has handed him just two and a half years in prison. This is the direct result of open borders policies that continue […]