Judge Hannah Dugan Gets The ‘Good Person’ Discount In Federal Court Authored by David Manney via PJMedia.com, Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan just discovered a remarkable sentencing principle: Commit a felony, lose at trial, watch the conviction survive post-trial motions, face a guideline range of 15 to 21 months, and still walk out without prison, probation, and a $5,000 fine. Regular defendants may […]

French Security Services On High Alert For Morocco-France World Cup Semi-Final: ‘Get Ready For Riots & Violence’ France is warning football fans to behave and conduct themselves responsibly ahead of a major Thursday World Cup quarter-final match which pits France against African champions Morocco. Security services are on high alert, the government has said. The match kicks off at 4:00 PM ET. “I appeal to everyone’s sense of […]

“Results Were Tempered”: Pepsi Blames US Snack Slump On Cash-Strapped Consumers PepsiCo blamed the second-quarter slowdown in its North American food unit on consumers tightening their belts. The period was marked by elevated pump prices tied to the US-Iran war, a squeeze that hit lower-income households the hardest and weighed on discretionary snack and beverage purchases. Revenue in the company’s North American food unit fell 2%, […]

Strong 30Y Bond Auction Stops Through For First Time Since March On the heels of yesterday’s stellar 10Y auction, this afternoon saw an even more stellar-er 30Y auction with the US government selling $22 billion bonds at 5.058%, the highest result since 2007, vs a 5.061% when-issued yield at the 1 p.m. New York time bidding deadline. That is the first stop-through (0.3bps) since March (after three ugly tails – June’s reopen was […]

Gold Selloff Seen As “Stop-Loss Liquidation Positioning Reset”, Not Fundamentally Driven Gold’s break below key technical support of 4050 to the 4023 low in New York trading on Wednesday appears driven primarily by stop-loss liquidation and positioning rather than a material deterioration in macro fundamentals, according to UBS.  As the bank’s trader Marcus Millis writes, “the move flushed out long exposure and left […]

“Deepening Dark Trend” Emerges On Hormuz As Ship Traffic Slows The US military has struck Iranian targets for a second straight day, while Tehran has responded with ballistic missile and drone attacks targeting Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and even faraway Jordan. While our overnight wrap focused on the latest war developments, the focus here is what energy traders are watching most closely: vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. […]

The Low VIX Hides Fierce Undercurrents Via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Goldman Sachs’ volatility desk made the following comment: “With the VIX back to its lowest levels in more than a month, our Vol desk is focused on hedging opportunities as 1-month S&P implied correlation is near its lowest level in 20 years.”  Simply, a low VIX can convey a sense of market calm on the surface, yet implied correlation tells a […]

NYC Tower Owner Prepares To Rebuild 15 Floors After I-Beam Failure Fears of a possible collapse at a condo tower under construction near Grand Central Terminal had abated by the end of the week, but the incident only signals the massive engineering challenges tied to Manhattan’s office-to-apartment conversion boom. The former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street, being converted by David Werner and Nathan Berman’s Metro […]

Tennessee Congressman Demands FBI Unseal Everything On Seth Rich Authored by José Niño via Headline USA, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn, has thrown a fresh spotlight on one of Washington’s most stubborn cold cases.  On July 7, 2026, the Tennessee Republican posted on X that he had formally pressed FBI Director Kash Patel to surrender every document the bureau holds on the 2016 killing of DNC staffer Seth Rich. “I […]

Return To War: Iran Fires Ballistic Missiles At Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, After US Struck 170 Iranian Targets Just as the US nighttime strikes were significantly bigger than prior rounds in June, so has Iran’s ‘retaliation’ been bigger – chiefly on Gulf states and American bases there. In the overnight and Thursday daytime hours, Iranian ballistic missiles and drones have targeted Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and even faraway […]

AI Price War Breaks Out: Meta Unveils Paid AI Model For First Time, Will Be “Among Most Affordable Options” Shortly after a leaked Meta memo revealed the company was planning on putting an AI chip into production in September as it looks to double computing capacity to 14Gigawatts, the company also unveiled a version of its most advanced artificial intelligence model, Muse Spark 1.1, that includes a new paid tier for developers, […]

Qatar Halts Push To Ramp Up LNG Production After Hormuz Tanker Strikes Less than a month after Reuters reported that QatarEnergy was ready to resume LNG production ​at its Ras Laffan LNG plant “very quickly” ‌and expected to reach within a month full output of facilities unaffected by Iranian strikes, this morning Bloomberg reports that Qatar is pausing efforts to rapidly revive production at the world’s largest LNG […]

Leaked Meta Memo Shows AI Capacity Doubling To 14 Gigawatts Meta shares fell 4.3% at Thursday’s open after Reuters reported the contents of an internal memo laying out the next phase of the company’s AI infrastructure program. The stock has clawed back part of the loss through the morning but stayed solidly red while the tape digested the same question it has been chewing on for nine days: is Meta the hyperscaler that just […]

US Existing Home Sales Unexpectedly Dropped In June, Just Off Record Lows After an ugly Spring selling season, existing home sales have rebounded in Q2 (so far) with expectations for another 1.0% MoM increase in June. However, that was not to be with US existing home sales tumbling 2.4% MoM in June (although May was revised up to a +3.7% MoM gain from +3.2%). That slowed the annual improvement in sales to +2.75% YoY… Overall, […]

The Choice To Go Up Or Down The Escalation Ladder Now Lies With Iran By Michael Every of Rabobank “It ain’t over till it’s over, but…” The US hit Iran for a second night along Hormuz, in southern cities, near a nuclear site, and a railway bridge in the northwest. The message from VP Vance was to stop striking ships in Hormuz or get hit back harder. From Trump, it was that Iran are “liars” and “scum” and the MOU is […]

Bloom Energy Defends Supply Chain, Calls Hunterbrook Report “False And Misleading” Bloom Energy is responding forcefully against allegations made by short seller Hunterbrook Capital, rejecting the firm’s claims about its accounting, supply chain and growth prospects a day after a report sent shares sharply lower. The clean energy company said Thursday that Hunterbrook’s assertions regarding its financial reporting and access to […]

Porsche Sales Tumble To Weakest In Six Years As Chinese Demand Plummets Days after Germany’s top financial newspaper, Handelsblatt, reported that Porsche AG is planning more than 4,000 job cuts, the sports-car maker on Thursday revealed first-half sales figures that were the weakest in six years, with its China business falling off a cliff. For the January to June period, Porsche reported 122,306 vehicle deliveries across global […]

Canada Just Admitted Justin Trudeau’s Climate Agenda Was A Scam Authored by Andrew Moran via LibertyNation.com, Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave Canada a lost decade. A key contributor to the country’s stagnation was the Liberal government’s obsession with climate change and its ushering in of green energy policies that were disastrous for a nation rich in natural resources. To make Canada great again, Prime Minister […]

‘Slow Hire, No Fire’ Economy Continues As Jobless Claims Remain Near Record Lows The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time fell to to 215k last week (versus 217k exp), remaining near multi-decade lows… California and Missouri saw the biggest increase in initial claims while New Jersey and Connecticut saw the largest decline… Continuing jobless claims ticked higher (highest since March) but […]

Futures Rise, Oil Drops As Markets Ignore Latest Middle East Airstrikes Futures are higher (although off session highs), and oil erased overnight gains as the market moved past the latest Middle-East flare up which saw the US military strike 90 Iranian targets for a second day and Tehran retaliated against American allies in the Persian Gulf. And like during previous escalations, this time nobody believes it will last. As of 8:00am […]

SK Hynix’s US Offering Reportedly Seven Times Oversubscribed The KOSPI struggled for direction overnight, erasing most of an opening rally that briefly pushed the South Korean main equity index up as much as 4.1%. The real strength was in memory stocks, with SK Hynix surging as much as 10% as investors piled back in. This move comes as Bloomberg reports the company’s US ADR listing is more than seven times oversubscribed, […]

Biden Defender JB Pritzker Now Claims Trump Has ‘Dementia’ Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of President Joe Biden’s most vocal defenders when the former president faced questions about his mental acuity, is now claiming President Donald Trump has dementia. Pritzker made the remarks during a June 29 interview with CNN host Caitlin Collins while discussing Trump’s criticism […]

“We’re Gonna Win Someday”: Graham Platner Suspends His Senate Campaign Update: Graham Platner, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, announced Wednesday that he’s suspending his campaign. The move comes two days after Politico reported allegations of rape against him by a former girlfriend. He posted an emotional video explaining his decision. “And I just want to make it clear this is all false,” Platner said. […]

Canada Just Unleashed Its Fastest-Growing Oil Boom In A Decade Who says price isn’t a rationing mechanism? Rather than sink billions into long-term oil sands projects, Alberta energy companies are increasingly chasing the Clearwater formation, a conventional heavy oil field that allows producers to capitalize on rising crude prices far more quickly, according to Bloomberg. The surge in activity has been significant. Alberta […]

Cocoa Prices Rally As Jefferies Warns Of “Perfect Storm” In West Africa Cocoa futures in New York have doubled since the start of March and have now climbed back toward levels not seen since late 2025, around $6,000 a ton, as Jefferies analysts warn that a “perfect storm’s a-brewing” across West Africa, the world’s top cocoa-farming region. Jefferies analyst Scott Marks wrote in a note on Tuesday that new weather concerns center […]