Baltic
Dry Index. 2981 -56
Brent Crude 96.73
Spot Gold 4344 Spot Silver 68.00
US 2 Year Yield 4.17 +0.12.
US Federal Debt. 39.223 trillion
US GDP 32.193 trillion.
Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.
George Orwell
If the Israeli/USA war on Iran isn’t back on again, all the belligerents are doing a great job of faking it.
The Asian stock casinos have sold off on the latest war developments.
With no end in sight to Trump’s six day war on Iran, crude oil prices are up two to three dollars a barrel.
With America’s 250 year anniversary coming up on July 4th, Brent crude followers are wondering, will Brent crude oil soon be trading at 250 dollars a barrel?
If it does, expect a major contraction in the global economy.
Asia tech stocks extend sell-off with SoftBank
down over 7% as investors sour on AI-linked names
Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 11:24 PM EDT
Asian tech stocks extended their sell-off
Monday, as investors sour on global AI-linked plays with the U.S. tech-heavy
Nasdaq declining more than 4.5% last week.
Memory chip behemoths and heavyweights on
South Korea’s Kospi Index Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 5% and 2%,
respectively. The Kospi plunged as much as 8% as the two companies make up over
40% of the index.
Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, or TSMC, was down 2.1%, while Hon Hai
Precision, also known as Foxconn, fell 5.1%.
Japanese tech investor Softbank Group plunged
7.5%, while Tokyo
Electron and Advantest were
down 6.7% and 5%, respectively.
The share price declines follow a recent
rally in Asia tech stocks that was supported by investor optimism on AI demand.
Last month, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each crossed a $1
trillion market valuation, while SoftBank recently
became the most valuable company in Japan.
The sell-off in tech names was triggered
after Broadcom’s revenue
for fiscal
second quarter missed market estimates last week, plunging its shares
and causing a cascading impact on the tech sector.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost
over 9% Friday; Softbank’s British chip firm Arm Holdings had dropped
nearly 13%, while Micron
Technology declined more than 13%.
“The tech-led rout erased approximately
$1.8 trillion in S&P 500 market cap,” according to a UOB note on June 8.
UOB, however, said that tech and software
companies will remain in focus with “the debut of a space exploration/AI/tech
company on the Nasdaq on Fri (12 Jun), in what may be the largest IPO ever.”
Broader Asia markets were also lower
Monday, as a fresh escalation in Iran war signals that the conflict is far from
over.
Asia
tech stocks extend sell-off as investors sour on AI-linked names
U.S. stock futures mixed as Mideast tensions rise;
South Korea’s Kospi plunges 7%: Live updates
Updated Mon, Jun 8 2026 12:09 AM EDT
Dow futures slipped Monday after Iran
reportedly fired missiles at Israel, jeopardizing a fragile ceasefire and
heightening uncertainty following last week’s sharp Nasdaq sell-off.
Israel retaliated, striking western and
central Iran, stoking concerns that the Mideast war was taking a turn for the
worst.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Average fell
75 points, or 0.15%. S&P
500 futures and Nasdaq
100 futures were up 0.24% and 0.67%, respectively.
Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday, with
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi leading declines, falling more than 8% before
paring losses to trade 4% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.8%, while
mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 1.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.7%.
The reported strike by Iran on Sunday
raised fresh concerns about the stability of the ceasefire between Washington
and Tehran. The reported missile attack followed a post on X by Iranian
Parliament Speaker MB Ghalibaf, who argued that the U.S. naval blockade and
alleged breaches of agreements related to Lebanon constitute violations of the
ceasefire.
On Friday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.18%
to 25,709.43 — its biggest drop since April 2025. The S&P 500 sank 2.64% to
close at 7,383.74, and the Dow lost
695 points to end the week at 50,866.78, a day after hitting a new high. For
the week, the S&P 500 dropped more than 2%, the Nasdaq fell 4.7%, and the
Dow edged lower.
The slide on Friday followed a
stronger-than-expected May jobs
report that lifted Treasury yields and intensified worries that higher
financing costs could weigh on companies investing heavily in AI expansion.
“The stock market may be becoming a victim
of its own success,” said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz
Wealth Management. “The job market has turned around, yet the threat of
persistently high inflation seems to be the risk looming on everyone’s
minds.”
“Growth and momentum have outpaced almost
everything since the March lows,” she added. “That’s not what you’d expect in a
high-rate, high-inflation environment, and these strategies may be vulnerable
to disappointment if cost pressures stay elevated.”
In the
week ahead, investors will be focused on inflation data and the public
debut of Elon Musk’s SpaceX
on Friday. The offering is expected to be one of the largest in Wall Street
history and could be the market’s biggest test yet of the AI valuation
narrative.
“Blockbuster offerings have marked the
peak of excess in past market cycles, so there seems to be an awkward silence
around what this could signal for sentiment,” Cox said. “Many investors seem
restrained and skeptical, but can that temperament exist when the biggest IPO
of all time is on deck?”
Investors will also be watching for the
May Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index reports — released on
Wednesday and Thursday, respectively — which are expected to indicate ongoing
inflationary pressures.
Stock
futures mixed as Iran attack on Israel shakes fragile ceasefire
Oil prices spike over 3% as Iran and Israel trade
strikes, escalating regional tensions
Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 8:43 PM EDT
Oil prices rose Monday amid heightened
tensions in the Middle East as Iran
and Israel traded strikes, raising concerns over a fragile ceasefire
and an extended conflict.
International benchmark Brent crude futures
for July advanced 3.18% to $96.05 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for
August gained 3.46% to $93.67 a barrel.
The Israeli Air
Force hit military targets in western and central Iran, Monday local
time, Israel Defense Forces said in post on X.
President Donald Trump was briefed
after Israel was hit by an Iranian missile for the first time since the start
of the ceasefire, the White House confirmed to MS NOW. The missile attacks are
“certainly not going to help negotiations.” Trump told Fox
News on Sunday.
“A deal with President Trump is no longer
feasible at this stage,” an Iranian official involved in the talks between
Tehran and Washington told MS NOW.
In a post
on X, MB Ghalibaf, Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, said that the U.S. “naval
blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon” would be violations of
the ceasefire. The region’s U.S. and regime bases and assets are now
“legitimate targets” due to the current U.S. blockade as well as military
action in Lebanon, he added.
Meanwhile, OPEC+ agreed to increase
targets by 188,000 bpd from July, according to an OPEC statement, making this
the fourth oil output quota hike approval since the closure of the Strait of
Hormuz. This increase is on par with June’s, which was lowered from monthly
increases of 206,000 bpd in May and April due to the exit of the UAE from the
organization.
Oil
prices today: U.S., Iran, missile, Middle East, Israel, OPEC
Global week ahead: Soccer isn’t the only thing
that’s kicking off
Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 1:00 AM EDT
There is a special type of fever around a
men’s soccer World Cup. And the 2026 edition of the tournament is causing even
more excitement, with 48 teams instead of the usual 32, and three host nations
instead of the usual one.
Matches will stretch from Vancouver to
Mexico City from June 11 to July 19, marking the first time the games are being
hosted in North America since 1994.
There will be winners and losers on and
off the pitch. Goldman Sachs predicts the main sector beneficiaries will
include European and U.S. consumer staples, U.S. retail, and hospitality firms.
But the investment bank also warns that “while the World Cup is undoubtedly a
major commercial event, it does not necessarily follow that the macroeconomic
impact on the host nations will be substantial or long-lasting.”
----AI offside
Investors will be carefully watching AI
stocks after a volatile set of trading days. U.S. semiconductor giant Broadcom sparked a sell-off across the
global chip space after issuing a disappointing forecast for its AI chip sales.
Expect more headlines from London Tech
Week, which gets underway on Monday. Anthropic’s
announcement of its highly anticipated IPO, as well as any updates from
OpenAI on its plans to go public, will top the agenda.
Private market own goal
Also in focus next week — private markets.
One of the biggest events of the year gets
underway in Berlin, with the annual SuperReturn conference. This year,
headlines around capping fund withdrawals and redemption limits look set to
dominate the conversations.
Swiss fund manager Partners Group warned
investors it could limit withdrawals across more of its funds, after limiting
withdrawals from one fund sparked a sell-off in U.S. stocks exposed to private
markets. Blackstone then
announced it had restricted its flagship fund withdrawals, as private asset
fears have reemerged.
Partners Group
warns it could cap more fund withdrawals after triggering private equity rout
CNCB will be live from SuperReturn on
Tuesday and Wednesday, with a host of big names from private markets.
Shooting for the stars
As billions watch the soccer, all eyes
will also be on the market as one of the most anticipated IPOs of all time
takes off on Friday.
SpaceX will hope to shoot for the stars on
Friday when it lists in what is set to be the largest-ever public sale of
shares.
----Monday: London Tech Week
Tuesday: SuperReturn Berlin
Wednesday: SuperReturn Berlin
Thursday: ECB monetary policy decision
Friday: SpaceX IPO
What investors are watching this week: World Cup, AI stocks, SpaceX IPO
America’s crude inventories are getting perilously
low. But that’s not the full story.
‘You have a buffer getting close to not
being a buffer anymore,’ analyst says
By Claudia Assis Published: June 6, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET
There are growing
worries that U.S. commercial oil inventories are too low for comfort as the war
with Iran enters its fourth month far from a clear resolution — and a lot
hinges on how much longer the conflict drags on.
Inventories are
the shock absorbers of the energy world: They smooth out the tension between
the ups and downs of supply and the usually steady pace of demand. To be an
efficient cushion for countries and companies, however, stockpiles need to be
at “Goldilocks” levels: not too much, not too little.
The on-again,
off-again negotiations to end or pause the conflict have upended such
calculations, as the uncertainty has made it difficult to determine ideal
inventories. Instead, there’s nuance: U.S. commercial inventories may be
adequate for now, but if the bulk of Middle Eastern oil supplies remains out of
global reach for longer, then they could prove inadequate.
“It’s not an
immediate concern, but that being said, I think the real concern is how and
when this war is going to end. I don’t think anyone has a clear answer for
that,” said Kevin Liu, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Currently, you
have a buffer getting close to not being a buffer anymore.”
More
America’s
crude inventories are getting perilously low. But that’s not the full story. -
MarketWatch
In other news.
Bill Ackman warns investors are repeating costly
2000s mistake: Chasing the 'new new thing'
June 5, 2026
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is known
for making highly profitable trades. For instance, he turned
$27 million into $2.5 billion in 10 days at the height of the COVID-19
pandemic.
After closing a $5 billion initial public
offering (IPO) in April to take his firm Pershing Square public, billionaire
investor Ackman recently said in an All In podcast interview that history
is repeating itself in a not-so-good way as investors flock to white-hot stocks
just like they did during the 2000 dot-com bubble.
'What's interesting about markets is
people always bring their eye to the new new thing, and the new thing is chips
and semiconductors and energy, and that's where the short-term capital is
going. What tends to happen is really high-quality things get left behind,'
Ackman had said in the interview published on Wednesday.
Ackman said parallels between today's
markets and the dot-com bubble have to do with market psychology. 'And the
analogies are that people got excited about internet stocks, and Berkshire
Hathaway traded at the lowest valuation I think it ever traded in its history,'
he had stated.
Back then, investors had described
Berkshire Hathaway as 'old stuff', and Ackman sees investors with the same
attitude when it comes to companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, which he
believes are still undervalued.
In May, Ackman revealed that his hedge
fund opened a new position in Microsoft in February after the stock price fell
post earnings results. Ackman believes the company is an AI winner.
We Are All Invested in AI in Some Way
Ackman believes investors
are indirectly or directly invested in AI today, which 'could be
a threat', because as a long-term investor, one must assess the disruption
risks to a business, the likelihood of which has 'enormously' increased
recently.
Ackman had urged investors to pile on US
stocks due to the COVID-19-induced crash earlier this decade. He was also
predicting in May that stocks are now cheap but would soon go higher. 'Stocks
just got crazy cheap, just incredibly cheap, really high-quality companies,' he
had mentioned earlier.
However, Ackman had cautioned that a very
'careful analysis' of companies is imperative amid the ongoing software stocks
selloff, adding that he would be concerned about companies like Salesforce.
'If you're a software company today, you
have to be as AI-enabled as you can. I think there has been some
monopolistic-type profit taking off of customers, when someone had a niche
software product, they're charging $30,000 a year or something like this. I
think those companies are really at risk.'
Regarding the upcoming blockbuster IPOs,
like SpaceX and OpenAI's, Ackman remains interested to see how the company
turns out to be five years from now. 'SpaceX is near monopoly in terms of
low-cost space launch. That's going to become increasingly important,' he had
mentioned.
Lastly, Ackman concluded that OpenAI has
an intriguing business model but needs to provide investors with more clarity
about its capital commitments.
Bill Ackman warns
investors are repeating costly 2000s mistake: Chasing the 'new new thing'
This economic indicator called 2 of the worst bear
markets in history -- and it's flashing red again
June 4, 2026
The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:
^GSPC) has reached yet another record high, surging by nearly 20% from its
low point in late March, as of this writing.
All of this explosive growth has a hidden
downside, however: It could mean that the market is overvalued right now. If
that's the case, a pullback could be on the horizon.
While nobody can say exactly where stocks
are headed in the near term, this economic indicator soared just ahead of the
Great Depression and the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s -- and it's
nearing yet another peak. Here's what that might mean for your investments.
The stock market could be sounding a
warning
The S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio is a
popular metric that compares the current price of the S&P 500 to its
10-year inflation-adjusted earnings, and it attempts to predict how future
stock prices will fare.
A higher ratio suggests a higher
valuation, and historically, stock prices tend to fall in the years after the
CAPE ratio reaches a new peak. The metric surged dramatically in the late
1920s, surpassing 30 just before the market sank into the Great Depression.
Then, in 1999, it reached an all-time high of 44 before the dot-com bubble
burst, leading to one of the longest bear
markets in
S&P 500 history.
In recent months, the S&P 500 Shiller
CAPE Ratio has been hovering around 40 -- the second highest level this metric
has ever been.
What should investors do right now?
Regardless of how normal higher valuations
may be, it's an incredibly expensive time to invest in the stock market. One
year ago, for example, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF cost
around $542 per share. As of this writing, it's close to $700 per share. And
high-flying stock Micron Technology has soared from around $94
per share one year ago to a staggering $1,034 today.
More
This economic indicator called 2 of the worst bear markets in history -- and it's flashing red again
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Yet
Another reason for most of the rest of the world to shun US Treasuries. The
increasingly weaponised dollar. After attempting to steal Russia’s assets, the
USA wants to steal Iran’s assets.
U.S. eyes Iranian assets for Gulf allies’ reconstruction, source says
Published Sat, Jun 6 2026 7:09 AM EDT
The U.S. government will attempt to redirect
Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by
Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, as Tehran followed up a wave of
strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain with further drone launches.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed
a team to assess the costs of damages already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran,
the source said, adding that the U.S. will also consider using Iranian assets
to repair any future destruction.
The disclosure came a day after Mohsen Rezaei, an
adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that a peace deal to end the
three-month war hinged on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen
by the United States.
The source on Saturday did not specify what kind of
assets the Treasury was examining. The language used to describe the new
measures did not appear limited to frozen assets.
The threatened redirection of Iranian assets could
create a new irritant to a fragile ceasefire between the United States and
Iran, which was tested again this weekend with strikes by the U.S. and Iran.
Peace negotiations appear to have stalled, although
a minister from the mediating Pakistan traveled to Tehran on Saturday with a
letter for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s
semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in
Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the Strait of Hormuz, early Saturday after
shooting down drones launched by Iran that U.S. Central Command says posed a
threat to maritime traffic. A further two Iranian attack drones that were
threatening shipping in the strait were also shot down, the U.S. military said
late on Saturday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it retaliated
against U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and Kuwait’s army said on Saturday it
engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting
in material damage but no casualties.
In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter.
Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes.
More
U.S. strikes Iranian sites after
Iran launches drones
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.
Another
week and another EV battery fire to cover. But the footage shows just how fast
and dangerous an EV battery fire is. A problem that is only going to get worse
the more EVs come into service and the older ones age. Approx. 5 minutes.
EV Fire in an Auto Shop: Wrong Tool. Wrong Fire
EV Fire in an Auto Shop: Wrong Tool. Wrong Fire - YouTube
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but
by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to
support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have
ever plundered people's savings on a scale comparable to the plunder
perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments.
Ayn Rand
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