Baltic
Dry Index. 2771 -47
Brent Crude 94.57
Spot Gold 4109 Spot Silver 63.96
US 2 Year Yield 4.13 unch.
US Federal Debt. 39.236 trillion
US GDP 32.202 trillion.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a deal to end the war in Iran could be reached in “two or three days,” and that the critical Strait of Hormuz would reopen “immediately” after such a deal.
When asked Wednesday about the inflation report, Trump said the numbers were “great” and that “I love the inflation,” because once the war is over, “it’s going to come down like a rock.”
6:00 AM Update. The fog of war. 100 mil
barrels, real or more rhetoric? In tomorrow's LIR, The Great Blunder of 2026.
Kuwait closes airspace, Israel warns of launches
from Lebanon after U.S strikes in Iran
Published Wed, Jun 10 2026 12:00 PM EDT
Kuwait closed
its airspace Thursday local time due to “Iranian aggressions” as
it intercepted “hostile aerial targets,” following U.S.
strikes against Tehran, signaling rising tensions in the Middle East.
Israel’s Home Front Command also warned of launches
from Lebanon toward several communities in northern Israel.
Iran “struck and destroyed eighteen
important targets” belonging to U.S. forces at Kuwait’s Ali Salem and Ahmad
al-Jaber air bases, as well as the Sheikh Issa air base in Bahrain, according
to the state run Tasnim news agency. Bahrain’s interior ministry earlier
said that sirens had been sounded and urged civilians to head to a
safe place.
The escalation follows U.S. attack
on multiple targets in Iran Wednesday stateside at President Donald Trump’s direction,
following “Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”
Centcom said strikes were completed at
9:04 p.m. ET Wednesday, adding it hit Iranian military surveillance
capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites. U.S. forces fired
on Iranian targets that “posed a threat to U.S. forces and international
commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
Iranian state media earlier reported that Iran had targeted U.S. ships in the
Strait of Hormuz with missile and drone attacks. Later, Reuters reported that
Iran’s top military command completely closed the Strait of Hormuz, warning
that any vessel attempting to cross would be targeted.
Trump later told Fox
News that he spoke directly with Iranian officials, who he said asked
him to stop the strikes. He said the bombing would stop shortly and that the
Israelis were not involved in the strikes, but left the door open for further
military action, according to Fox.
In response to a question about whether
the ceasefire was over, Trump reportedly said that it was the most violated
ceasefire in history.
More
Kuwait
closes airspace, Israel warns of launches from Lebanon after U.S strikes in
Iran
Trump says U.S. secretly moved more than 100
million barrels of oil through Strait of Hormuz
Published Wed, Jun 10 2026 12:49 PM EDT Updated
Wed, Jun 10 2026 3:28 PM EDT
President Donald Trump said Wednesday
that the U.S. military has secretly helped 200 commercial ships and more than
100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
“This wildly successful effort is because
the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran,” Trump
said in a Truth Social post. “Their military is defeated, and their
economy is lost.”
Trump disclosed the operation earlier
Wednesday during remarks to reporters in the Oval Office. He credited the
clandestine exports with keeping oil prices around $90 per barrel instead of
surging above $200.
But ship traffic through Hormuz is still
well below prewar levels, said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy
at RBC Capital Markets. The world is losing significant volumes of oil every
day, Croft told CNBC in an interview.
About 20% of global petroleum supplies, or
20 million barrels per day, passed through Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel
attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Traffic through the strait plunged after Iran
retaliated by attacking ships and mining the sea lane. The effective closure of
Hormuz has led to the loss of more than 1 billion barrels of oil, the largest
supply disruption in history.
More
Trump
says U.S. secretly moved millions of oil barrels through Hormuz
ECB expected to hike interest rates for first time
since 2023
2026/06/11
The European Central Bank (ECB) is
expected to raise key interest rates for the first time since 2023 on Thursday,
in light of the sharp rise in consumer prices across the eurozone.
The central bank is to announce its
decision on Thursday at 2:15 pm (1215 GMT). The deposit rate, which is
important for savers and banks, has stood at 2% since mid-2025.
The oil price shock resulting from the war
in Iran has fuelled inflation in the eurozone significantly. In May, consumer
prices were 3.2% higher than the previous year, according to the statistics
office Eurostat.
Inflation had already risen sharply to 3%
in April. This means that the ECB’s target, which aims for an inflation rate of
2% in the eurozone in the medium term, has been significantly exceeded, and
pressure on the central bank is mounting.
The war in Iran has so far driven up
inflation primarily via oil prices and caused energy costs to rise rapidly, but
prices for services are also rising. Economists fear that prices are rising
across the board as firms pass on increased energy and transport costs to
customers.
By way of comparison, inflation in the
eurozone stood at 1.9% as recently as February.
ECB President Christine Lagarde has
repeatedly emphasized that the central bank is ready to act if necessary.
More
ECB expected to hike interest rates for first time since 2023 ｜ DPA
After The Madness of King George, The Madness of King Donald?
President Trump’s never ending six day war is now crashing stocks, driving inflation and has no meaningful end in sight.
Dow drops more than 900 points as chip sell-off
worsens, Trump threatens more Iran attacks: Live updates
Updated Wed, Jun 10 20264:14 PM EDT
U.S. equities fell on Wednesday after
President Donald Trump signaled
that negotiations with Iran were taking “too long” and
threatened more action.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell
by 953.33 points, or 1.87%, to 49,918.78. The S&P 500 lost 1.62% to end
at 7,266.99, and the Nasdaq
Composite dropped 1.98% to settle at 25,169.50.
The major averages dropped after Trump
pledged more Iran attacks, saying that “we’re going to be attacking
them very hard.” He wrote early Wednesday that Iran has “taken too long
to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to
pay the price!!!”
Oil prices rose after Trump’s
threats. West Texas
Intermediate crude futures settled up 2.07% to $90.03 a barrel, while
Brent crude advanced 1.8% to settle at $93.10.
Tensions in the Middle East ramped up
again Tuesday evening, after U.S. forces launched strikes against Iran “in
response to [Monday’s] downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter,” U.S. Central
Command said. Trump had
earlier accused Iran of shooting down the helicopter, which he said was
patrolling over the Strait
of Hormuz.
“The Iran war story is really
consequential,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital
Management. “Either investors are going to be proven right, that [there’s]
nothing to worry about, Trump will take care of it, we’ll get a deal with Iran
and the strait will open up, but if not, it feels like oil prices are going to
have to go up a lot.”
″[In] this investing environment, it’s
impossible to be comfortable,” he added.
Chip stocks came under pressure once again
Wednesday. Shares of Micron
Technology, Advanced Micro
Devices and Broadcom were
lower, falling for the fourth day in five. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) dropped
more than 3% rolling over on Tuesday. Chip stocks were pummeled at the end of
last week, culminating in a 10% decline for the SOXX ETF on Friday. The group
then rebounded slightly Monday before the selling resumed Tuesday.
The stocks are coming under pressure ahead
of the SpaceX IPO on Friday with some traders believing that investors,
especially smaller retail participants, are shedding some of their hot chip
stock winners to make room for the largest IPO ever in their portfolios. Others
believe the weakness is just profit taking after such a rapid run. The SOXX ETF
is still up around 80% this year.
May’s
core consumer price index reading, excluding food and energy prices, was a
bit lighter than expected. For the month, core CPI came in at 0.2%, according
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the 0.3% Dow Jones consensus
estimate. Compared to a year ago, core CPI stood at 2.9%, in line with
expectations, but above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
The headline annual inflation rate, which
includes all prices, climbed above 4% for the first time in three years.
On Tuesday, chip stocks dragged down the
S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished
in the green. Tuesday’s rout was an extension of last week’s pullback, which
came after weeks of ferocious buying fueled by enthusiasm for all things tied
to artificial intelligence.
Stock market news for June 10, 2026
Stock futures fall after U.S. launches additional
strikes against Iran, oil rises: Live updates
Updated Thu, Jun 11 2026 8:38 PM EDT
Stock futures slid on Wednesday night
after the U.S. launched additional attacks against Iran, sending oil prices
higher.
S&P 500 futures lost
0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped
0.6%. Futures tied to the Dow
Jones Industrial Average lost 123 points, or 0.3%.
Asia-Pacific markets opened lower
Thursday, with South Korea’s Kospi leading losses. The Kospi dropped 4.1% in early
trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined
2.3% and Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX
200 was down 0.97%.
Shares of Oracle dropped more than 11%
in extended trading after the
software giant announced plans to raise an additional $20 billion in
equity and debt to pay for its artificial intelligence buildout. The decline
weighed on S&P 500 futures and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector
ETF (IGV), heralding potential losses in the tech sector in the upcoming
session.
Stocks fell during Wednesday’s regular
trading session, thanks to another rout in the chip sector and a ramp-up in
tensions with Iran. The Dow tumbled
953.33 points, or 1.87%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.62%. The
tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost
1.98%.
Victoria Fernandez, chief market
strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, said that many investors are now
buying into what they believe to be the opposite of the artificial intelligence
trade that drove stocks for much of this year.
More
Stock
market today: Live updates
US launches more air strikes against Iran after
Trump threats
10 June 2026
The US has begun another round of air
strikes against Iran.
US Central Command said in a social media
post that the military is striking “multiple targets in Iran” and that it is
being done “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”.
The strikes come just a day after the US
struck Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz
that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.
The escalating attacks threatened to
derail efforts to end the war, with Mr Trump warning that Tehran would “pay the
price” for stalled peace negotiations.
His warning came hours after Bahrain,
Kuwait and Jordan — all of which host US troops — came under Iranian fire.
"We’re going to hit them (Iran) again
hard today... We were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us
along"
— US President Donald Trump
It was the second time this week that
back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month ceasefire.
On Monday, Iran and Israel targeted each
other.
“We’re going to hit them again hard
today,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.
Shortly after Mr Trump spoke, the US
military said it had fired on an oil tanker trying to transport oil from Iran
in violation of its blockage on Iranian ports.
It was the eighth merchant vessel disabled
in the waters off Iran, US Central Command announced in a social media post on
Wednesday.
The US military launched air strikes and
Iran retaliated on Wednesday following the crash of an Army helicopter near the
Strait of Hormuz which US President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic
Republic.
Mr Trump would not say if he planned to
follow through on threats he made earlier in the war to attack bridges and
utility plants in Iran.
He urged Iran to sign a deal with the US.
“We were really close to a deal but they
keep tapping us along,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump’s comments underlined the
American leader’s whipsaw approach to the war.
He suggested on Monday that a deal to end
the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.
More
US
launches more air strikes against Iran after Trump threats
US Inflation Accelerates on War-Driven Gas Prices
June 10, 2026 at 11:18 PM GMT+1
The US-Israel war with Iran is now largely
responsible for the highest
level of US inflation in three years. After more than three months of
conflict, the Strait of Hormuz remains mostly shut while the Trump
administration — faced with an Iranian government unwilling to concede and an
Israeli ally that has expanded its invasion of Lebanon — struggles to find a
way out. And even when it does, energy prices are expected to stay
elevated for some time to come.
Right now, those prices are taking more
of a toll on American consumers, and Donald
Trump’s approval rating, as each day passes. A Trump administration report
Wednesday revealed the rising inflation figures while a separate report
combined them with recent wage data to show real average hourly earnings fell
0.7% from a year earlier, the biggest drop in more than three years.
“Inflation remains a serious problem for
consumers and they’re paying more for energy, but also for other items — which
will be a drag on consumer spending growth later this year,” said Gus Faucher,
chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
When asked Wednesday about the inflation
report, Trump said the numbers were “great” and that “I love the inflation,”
because once the war is over, “it’s going to come down like a rock.”
War
Tips Inflation to Three-Year High: Evening Briefing Americas - Bloomberg
Consumer prices rose 4.2% annually in May, highest
in three years
Published Wed, Jun 10 2026 8:30 AM EDT
Inflation accelerated in May as rising
energy costs contributed to pain for consumers, though underlying pressures
were less intense.
The consumer price index, a broad gauge of
goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, rose at a seasonally adjusted
0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 4.2%, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Both numbers were in line with the Dow
Jones consensus.
Inflation climbed above 4% for the first
time in three years, though the increase met expectations amid concerns over
how much the surge in energy prices would impact the economy. The level was the
highest since April 2023 and above the 3.8% level from April.
However, stripping out volatile food and
energy prices, the so-called core CPI accelerated 0.2% for the month and 2.9%
from a year ago. While the annual rate was in line with the forecast, the
monthly gain was below the 0.3% estimate and less than the 0.4% April increase.
The report comes at a sensitive time for
markets and policymakers as Federal Reserve officials contemplate their next
move on interest rates. Markets largely expect the rate-setting Federal Open
Market Committee to remain on hold when the decision is released June 17, but
investors will be looking for signs of how concerned officials are over the
inflation surge.
With the U.S. caught in ongoing
hostilities with Iran, concerns are rising that the surge in oil prices could
spread to other energy-sensitive parts of the economy. Markets were rattled
again Wednesday when President Donald Trump warned that Iran will “pay the
price” for not taking a peace deal.
More
CPI inflation
report May 2026:
In other news.
Who pays when a self-driving car crashes? BYD’s
answer could change the industry
Wed, 10 June 2026 at 11:05 am BST
It sounds like a simple question, but as
with so many things, the answer is more complicated. If your self-driving car crashes, who
is responsible for paying for any damages? Could it be your insurer? The car
maker? The software company? Or does everyone stand around pointing at each
other while the owner wonders why their supposedly clever car has just driven
itself into trouble?
For years, the car industry has talked
excitedly about autonomous driving. We have been told it will make roads safer,
take the stress out of driving and give us back time. But the big question has
always been left hanging: if the car is doing the driving, who carries the can
when it gets it wrong?
Now BYD has given a very clear answer.
In China, at least.
The Chinese giant has announced what it
calls Full Damage Coverage for its Urban Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) function,
which forms part of its God's Eye driver assistance system. In simple terms,
BYD says that if one of its cars is involved in a legally liable accident while
Urban NOA is being used correctly and within the rules, the company will
directly cover all resulting economic losses.
That is a big statement. It is a car maker
saying: we believe in this technology strongly enough to put our money behind
it.
The cover will be offered for one year to
new buyers in China, as well as existing owners who upgrade to God's Eye 5.0.
It follows a similar promise for BYD's intelligent parking system, making the
company the first car maker to offer damage cover for both intelligent parking
and urban assisted driving.
That should make everyone else in the car
business sit up, because this is not just about insurance. It is about trust.
BYD is telling customers that its latest driver assistance tech is something
the company is prepared to stand behind financially.
BYD says it already has more than 3.15
million cars on the road with intelligent driving assistance systems and claims
its God's Eye system is logging more than 124 million miles every day. Its
long-term targets are even more ambitious: zero traffic accidents, driver
assistance becoming what BYD calls a "Super Driver", and AI acting as
a "Super Personal Assistant".
All of which sounds impressive. But if a
car maker talks about a "Super Driver", does that super driver come
with super responsibility?
In China, BYD's answer appears to be yes,
within limits. In Europe and the UK, not yet.
Asked whether the company would provide
the same level of cover in Europe, Alfredo Altavilla, BYD's special adviser on
Europe, told me: "When it comes to Europe, what I can tell you is that of
course we will introduce this technology to the most important insurance
companies in Europe. Of course, it is premature and it would be unwise on my
end to announce any marketing strategy at this point. But certainly, as we
believe that this technology might truly contribute to improving road safety,
we would like to explain this to insurance companies. Then we'll see what
happens, but that is the plan."
That is a careful answer. Europe has its
own regulatory systems, insurance structures and legal expectations. The UK has
its own rules too. A car maker cannot simply copy and paste a Chinese customer
offer and assume it will work everywhere else.
More
Who pays when a
self-driving car crashes? BYD’s answer could change the industry - Yahoo News
UK
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.
Friedrich August von Hayek
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
China
May wholesale inflation hits near 4-year high on Iran war-led higher input
costs, AI boom
Published
Tue, Jun 9 2026 9:43 PM EDT
China’s wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in
nearly four years in May, driven by surging raw material costs due to the Iran
war and an artificial intelligence investment boom, while consumer inflation
came in below estimates.
The producer price index jumped 3.9% from a year ago,
the highest since July 2022, topping economists’ forecast of 3.8%, and
outpacing 2.8% in April, according to data released by the National Bureau of
Statistics on Wednesday.
Wholesale prices returned to growth in March as the
input cost surge stemming from the Middle East conflict lifted the economy out
of its longest deflationary streak in decades. The Iran war has throttled
traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting energy and raw material flows.
Factories’ purchasing prices for fuel and power climbed
10% year on year in May, widening from 4.4% in April. Costs for non-ferrous
metal materials and wires surged 22%.
Aside from higher commodity costs, wholesale prices
were also lifted by a growing demand for artificial intelligence computing
power, pushing up prices for tech equipment and semiconductors.
“The accelerating shift to electrification, deepening
AI adoption and surging computing demand pushed up prices across non-ferrous
metals, electrical machinery and computer hardware,” Dong Lijuan, chief
statistician at NBS, said in a statement Wednesday. Non-ferrous metal mining
led gains at 36.5% year on year, with smelting up 24%.
Consumer prices rose 1.2% in May from a year earlier,
missing economists’ estimates of 1.3% growth in a Reuters poll. On a
month-on-month basis, consumer inflation dropped 0.1% from April. Gasoline
prices for consumers rose 23.5% from a year earlier.
Core
CPI, excluding volatile food and energy prices, grew 1.1% in May from a year
earlier, edging down from the 1.2% increase in April. Food prices declined 1.7%
from a year earlier.
More
China May wholesale inflation hits near 4-year high on Iran war-led higher input costs, AI boom
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
Anthropic launches a version of the AI it claimed was too powerful
to release
Tue, 9 June 2026 at 7:40 pm BST
Anthropic has
released a version of Mythos, the AI system it said was too powerful to
exist.
The new system, called Fable 5, includes
additional safeguards. They are intended to stop the potential threats posed by
the Mythos model, which Anthropic had previously said were so significant that
it was too dangerous to be released to the public.
At the same time, Anthropic said that it
would launch Mythos 5. That is the same as Fable 5 but has some of those
safeguards lifted, and so will only be released to security experts and others
that Anthropic has judged to be sufficiently responsible.
Anthropic released the earlier version
of Mythos under the same terms, as part of work called Project Glasswing, which
aims to ensure that important companies are protected against the danger posed
by powerful AI models. That work particularly focuses on the cybersecurity
risks posed by the model, because it is particularly adept at finding bugs and
other exploits that could allow it access to computers and systems.
"Releasing a model this capable
comes with risks," Anthropic said in its announcement. "Without
safeguards, Fable 5's capabilities in areas like cybersecurity could be misused
to cause serious damage."
It said that in some cases, when the
model spots a potentially dangerous query, it will instead be sent to another,
slightly less capable, Anthropic model named Opus 4.8. That will happen if the
system detects "a request related to cybersecurity, biology and chemistry,
or distillation", Anthropic said.
But it said that it was important to
launch the new models because they could "do profound good for the
world". "We've seen the beginnings of this in Project Glasswing,
where the models have helped cyber defenders secure critically important software,"
Anthropic said, and it also pointed to life sciences research, "where the
models are positing novel hypotheses and speeding up the development of new
therapeutics".
The launch of Fable 5 comes shortly
after Anthropic released Opus 4.7, another model, which received widespread
criticism for being less capable than its predecessor.
Anthropic launches a version of the AI it claimed was too powerful to
release - Yahoo News UK
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
The idea of social justice is that the state should treat
different people unequally in order to make them equal.
Friedrich August von Hayek
No comments:
Post a Comment