Wednesday Watch

Around X:

• @Business  

• The US launched fresh airstrikes in Iran and revoked a waiver that allowed it to sell oil globally, further imperiling a peace agreement after a series of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.  
• The UK, France and Germany have launched a $50 billion NATO initiative to spur the development of long-range weapons without US involvement, aiming to close the gap in an area where Russia is well ahead. 
• Samsung has begun mass production of its most advanced data center storage drive, which is set for use inside Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform.
• Oil jumped — after gaining almost 3% on Tuesday — as the US launched a wave of strikes against Iran in retaliation for a spate of attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. 
• The brutal March that battered some of the world’s biggest hedge funds is already fading into the background as the firms reported their strongest first-half results in five years. 
• A growing nationwide shortage of high-skilled workers threatens to delay construction of billions of dollars in new semiconductor plants across the US and constrain future chip production. 
• Get up to speed on what's moving global markets.
• Here’s what you need to know to start your day. 

• @ZeroHedge

• APPLE HAS BEGUN TESTING CXMT'S DRAM CHIPS FOR DEVICES SOLD IN CHINA: FT.
• One week in and it's the worst July ever for momentum.
• The Push For A Robotic Workforce: Chris Murphy Introduces Bill For Massive Minimum Wage Hike.
• Where is momentum in terms of factor exposure after the recent selling.
• Asian (read Korea) CTAs are just getting started: huge sellers in any scenario.
• #BREAKING: Footage shows massive explosions in Hormozgan Province after U.S. strikes in Iran.
• *IRAN SAYS US MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN VIOLATE MOU. *IRAN: TO TAKE 'DECISIVE ACTIONS' TO PROTECT NATIONAL INTERESTS.           
• SpaceX bonds relentless selling since issuance two weeks ago.
• Japan's Keynesian Mirage: How Debt, Inflation, & A Collapsing Yen Expose A Failed Model.
• South Korea's Foreign Ministry says it signed MoU with the US and Japan on cooperation to deploy small modular reactors.
• *WTI OIL JUMPS 2.9% TO $72.46/BBL AT OPEN AFTER US STRIKES IRAN.
• International Olympic Committee Lifts Suspension, Russians To Compete At LA Games.
• US Launches New Iran Strikes Overnight: 'Heavy Costs' For Attacks On Commercial Shipping.
• Israeli fighter jets carried out attacks in Barachit and Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon.
• *US STRIKES TARGETED AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS, DRONE SITES: AXIOS.
• Anthropic Removes "Scary" Secret Claude Tracker After Developer Stumbles Across It.
• The NYT Sat On The Rape Allegations Against Platner Last Month.
• Federal Appeals Court Rules Sex Offenders Have Constitutional Right To Live With Their Children.
• Was that the mRNA vaccine research floor of the old Pfizer HQ?
• Samsung, Semis, The Strait, & Sanctions Spark Market Maelstrom, Momo Meltdown.                       

• @CNBC

• Wednesday's big stock stories: What’s likely to move the market in the next trading session.         
• Stock futures are little changed as investors weigh Middle East tensions and await Fed minutes: Live updates. 
• U.S. resumes ‘powerful strikes’ on Iran after Hormuz Strait ship attacks, CENTCOM says.
• The case for S&P 500 8,000 and sticking with Micron, tech, according to Trivariate Research.  

• @MarioNawful

• Day one of Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing brought a detail that raised eyebrows. Officer Bagley, who found the "sniper's pad" on the Losee Center roof, testified his body cam battery died just 1 hour and 44 minutes into an 11 AM shift. Modern bodycams are built for 10-14 hours of continuous recording. He walked away with roughly 27 minutes of footage from the entire day of Charlie Kirk's assassination and never recharged or swapped it, citing the chaos. Meanwhile three videos of the shooting were entered as evidence, the defense objected to nearly everything as hearsay, and the judge rejected all but one objection. The trial hasn't even started and the questions are already piling up.
• The scale of tonight's strikes is now clear: FOUR TO FIVE TIMES bigger than anything since the ceasefire... (video)
• Candace: Elections are the illusion that keeps everyone in line. If they came out tomorrow and said your vote never mattered, people might actually revolt, she says. So the system needs you to believe you can change it. Charlie Kirk once told her that every civilization with slavery had one thing in common: there were always more slaves than masters. That's what the system fears most, a revolution it doesn't control. So instead they keep everyone busy fighting over trans bathrooms and racial strife while the real power keeps building. (video) 

• @visionergeo

• BIG | A senior U.S. official told CNN that the ongoing military campaign against Iran is designed as an absolute "punishment, not a proportional response," signaling a major shift in Washington's rules of engagement. The official explicitly warned that the devastating air campaign "won’t be over for a bit," indicating that the initial wave of carrier-based airstrikes is just the opening salvo of a sustained, high-intensity operation. By moving past standard tit-for-tat retaliation, the United States is intentionally executing an asymmetric campaign aimed at permanently degrading the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) ability to project power in the region. (video)

• @TheSCIF

• The new MKULTRA hearing has confirmed covert weapons once denied by our government. The U.N. and members of the WEF openly discussed this technology, including direct energy weapons, able to "hack" your mind and read your thoughts. They even plan to implement this tech in the work space to "monitor" your thoughts while you slave away at your job. This isn't the future, it's already here. This technology has been in development since the late 1950s and was mastered in the 1980s. As technology progressed, especially with the introduction of A.I., so have these weapons, becoming more powerful, precise, and effective. There's already wearable devices and other technology to wirelessly induce behaviors, emotions, read your thoughts, and project sounds, with no device needed per target. Think of the applications and confusion this technology could cause to the unaware... Think about smart cities and all the "smart tech" you have all throughout your house, or that you're already wearing or using today. Psychotronic weapons, BCIs, and electronic/electromagnetic remote neural monitoring and harassment can do things you would never believe are even possible. This, ladies and gentleman, is MKULTRA 2.0. (video)

• @LeadingReport

• CIA has been accused of using Directed Energy Weap-ns (DEWs) to target and psychologically ab-se whistleblowers, according to former CIA officer Kevin Shipp.

• @HealthRangerCongress 

• Is About to Hand Israel the Keys to the $1.5 Trillion U.S. War Machine — With No Debate, No Treaty, and No Way Back. They’re not even hiding it anymore. Any lawmaker who votes for this is committing an act of high treason. (pic)

• @GeneralMCNews

• BREAKING: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will travel to Israel to seek advice from Benjamin Netanyahu on the renewed strikes against Iran. (pic)

• @TheInsidePaper

• BREAKING: US conducting massive strikes on Iran. (video)

• @jackprandelli

• Reports of US strikes hitting Bandar Abbas port, on the Strait of Hormuz. This is the exact scenario I flagged as the 1 thing that breaks the $70 to $80 range higher. A supply shock the swing importer cannot absorb. Money managers are already net short WTI for the first time on record. That positioning is about to get tested..... (video)

• @valuetainment

• JUST IN: All new cars sold in the EU are now required to include an infrared camera that monitors the driver's eyes and face for distraction.

• @PolyMarket

• BREAKING: U.S. Justice Department warns state election officials they could face criminal liability over noncitizen voting.

• @MidwesternDoc

• Did you know the news used to regularly air stories about people's lives being ruined by vaccines? That all changed after Clinton let Pharma buy out the media. Here I compiled 56 mind-blowing news segments they'd never air today. (video)

• @HotSpotHotSpot

• FBI Agent David Hull says the crime scene of the Charlie Kirk assassination, in which the other bullet was found, "was not" worth preserving. (video)

• @JackUnheard

• BREAKING: A federal judge has BLOCKED the Trump DOJ from obtaining the names of Fulton County's 2020 election workers amid an ongoing FBI investigation. Absolutely INSANE. They aren't even hiding it.

• @drawandstrike

• There is a worldwide paramilitary ARMY that is trained, armed and dispatched around the world to EMBED themselves in the world's hot spots to keep the wars and conflicts going.

• @realstewpeters

• New pics from the excavation of Charlie’s crime scene show that they really did remove 10+ inches of earth before paving it over. Total clean-up job to prevent anyone from inspecting the soil beneath Charlie’s feet. (pic)

• @TMZ

• Never-before-seen video from Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile island. (video)

• @ksorbs

• The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, has passed a measure expressing support for body-deforming sex-change surgeries for youth exhibiting gender dysphoria. Wow....the church has lost its compass.

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -1.0% to unch. on average. 
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 68.75 +.75 basis point. 
• China Sovereign CDS 36.75 -.25 basis point.
• China Iron Ore Spot 98.35 USD/Metric Tonne +.5%. 
• Crude Oil 72.05/bbl. +2.4% 
• Gold 4,114.50 USD/t oz. -1.0%. 
• Swiss Franc/Offshore Chinese Renminbi Cross 8.41 +.07%.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 34.70 -.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 125.6 +.5%.
• US 10-Year Yield 4.55% unch.
• Japan 30-Year Yield 3.97% -11.0 basis points. 
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 18.7 unch.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.08%. 
• S&P 500 futures +.03%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.21%.

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly lower, weighed down by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower.  The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.