IRGC Boasts Of Fully Intact Speedboat Fleet For ‘Swarm Attacks’ In Hormuz Via Middle East Eye As renewed attacks between Iran and the US expand into Iraq and Yemen, the Hamshahri daily, which has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has dedicated its front page to a report on the force’s speedboats in the Gulf. On Wednesday, the daily described the boats as the “winning card in the Persian Gulf” and said […]

Red Cross Declares National Blood Crisis As Type-O Supply Falls Below One-Day Inventory The American Red Cross declared a national blood crisis Monday, warning that its supply of type O positive blood has fallen below a one-day national inventory and that summer donations are running at their lowest level in four years. The shortfall has already caused the organization to restrict distributions of type O blood to hospitals, a […]

Archegos 2.0? Star AI Investor Dumps Assets To Citadel After Massive Levered Bets Blow Up Update (1130ET): The Wall Street Journal reports that Situational Awareness, the highflying artificial-intelligence-focused hedge-fund firm, sold the bulk of its stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s investment firm Citadel after suffering deep losses, according to people familiar with the matter. *  *  * Update (1000ET): Situational […]

Heavy Russian Attacks Reach Far West In Ukraine – Missile Slams Into Poland Another alleged Russian projectile has breached NATO airspace, which resulted in Polish warplanes being scrambled as they prepared to shoot it down. However, what’s been declared a probable Russian ballistic missile crashed to the ground in an uninhabited field in eastern Poland, leaving a huge crater and scattered debris in its wake. Some European outlets […]

Feedom Of Navigation By Bas van Geffen, senior market strategist at Rabobank The Houthis are considering charging fees on vessels sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Reuters reported that the plan was discussed with Iran’s leadership, who have offered help to set up an authority to collect the toll. Besides the potential revenue source, the aim of the Bab el-Mandeb fees would reportedly be to normalize the idea of charging […]

Carvana Crashes After Earnings Outlook Disappoints Wall Street Carvana shares plunged in premarket trading after the online used-car retailer issued full-year earnings guidance that may fall short of Wall Street expectations, as vehicle sales growth slowed and profit per car declined. The outlook raises questions about whether Carvana’s rapid expansion can justify its high stock valuation. Carvana reported a record second-quarter […]

DeepSeek Pauses Fundraising After Founder’s Remarks Leaked Authored by Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times, Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek has paused a second fundraising round after founder Liang Wenfeng’s remarks at a conference circulated online, including a statement that the company could obtain some processors he described as “noncompliant.” Liang made the remarks during a May 20 closed-door […]

Japanic: Yen Suddenly Spikes Stoking Intervention Speculation Having collapsed to its weakest relative to the dollar in 40 years, it appears the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan has had enough and intervened. Having tagged 164/USD, the Japanese currency suddenly exploded stronger (below 160/USD, which was the prior level of intervention)… The scale of the move is commensurate with the last large intervention in April. […]

US Grows Only 1.5% In Q2, Badly Missing Estimates, Despite Strong Spending, Investment The US economy grew at a far weaker than expected pace in the second quarter despite a pickup in consumer spending and solid business investment. According to the BEA, GDP (inflation adjusted) rose just 1.5% in the period, according to the first estimate issued Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was well below the 2.0% median […]

Hormuz Ship Traffic Edges Higher, But Kpler Warns Gulf Crude Exports Remain Impaired Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slightly increased as US-Iran negotiations remained ongoing in an effort to restore peace after the memorandum of understanding collapsed amid two weeks of tit-for-tat strikes, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, who provided no further details. Still, the security […]

‘Coordinated Cyberattack’ Hits More Than 30 Minnesota Water Systems Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times, A “coordinated cyberattack” targeted more than 30 community water systems ‌in Minnesota on July 26 and July 27, the state’s information technology agency said in a statement. Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) stated on July 28 that it activated its incident response capabilities immediately after learning of the […]

AI Exhaustion? Samsung Earnings Beat Expectations But Stock Abruptly Reverses Kneejerk Gains Samsung Electronics delivered another good quarter last night, underscoring that the AI infrastructure boom appears to continue to funneling enormous profits toward the companies supplying the memory chips powering. Shares were up 10% at one point but finished the session red. The South Korean technology giant reported second-quarter […]

US Savings Rate Tumbles Despite Lowest Jobless Claims Data In 57 Years The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits remained near its lowest levels since 1969 last week at just 197k (below the 200k exp)… Continuing jobless claims are also falling back to cyclical lows… Additionally, both income and spending are also trending higher… But overall, the savings rate is tumbling… So, the ‘low hire, no […]

Headline PCE ‘Deflates’ In June, First Time Since COVID After three months of significant acceleration in prices, The Fed’s favorite inflation indicator – Core PCE (a measure of price changes in consumer goods and services that excludes volatile food and energy costs) – was expected to slow in June data released today. And it did – more than expected – Core PCE rose 0.1% MoM (below the 0.2% MoM expected) pulling the YoY rise down […]

IRGC Strikes Jordan Again After 2-Hour US Bombardment Kills Iranian Troops, Civilians – Hormuz Traffic Creeps Higher In the wake of the overnight fresh round of US airstrikes on Iran, which resulted in destruction and casualties especially along coastal areas, Iran’s military has retaliated once again especially on Jordan. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it completed a “heavy” wave of strikes on the Islamic Republic, in […]

“Bonds Are In Charge…Everything Breaks Over 5%” Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance Today I sat down with my friend Andy Schectman, CEO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals and one of the most recognizable voices in the precious metals industry. I’ve known Andy for years, long before I ever became a customer of his. He’s someone I trust, someone I enjoy talking markets with, and someone who has spent decades watching the […]

Futures Rise As Oil Drops, Bond Selling Slows, Meta Tumbles And Microsoft Soars Futures rebound (for now) following yesterday’s Fed-induced meltdown as the market is clearly questioning Warsh’s credibility and potential usage of non-standard tools to fight inflation, pushing the yield curve to twist steeper and sending 30Y yields to 2 decade highs (last at 5.22%). Pre-mkt, the yield curve is seeing further twist-steepening with […]

South Korea Has Several Market Rescue Options As Crash Crushes 700,000 Retailer Traders South Korean market authorities are weighing a more aggressive plan to stabilize the Kospi after July’s record selloff sent the main equity index slicing through its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages like butter. At the center of the meltdown is retail participation in leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which amplified […]

US Launches New Airstrikes On Iran After Trump Warned “They’re Going To Get A Beating” Summary New US attack wave on Iran begins in overnight hours. Tehran denies seeking talks, insists on Hormuz terms. Oil climbs as attacks on Saudi energy sites continue. Conflict widens with joint US-Saudi strikes in Iraq which killed at least 20. Will the U.S. invade Iran before 2027? Yes 25% · No 76%View full market & trade on […]

Porsche To Cut Over A Third Of German Jobs As Auto Crisis Deepens Via Remix News, Porsche is preparing to cut more than one in three jobs in Germany under a cost-cutting measure intended to protect its remaining workforce and existing production sites until 2035. The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer will eliminate a further 5,000 positions at its main Zuffenhausen plant and Weissach development center. Combined with […]

Adidas Shares Crash After World Cup Spending Fuels Earnings Miss Adidas shares crashed the most on record in Europe after outsized World Cup marketing spending weighed on second-quarter operating profit, overshadowing stronger-than-expected tournament-related sales. Profit totaled 574 million euros for the quarter ending in June, missing the 616 million euro estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg, as an additional 212 million […]

DEI Is Killing British Policing: Think-Tank Exposes The Truth Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A think-tank has warned that British police forces are being hampered by an obsessive focus on diversity, equality and inclusion, with the ideology of “anti-racism” now set against the foundational duty to police without fear or favour. Policy Exchange’s latest analysis, led by its head of crime and justice David Spencer, […]

Housing Affordability Is A Global Issue Housing affordability has become a defining economic issue across much of the world, but the relationship between home prices and incomes differs more than many people realize. Using data from the UN Habitat World Cities Report 2026, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld created this map comparing median home prices with annual household incomes across more than 180 countries, revealing where […]

UK Regulator Targets Data-Center Land-Grab On The Power Grid Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, on Wednesday launched a consultation on a proposed commitment fee for data center projects as part of broad reforms to ensure network capacity is used for projects that are ready and able to connect. The proposal includes a new Data Centre Commitment Fee, which would be paid by […]

Got Wood? These Are The World’s Biggest Lumber Producers From home construction and renovations to furniture and shipping pallets, lumber is one of the world’s most widely used building materials. This graphic ranks the world’s biggest lumber producers by sawnwood output in 2024, using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The World’s Top 30 Lumber Producers The United States produced roughly 2.7 billion […]