Thursday Watch

Around X:

• @ElonMusk

• As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.
• One state ***increased*** its reading literacy for the bottom 10% of students while 49 other states let standards keep slipping. It was the poorest state in the country, Mississippi. In 2013 they enacted a rule where at 4th grade if you can’t read, you repeat until you can. 
• From SpaceX. (video)

• @ZeroHedge

• Fannie Mae Partners With Palantir For AI Mortgage Fraud Effort As Trump Works To Take Housing Giants Public.
• Temu Owner Plunge Shows Record Deflation Hurting China.
• Why Ending The War In Ukraine Is So Difficult Now.
• Trump: I Warned Netanyahu Against Iran Strike.
• FBI Probing Allegations Of 'Targeted Violence' Against Religious Groups in Seattle: Official. 
• Trump's Monetary Reset: Is A Gold-Backed Dollar On The Horizon?
• NVDA “Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $53.7 billion, up from $31.4 billion a year ago and $43.2 billion a quarter ago.” 
• NEW: Pete Buttigieg ADMITS Dems messed up on COVID-19, immigration and the economy early in Biden's term.
  
• *NVIDIA SEES 2Q ADJ GROSS MARGIN 71.5% TO 72.5%, EST. 71.7%.
• *TESLA IS SAID TO TARGET ROBOTAXI LAUNCH IN AUSTIN ON JUNE 12.
  
• China Chip Ban & 'Soft' Data Surge Sparks 'Sell All The Things' Day.

• @MarioNawful

• FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR BONGINO: WE ARE INVESTIGATING THE COVID COVER-UP. “As we read and process reports of a new COVID strain emerging, I want you to know that we are actively investigating, in multiple field offices, the cover-up of the origin of the COVID virus, along with associated matters requiring our attention. You deserve answers.”
• THE U.S. HAS CANCELLED A $700 MILLION CONTRACT FOR MODERNA’S BIRD FLU VACCINE. The U.S. government has pulled more than $700 million in funding from Moderna, shutting down a key contract for its bird flu vaccine. The deal covered late-stage development and future vaccine purchases targeting H5N1 and other pandemic strains. First awarded under the Biden, now will be cease.  
• KASH PATEL: I WON’T BE LECTURED BY JAMES COMEY. “The FBI is bigger than any leader it’s ever had or ever will have. James Comey is a private citizen. He can walk around the beach and talk about seashells or crayons for all I care, and call us conspiracy theorists. But I remind the American people of one thing. When that man led the FBI, he perpetrated the largest criminal conspiracy in its history. He took political information from overseas, packaged it, brought it to a federal FISA court, and illegally surveilled a political opponent. So I won’t be lectured on how to run this FBI by that man.”. (video)
• BREAKING: FEDERAL COURT SAYS TRUMP CAN’T USE EMERGENCY POWERS TO SET GLOBAL TARIFFS. A federal court just ruled that Trump does not have the authority to impose global tariffs under economic emergency law. The decision hits the core legal tool behind the administration’s trade moves. It could grind the current tariff strategy to a halt. The case was heard by the U.S. Court of International Trade and challenges Trump's use of sweeping powers to reshape global trade. No word yet on an appeal, but the ruling marks a major check on executive power in the middle of an ongoing trade standoff. 
• SEC. RUBIO: U.S. TO REVOKE VISAS OF CCP LINKED CHINESE STUDENTS. “The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” 
• KASH PATEL: THANKS TO COMEY, COPYCATS ARE PULLING US OFF REAL THREATS… LIKE TERRORISTS. “Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate because of that beachside stunt from the former director? Do you know how many agents I’ve had to pull off cases, tracking child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists, because people across the country saw that, went on social media, and thought threatening the life of the President is just a joke? They think they can do it because he did it.” (video) 
• META’S AI HITS 1 BILLION USERS, ZUCK WANTS MORE. The company’s chatbot now runs across all Meta apps, and there’s a new standalone version too. Next up: voice chats, entertainment, and yes, probably paid features. Zuckerberg hinted that users could soon cough up cash for premium access or faster responses as AI use grows. Also at Meta’s shareholder meeting: votes on child safety, hate speech, and even turning the company into a bitcoin vault. Because of course. 

• @LauraLoomer

• Harvard used to be America’s most prestigious institution. It was elite, merit-based, and rooted in Western values. Now, it’s a global diploma mill propped up by DEI, flooded with foreign nationals, and crawling with BLM agitators, Palestinian encampments, and CCP spies who call themselves “foreign students”. This isn’t higher education. It’s a hostile takeover of American academia, subsidized by YOUR TAX DOLLARS. President Trump is RIGHT to defund @Harvard and bar them from enrolling foreign students. It's time to take our colleges back and kick out ungrateful and unAmerican foreign plants. (video)
• Harvard is trafficking body parts. Yes, body parts. The former @Harvard Medical School morgue manager just pleaded guilty to stealing and selling organs, brains, and skin on the black market. (video)
• WATCH: Laura Loomer confronts Jake Tapper after he covered up Biden’s mental decline then wrote a book to cash in on the scandal. (video)

• @TheTranscript 

• $NVDA CEO will be touring Europe next week: "I'm going to be on the road next week through Europe...Thank you for joining us at the earnings call today, so you're in Paris."
• $NVDA CFO: Hyperscalers are accelerating GPU deployments "On average, major hyperscalers are each deploying nearly 1,000 NVL72 racks, or 72,000 Blackwell GPUs, per week, and are on track to further ramp output this quarter. Microsoft, for example, has already deployed tens of thousands of Blackwell GPUs and is expected to ramp to hundreds of thousands of GB200s, with OpenAI as one of its key customers."
• $NVDA CEO on AI factories orders: "We have more orders today than we did the last time I spoke about this at GTC. At the same time, we are also expanding and building out our supply chain...we expect to keep our supply chain very busy for many more years to come.".
• $NVDA CFO on the rising self-driving adoption: "Our Automotive group revenue was $567M, down 1% Q/Q but up 72% Y/Y. The Y/Y growth was driven by the ramp-up of self-driving programs across several customers and strong demand for autonomous vehicle platforms.".
• $NVDA CFO: "We have a line of sight to projects requiring tens of Gigawatts of Nvidia AI infrastructure in the not-too-distant future.".
• $NVDA CFO: AI factory buildouts have doubled YoY with more coming "The pace and scale of AI factory buildouts are accelerating, with nearly 100 NVIDIA-powered AI factories in flight this quarter. This represents a 2X increase compared to the same period last year. The average number of GPUs powering each factory has also doubled over the same timeframe. More AI factory projects are launching across industries and geographies." 
• $NVDA CFO: "Data Center revenue for Q1 FY 26 was $39.1B, up 73% Y/Y and up 10% Q/Q. The strong Y/Y and sequential growth was driven by demand for our accelerated computing platform used for large language models, recommendation engines, and generative and agentic AI applications". (graph)
• Nvidia Q1 25 Revenues Market Platform YoY: —Data Center: +73% to $39.1B [Compute: +76% to $34.2B, Networking: +56% to $5.0] —Gaming: +42% to $3.8B —Professional Visualisation: +19% to $0.5B —Automotive: +72% to $0.6B —OEM & Other: +42% to $0.1B.
  

• @WallStreetApes

• HOLY CR*P!! California just legalized ILLEGALS OVERSEEING THEIR ELECTION. CA State Rep Carl DeMaio “Democrats just passed AB 930 to allow illegal immigrants to COUNT BALLOTS in our elections — This bill allows illegal immigrants to SERVE ON RECOUNT BOARDS and allow ballots to arrive 7 days after Election Day”. (video)

• @StephenM

• DOGE cuts are to discretionary spending. (Eg the federal bureaucracy). Under senate budget rules, you cannot cut discretionary spending (only mandatory) in a reconciliation bill. So DOGE cuts would have to be done through what is known as a rescissions package or an appropriations bill. The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill and does not fund the departments of government. It does not finance our agencies or federal programs. Instead, it includes the single largest welfare reform in American history. Along with the largest tax cut and reform in American history. The most aggressive energy exploration in American history. And the strongest border bill in American history. All while reducing the deficit.

• @BennyJohnson

• BREAKING: Skittles to remove titanium dioxide from all products sold in the US. MAHA happening right before our eyes.

• @GlobalMktObserv 

• Institutional investors remain BEARISH: Short interest on the median S&P 500 stock hit 2.3%, a 7-year HIGH. Hedge fund shorts on Nasdaq stocks as a share of open interest hit 41%, the most in 4 YEARS. (graph)

• @tonyclimate

• The percent of the US to have reached 90F during the first five months of the year is 10th lowest on record. Last year was 8th lowest. (graph)

• @EricLDaugh 

• BREAKING: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just went OFF about no DOGE cuts being voted on by Congress. "DOGE fought the swamp, and so far, the swamp has won." "DON'T tell me it can't be done." "@ElonMusk went into this DOGE effort - he was getting LAMPOONED...firebombing his tesla dealerships, media smearing him relentlessly..." "We have a Republican congress and to this day, we're at the end of May, past Memorial Day, and not one CENT in DOGE cuts have been implemented by the Congress!" "That's one of the reasons why we need a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That's another reason why we need term limits for members of Congress." (video)

• @prime_sapiens

• American bread has 30 ingredients. French bread has 4. The US allows 3,000 food additives. Europe bans 2,700 of them. I visited both places. The differences are insane. Here's why Europeans stay thin, strong and healthy whilst American are fat and depressed: (thread)

• @PeterSweden7

• IT BEGINS. 6 U.S states are BANNING fake lab-grown meat. - Florida. - Alabama. - Montana. - Indiana. - Nebraska. - Mississippi. Reject the Klaus Schwab agenda.

• @catturd2

• Republicans have ZERO chance of holding the House in 2026 if they don't codify Elon's DOGE cuts and Trump's executive orders. Republican voters are furious with the Republican Congress right now.

• @IanJaeger29

• BREAKING: 57% of Republican voters in South Carolina will not vote for Lindsey Graham in the primary, according to a new poll. Lindsey could be on his way out.

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are unch. to +1.0% on average. 
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 77.5 -1.0 basis point. 
• China Sovereign CDS 50.75 -.25 basis point.
• China Iron Ore Spot 95.5 USD/Metric Tonne +.3%.
• Swiss Franc/Offshore Chinese Renminbi Cross 8.65 -.51%.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 36.98 -.1%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 70.0 +.6%.
• US 10-Year Yield 4.50% +2.0 basis points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 19.2 -3.9%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.93%. 
• S&P 500 futures +1.5%. 
• NASDAQ 100 futures +1.8%.

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by industrial and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open higher and to maintain gains into the afternoon.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.