Tense Trump-Netanyahu Call As US Presses Iran To ‘Sign The Document’ – But Israel Wants Military Greenlight Summary Axios: “Trump continues to say he thinks a deal can be reached, but that he’s ready to resume the war if it isn’t.” US Marines board Iranian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman, as it was accused of attempting to violate the US naval blockade. Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf […]

Warsh Faces Uphill Battle As FOMC Minutes Show Deeply-Divided Fed Against Easing Bias Tl;dr: FOMC Minutes confirm a deeply-divided Fed with a hawkish bias as “majority” saw hike likely warranted, “many” preferred removing easing bias. *  *  * Since the last FOMC meeting (Powell’s last), on April 29th, stocks and the dollar are up, bonds and gold are down and oil has swung violently in between… Source: Bloomberg […]

Regulator Clears Environmental Review For Dow And X-energy Reactor Project The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment for the Long Mott Generating Station, a proposed four-reactor Xe-100 project at Dow’s Seadrift, Texas site. 📆 #NRCNews: We’ve completed our environmental assessment of the proposed Long Mott Generating Station ahead of schedule. https://t.co/aQ2Lf548Lx […]

What To Watch As SpaceX’s IPO Filing Drop Imminent Ahead of Thursday’s scheduled launch of SpaceX’s Starship V3 rocket, there are indications that Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company could release its IPO filing as soon as this afternoon, giving investors, analysts, and competitors a rare look inside the finances and ownership structure of Musk’s space empire. Starship and Super Heavy V3 moved to the pad at Starbase for final […]

Bezos Torches AOC, Says Billionaires “Earn Every Penny” Jeff Bezos sat down for a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning at a Blue Origin facility in Merritt Island, Florida – where he rattled off lots of thoughts, including how billionaires are made, slammed AOC, and opined on the relative impact of for-profit innovation versus charity, taxes, and bureaucratic inefficiency.  On Wealth Creation and […]

Solid 7Y Auction Prices “On The Screws” With Solid Foreign Demand Today’s lone coupon auction, the sale of $16BN in 20Y notes, took place at 1pm, just an hour ahead of the FOMC Minutes release, and the auction was generally very strong, with maybe a one glitch.  The sale stopped at a high yield of 5.122%, up from 4.883% in April, and the second highest in the history of the 20Y auction with just the 5.257% in October ’23 printing […]

Trump Admin Announces Criminal Charges Against Former Cuba President Raul Castro Update (1300ET): As we wrote earlier in anticipation, the US sought to unseal an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, sharply escalating a standoff with Havana as the Trump administration attempts to force change on the island after nearly seven decades of communist rule. The charges are related to the shooting of two humanitarian […]

Commercial Electricity Use Will Surpass Residential In 2027, As Price Surge Set To Continue: EIA By Robert Wilson of UtilityDive Commercial electricity consumption is likely to surpass residential use for the first time on record in 2027, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday in its Short-Term Energy Outlook. The commercial sector, which includes hyperscalers, bitcoin miners and cloud computing, is expected to […]

FOMC Minutes Preview: Look For “Easing Bias” Dissent Details Inside Powell’s Hawkish Swan Song Today’s FOMC minutes, released at 2pm ET, will be closely watched for further details surrounding the increasingly hawkish split within the Committee following the April meeting, Jerome Powell’s last as Fed Chair. With three voters dissenting against retaining the easing bias – and Fedʼs Collins later suggesting she would have supported […]

StanChart CEO Scrambles Into Damage Control After “Lower-Value Human Capital” Comment Triggers Backlash Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters and his team spent Wednesday in damage-control mode after the head of the London-based international bank told investors on Tuesday that artificial intelligence would be used to replace “lower-value human capital,” sparking a backlash online. “Many of you will have seen media coverage […]

Three Supertankers Carrying 6 Million Barrels Exit Strait Of Hormuz Three commercial supertankers carrying a combined 6 million barrels of Middle East crude oil have successfully exited the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters. The vessels departed the strategic waterway on Wednesday, after being stranded inside the Persian Gulf for over two months, lending hope to an end to the closure of the strait. The crude cargoes were […]

The AI Economy, Part 1: Looking Beyond The Facade Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The US economy’s curb appeal looks great. Consider that gasoline prices are nearly $5, crude oil is trading above $100, consumer sentiment is at historically low levels, and mortgage and other interest rates have remained relatively high. Yet, despite the worrisome headwinds, the US consumer-driven economy continues to […]

Judge Blocks ICE Agents From Conducting Arrests At Immigration Courts In New York Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A federal judge issued a ruling on May 18 barring federal agents from conducting arrests at three Manhattan immigration courts, except in limited circumstances. A federal officer stands by in a hallway at New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building […]

Oil Prices Extend Decline After The Largest Crude Inventory Drawdown In History, Cushing ‘Tank Bottoms’ Loom Oil futures are down bigly this morning following comments from President Trump that the war in Iran would be ended “very quickly,” but investors remained uncertain about the potential for de-escalation. “We’re going to end that war very quickly. They want to make a deal so badly, they’re tired of – this should have […]

Samsung Union Postpones Massive General Strike, Puts Wage Deal To Vote Summary: Samsung Union Postpones Massive Strike For Union Vote On Saturday Samsung Union Authorizes Massive Strike At Memory-Chip Plants After Mediation Talks Collapse   Samsung Union Postpones General Strike For Weekend Vote  Late Wednesday night in South Korea, Samsung and its largest union held last-minute negotiations ahead of a massive general […]

Xi Warns US Against New Iran Strikes, Denounces ‘Law Of The Jungle’, As Putin Talks Energy Leverage In Beijing Summit Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a high-stakes summit on Wednesday, just days after wrapping up closely watched talks with Trump, which by all accounts failed to produce any Washington-Beijing breakthroughs. The optics were carefully engineered, and many international outlets […]

The Building Blocks Of A Global Stagflationary Shock Are Falling Into Place By Peter de Groot, Head of Macro Strategy at Rabobank The Inflation Regime That Doesn’t Fade As we noted at the outset of the Gulf conflict, history rarely repeats – but it often rhymes. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is increasingly revealing a familiar pattern: the building blocks of a global stagflationary shock are falling into place. A closer […]

AI Purge Accelerates: Intuit Reportedly Slashing 17% Of Workforce Intuit, the company that owns TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp, is reportedly preparing to lay off a staggering 17% of its workforce according to Reuters, which cites an internal memo. INTUIT TO LAY OFF 17% OF WORKFORCE: MEMO Initial claims about to print new record low — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 20, 2026 Details are scant at the moment […]

Trump Retains Dominant Influence: 4 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primary Elections Authored by Joseph Lord, Jeff Louderback, Troy Myers, and Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times, Voters on Tuesday headed to the polls in states across the country for some of the most-anticipated battles of the 2026 midterm election season. May 19 marks the largest day of primary elections yet, seeing ballots cast across six states: Alabama, Georgia, […]

NANO Nuclear’s Reactor Construction Permit Accepted For Review The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formally begun its review of the construction permit application for an advanced microreactor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  ✅ #NRCNews: We’ve kicked off the formal review of the @UofIllinois application for an advanced microreactor. https://t.co/0gMFCuDv5u — NRC (@NRCgov) May 19, 2026 The announcement […]

Trump’s IRS Settlement Bars Tax Audits Of Trump & Family Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, The acting head of the U.S. Department of Justice said on May 19 that the agency added new terms favorable to President Donald Trump to the settlement of the president’s lawsuit over alleged IRS leaking of his tax returns. In a one-page addendum to the settlement, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on May 19 […]

Meta Axes 8,000 Workers As Zuckerberg Admits AI Is Watching, Replacing Labor Welcome to another day of corporate America hemorrhaging engineers and other white-collar workers with insurmountable student debt as AI adoption accelerates. This era will likely be remembered in history as the great “white-collar purge,” and the response will be continued hatred of data centers. We’ve been covering for weeks that today is D-Day for Meta […]

Futures Rise Ahead Of Critical Nvidia Earnings As Oil, Bond Yields Drop US equity futures are higher led by tech as the selloff in bonds eased and traders awaited earnings from Nvidia after the close. As of 7:30am ET, S&P futures are up 0.3% while Nasdaq futs rose 0.7% showing optimism heading into the release and overlooking weakness in tech during APAC trade. In premarket trading, NVDA is up 1.8% in premarket trading, as […]

Massie Out: Gallrein Wins Kentucky Republican Primary Update (2000ET):  In one of the most expensive primaries on record (with more than $32 million spent on political ads, according to the firm AdImpact), Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein has won the Republican primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District over Rep. Thomas Massie, NBC News projects, notching another win for President Trump in his push to eliminate political […]

A “Rubbish, Knee-Jerk Reaction”: UK Treasury Pushes Food Price Caps As Inflation Re-Accelerates UK supermarkets are being urged by the government to limit food prices in return for easing regulations. As first reported by The Financial Times, the price caps are ‘voluntary’ and would apply to key groceries – such as eggs, bread, and milk – according to retail industry sources with knowledge of the plans. In return, the […]