Trump just announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” targeting Iran with unprecedented economic isolation.
He warned that any country providing Iran a financial “lifeline” will itself face “tremendous economic consequences.”
President Donald Trump said the U.S. will launch what he called the "most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country" against Iran, threatening severe financial penalties on any nation that helps Tehran evade sanctions.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said Iran's navy, air force, and military production facilities have been destroyed and its currency rendered worthless, arguing the regime is "hanging by a thread."
He said any country whose financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities offer Iran a "lifeline" will face what he described as tremendous economic consequences of their own.
The president named oil smuggling, currency swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies as channels he wants shut down immediately, stressing that Iran will never be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Long on Oil, Gold, Silver, is the right play here as the Hormuzzy crisis will not be resolved anytime soon. At least not until after Midterms
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz-economic-warfare.html
WASHINGTON, D.C. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities (the 10-year to 20-year sector and the 20-year to 30-year sector). The current maximum size of $2 billion per operation will be at least $4 billion per operation.
This change is effective September 9, 2026 and will be in effect for the remainder of this refunding quarter (through November 4, 2026). Treasury will provide more information about future buyback sizes at the next Quarterly Refunding, scheduled for November 4, 2026.
This increase in buyback operation sizes reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations.
An updated tentative Treasury buyback schedule will be released at a later date.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0607
Thank you Mr. Bessent
The personalized mRNA cancer vaccine from Moderna and Merck just succeeded in a late-stage melanoma trial; this is the first time this has ever happened.
The vaccine is built from each patient's own tumor DNA, paired with Merck's Keytruda. In 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed, the combo meaningfully reduced recurrence and spread compared to Keytruda alone.
Full data hasn't been released yet and overall survival results are still pending, so the market is reacting to a headline. That's worth keeping in mind.
For Moderna this is a big deal, the company has been looking for its next act since Covid revenue collapsed. A Phase 3 cancer win is real evidence that mRNA works beyond infectious diseases. For Merck it potentially strengthens Keytruda's franchise ahead of its patent cliff.
The sharp share-price reaction reflects that potential, but retail investors should keep expectations measured. The harder questions are still open. Manufacturing a personalized vaccine for each individual patient at scale is genuinely complex and expensive. Regulatory approval is still ahead. And the full data may look different from the headline.
Investors should therefore watch for next important steps which will be detailed clinical results, regulatory progress and evidence that the technology works across other cancers.
OpenAI told investors its revenue grew by 18% from the first to the second quarter, while its losses deepened, results that disappointed some shareholders who had hoped the startup would show more progress catching up to its rival, Anthropic.
The company said its revenue grew to $6.7 billion in the three months ended in June, up from $5.7 billion in the first quarter. Meanwhile, its operating margin sank further into the red, pushing the company farther away from profitability ahead of a much-anticipated initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said.
Anthropic more than doubled its revenue to $11.6 billion in the same period, marking the first time its sales surpassed its older rival. The company also swung to a small operating profit.
It has successfully linked and jointly cooled two quantum computing modules, a key step toward building larger modular systems.
Both modules reached 4 Kelvin in under 5 days and below 15 millikelvin shortly after
Each module offers up to 12x more wiring space than widely used quantum systems
Architecture is designed to connect hundreds of quantum chips using L-couplers
IBM plans to install Quantum Nighthawk processors later this year
Targets 1,000+ programmable qubits by 2027, with Quantum Starling still planned for 2029
1,000 programmable qubits does not mean 1,000 logical or fault-tolerant qubits. IBM has not yet disclosed inter-module gate fidelity, crosstalk or error-correction performance for the setup.
Official data places FY2025 net interest near 3.1-3.2% of GDP with CBO projecting 3.3% for FY2026.
The rising share already exceeds defense spending and crowds out other priorities, with projections showing continued growth to 4.6% of GDP by 2036 under current policy.
Micron did $41.46B in revenue last quarter. The quarter before was $23.86B. Non-GAAP gross margin hit 84.9%, and they’re guiding for about 86% next quarter. That margin is nuts for a memory company.
Micron says HBM3E takes about three times the wafer capacity of DDR5 for the same number of bits. HBM demand is soaking up capacity that would otherwise go to regular server, PC, phone memory.
They’ve also signed 16 supply agreements covering about 20% of DRAM volume and a third of NAND through 2030. The agreements include binding purchase commitments.
The old memory cycle can still bite here. New supply will come online eventually. If demand cools around the same time, prices get hit.
I’d want to see that 86% margin guide hold next quarter.
The headline from Meta’s Q2 report was technically brutal: free cash flow collapsed 91% year over year, from $8.55B to just $784M.
That makes it sound like Meta’s money printer broke. But operating cash flow (the cash generated by the business before capital spending) actually increased 24.6%, from $25.56B to $31.86B.
The difference was capex.
| Q2 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $47.52B | $60.80B |
| Operating cash flow | $25.56B | $31.86B |
| Capex, including finance leases | $17.01B | $31.07B |
| Free cash flow | $8.55B | $784M |
| Operating income | $20.44B | $18.78B |
Revenue grew 28%. Operating cash flow grew nearly 25%. Free cash flow collapsed because capital spending nearly doubled. The operating margin decline from 43% to 31% looks equally alarming at first. But approximately half of that compression came from $2.4B of legal charges and $1.18B of severance expenses. Had they not incurred those charges, operating income would've grown 9.4%.
The advertising engine still looks strong:
The interesting part is that price growth is holding up even as impression growth decelerates. That suggests advertisers are paying more because Meta’s inventory is producing better results, rather than Meta simply stuffing more ads into feeds.
Free cash flow will probably remain near zero for several more quarters. But if operating cash flow and ad pricing continue growing while capex eventually moderates, free cash flow should reappear mechanically. The current valuation is giving less credit to that possibility than I think it should.
