Monday, July 6, 2026
[4:10 PM ET…closing prices for stocks, 3:50ish for commodities and bonds]
Tale of the Tape at the gas pump, nationwide averages, courtesy of AAA.
Fri., Feb. 27…regular $2.98…diesel $3.75
Mon., July 6…regular $3.79…diesel $4.75
While WTI futures fell a little today, they sit at about $68.50, just a dollar over Feb. 27, the day before the Iran War started.
But gasoline futures are trading above $2.95, and the penny-a-day decline we’ve seen in the price at the pump is about to stall, unless we see a decline to $2.80, and then below that.
In Iran, hundreds of thousands were in the streets of Tehran today as the funeral procession for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei made its way through the capital.
It was heavily choreographed, as threatening anti-Trump messages were seen, and mourners were seen throwing rocks at a poster displaying the U.S. president’s face.
The procession was seen as one of the most significant moments of Khamenei’s seven-day funeral.
The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran holds, while talks on a permanent peace deal continue…though they were on pause since funeral events began on Friday, according to President Trump.
The burial is slated for Thursday – with Iranian authorities saying millions are expected to attend the “funeral of the century.”
Still no sign of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen in public since succeeding his father.
The big story today overseas, however, was in Ukraine, as for the second time in five days, Russia pounded the capital, Kyiv, with 68 cruise and ballistic missiles and 351 strike drones. As I go to post, 23 were killed, including in the wider Kyiv region, though the toll will rise as the Russian bastards targeted Kyiv’s residential buildings, with in one case three large blocks of flats having partially collapsed, some hit by the missiles.
But what was even more distressing was Ukrainian President Zelensky and the Ukrainian Air Force having to admit they now have a “serious shortage” of interceptor missiles, which meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia were shot down.
Most of the drones were, but some of them still got through. And for Ukraine having to admit they no longer have the ability to take down the ballistic missiles gives Vladimir Putin the incentive to keep firing them, and at other cities not as heavily defended as Kyiv. It’s sickening.
Zelensky also warned that Moscow would continue to hit residential buildings as long as defensive Patriot missiles “remain in our allies’ stockpiles.”
Ukraine’s heroic leader has appealed for allies to take “strong decisions” at this week’s NATO summit, which President Trump is attending, in Ankara, to provide Kyiv with air defenses.
Today, answering reporters’ questions at an event in the Oval Office, Trump said of his recent call with Vladimir Putin that “it was a good one.” That’s the same response Trump always gives when asked about his calls with Vlad the Impaler. He never blasts Putin…ever!
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to strike inside Russia, targeting the energy infrastructure, hitting refineries and leading to severe fuel shortages across Russia. Kyiv’s intelligence services are no doubt plotting something big for Moscow…just my educated opinion.
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Americans today, however, aren’t focused on the above…rather it’s about tonight’s World Cup game between the U.S. and Belgium in Seattle. We learned yesterday afternoon that President Trump had called FIFA chief Gianni Infantino over the red card to Folarin Balogun, which would have caused him to miss Monday’s game, and FIFA reversed the call, saying Balogun could play, but that he was now on a one-year probation.
At the above-referenced mini-presser in the Oval Office, Trump admitted he called Infantino to have the call reviewed. FIFA, the most corrupt international sports organization in the world, or at least rivaling the IOC, then gladly complied.
Trump told reporters, “That wasn’t a foul, that wasn’t even an infraction,” while also admitting he didn’t know what a red card is!
FIFA’s decision outraged international soccer fans, while Belgium’s appeal was quickly dismissed.
President Trump said that the U.S. team’s match tonight will be more fair after his intervention because both teams will have their full roster available. But as he celebrated the overturning of a suspension, he invoked his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“We’re going to have a full team, and Belgium is going to have a full team,” he said. “And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we’ll say it was – I’d say – it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020.”
Just shoot me.
I do have to say, I wrote in this space and elsewhere on my site that the Balogun red card was “bogus,” but I immediately pivoted and said the U.S. had to move on and talked about players like Pepe having to step up, and then this happened.
I’m a ‘rules’ guy. You may not like them, but you follow them and do your best within the rules. I don’t like what happened.
In my Bar Chat column that I posted yesterday just after the shocking decision on the part of FIFA, I said I hoped Mauricio Pochettino, who I like a lot from his days managing Tottenham (my Premier League team), out of a show of sportsmanship, would hold Balogun out of the first half.
Of course, no one else said that and it was totally unrealistic on my part, but I meant what I said.
In the meantime, Go USA!
[I’ll have far more on this topic in my Bar Chat Add-on that I post early Tuesday mornings.]
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Dow Jones +155…+0.3% [53055…a record]
S&P 500 +54…+0.7% [7537]
Nasdaq +288…+1.1% [26121]
Oil (WTI) $68.70…Brent $72.15
Gold $4160
Silver $62.10
Bitcoin $63,680 [4:00 PM ET…a little rebound]
U.S. 2-yr. 4.11%
U.S. 10-yr. 4.46%
Japanese 10-yr. 2.81%…further 30-year high….
Back Tues.
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