[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]
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Edition 1,425
It’s a slow time on Wall Street, especially summer Fridays. The commuter parking lots (for the trains into New York) are virtually empty, trading volume dries up, but the new school year is here for many of America’s youth, and the local Staples is busy with kids (and their mothers) buying school supplies.
But I have a few items below concerning the U.S. military’s dwindling inventory of key weapons systems, and growing concern we are dangerously exposed in terms of our bases not just in the Middle East, as the Iran War has shown, but also in the Pacific and key bases like Guam. This is a scandal. Our inventories weren’t where they should have been before the war, and then we blew through massive amounts of key weapons, like our Tomahawk missiles, let alone our expensive missile interceptors going after Iranian missiles and drones at like a 3-to-1 ratio.
And what was the result? Stalemate.
Abraham Lincoln went through scores of generals before he settled on Ulysses S. Grant to finish the job, albeit at great human cost.
But President Trump is still obsessed with the Reflecting Pool and the Ballroom, and is looking for an exit ramp in Iran. He didn’t finish the job and so we are where we are today. It’s not a good position to be in.
—
Tale of the Tape
Oil / West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
Friday, Feb. 27…$67.30
Friday, Aug. 14…$82.23
Nationwide averages at the Gas Pump [Source: AAA]
Friday, Feb. 27…regular $2.98; diesel $3.75
Friday, Aug. 14…regular $4.07; diesel $5.42…not good….
As it went down, day by day, in the Iran War….
Saturday, a top Iranian national security official, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, delivered a sweeping set of demands that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question.
Zolghadr issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements. He called for the U.S. to lift its naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, withdraw the U.S. military from around Iran, pay war reparations and release frozen Iranian assets, as well as end attacks on Iran’s allies in the region and threats against the country.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Iran’s demands. The prior cease-fire between Iran and the United States, agreed to in June with the MOU (memorandum of understanding) said sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. And U.S. officials have said in the past that Iran could only access its frozen funds if it committed to giving up its highly enriched uranium first.
Iran and Oman were still negotiating an agreement on the future management of the Strait. Iran effectively closed the Strait in retaliation for being attacked by the United States and Israel in February.
Zolghadr’s statement upended expectations the deal with Oman would allow commerce to flow through the Strait once more and ease global energy prices.
Sunday, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s military adviser Mohsen Rezaee, a former commander in chief of the IRGC, was named the new leader of the Supreme National Security Council, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported late Sunday. He replaces Zolghadr, a fellow hard-liner who accepted a new position as political adviser to the supreme leader.
Even before the statement, Iranian officials had hinted on Saturday that the reopening of the Strait was not imminent. Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said that reopening the Strait was “not contingent on the Iran-Oman negotiations.”
In comments carried by Tasnim, an Iranian news outlet affiliated with the IRGC, Mohebbi said that it would depend “on the United States fully accepting Iran’s conditions.”
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said on Saturday that Iran and Oman were “very close” to an agreement, according to Tasnim.
“However, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on other conditions, including the United States compensating for its violations of the Islamabad Memorandum [the MOU],” Araghchi was quoted as saying.
Raz Zimmt, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli research institute, said that even if Iran and Oman agree to specifics on the Strait, “it is clear that Tehran will not agree to implement them without a return to the U.S. commitments under the memorandum, including lifting the naval blockade and resuming the process of sanctions relief,” Zimmt wrote on social media.
On Saturday, the UAE said an Iranian attack had targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company as it crossed the Strait. The company said earlier that at least 15 of its vessels were attacked in the waterway since the conflict began, leading to one death and 20 injuries among crew members.
In a statement, Oman’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” saying they constituted a violation of international law and territorial sovereignty.
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, Vice President JD Vance portrayed the United States as a player in Iran’s discussions with Oman, and said the talks were in “the middle of the game” – even though U.S. officials had previously said that a deal to reopen the Strait was nearly in hand.
Vance did not say what the United States might concede to Iran as part of a possible deal. Instead, he argued that Washington holds major leverage over Tehran.
“They’re hurting in a big way,” he said. “They want this thing to be over. The question is whether they’re able, their system is able, to give the things that are necessary for us to be happy.”
Ship traffic through the Strait has been minimal the past week, though with some ships switching off the transponders that transmit their locations, making an accurate count of crossings difficult to compile.
Meanwhile, Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a U.S.-backed plan for Hamas to lay down its weapons in Gaza in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the territory – a proposal President Trump recently touted as a breakthrough ending the conflict there.
Netanyahu, at the start of a government meeting, said that “Israel does not accept the 15-point document.”
Hamas, in a statement, reaffirmed its own commitment to the plan it agreed on with the Board of Peace – which was created by Trump – and called on parties to help ensure its implementation. The White House, when asked for comments on Netanyahu’s remarks, referred reporters to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately respond.
So not a good stretch for the president. And clearly there are further fissures in the Trump-Netanyahu relationship, which had been a rock-solid one until recent months.
Netanyahu hinted at the tensions in his remarks on Sunday about the Gaza plan. “Unlike all those who lecture us, we do what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary,” he said.
The prime minister said Sunday that Israeli withdrawal will be carried out only after “genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”
He added: “As long as I am prime minister, a Palestinian state will not be established.”
Trump, on Sunday in an interview with Axios, said of the talks with Iran the U.S. is “only semi-negotiating” with Tehran and “low-keying it.”
“We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump said, noting the U.S. naval blockade was deepening its financial woes. “We are low-keying it…It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game.”
Over in Yemen, the Houthis launched a new attack Sunday on a refinery belonging to Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco in the southern city of Jazan. The Saudi Energy Ministry said a fire broke out at the facility and was extinguished. No injuries were reported.
Oil prices jumped Monday, as hopes for a deal over the Strait faded.
President Trump posted on Truth Social, Mon. 12:31 PM:
“I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict (started because, THEY WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON), even though it was never mentioned in any of our negotiations or meetings! But it is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by General Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat. Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protesters that Iran has killed in the last five months. I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Tuesday, The U.S. and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis reported separate attacks on shipping, as Tehran said the Strait would remain closed unless Washington accepts its conditions.
The U.S. attacked a Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel attempting to transit the Gulf of Oman. Central Command said in a post on X that a U.S. Navy helicopter fired two missiles at the engine room, disabling it
At the southern end of the Red Sea, four crew members were killed in a suspected Houthi attack on a small cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen’s Transport Ministry said. Two Yemeni rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group were also killed when another Houthi missile targeted the vessel, Yemen’s Coast Guard said.
The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah, which was carrying food supplies, were the first deaths on shipping by the Houthis since the Iran war began. The Houthis claimed the vessel was carrying “Saudi military equipment.” They have said they were imposing a maritime blockade against the kingdom, after deadly clashes with the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.
Al Jazeera reported earlier in the day that talks between Iran and Oman about reopening Hormuz to some shipping had reached an advanced stage, citing a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson.
Mohsen Rezaee, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said any agreement with Oman on control of the Strait would remain separate from its closure, according to state media. What conditions Iran may seek to impose on traffic through the waterway remained unclear.
President Trump claimed the U.S. had “total control over the Hormuz Strait,” as Washington and Tehran hardened their stance.
“We own it,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews late Tuesday. “And at some point, maybe they’ll do something, and then they get blown away.”
Wednesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social:
“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,” and there is nothing Iran can do about it. They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing, and their ‘Leadership’ is uncertain, at best! They have No Money – Their country is ‘shot.’ All they have is FAKE NEWS and 300% INFLATION, and getting worse! Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer. Praise be to Allah!”
Well, Iran has caused $13 billion in damages to U.S. bases in the region, has taken out/disabled about 45 military aircraft, and 18 American soldiers have been killed, so Iran has taken actions, but no doubt their capabilities have been severely degraded.
At week’s end, Treasury Secretary Bessent said Washington would impose unprecedented economic measures on Iran while maintaining its naval blockade of Iranian ports, with further announcements expected next week. And Iran and Oman had yet to reach an agreement on reopening Hormuz, despite earlier optimism that a deal was close.
Crude oil was headed back up Friday, ditto gasoline futures.
–The Washington Post reported today that the U.S. military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones during the war with Iran, or roughly 25 percent of its fleet, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The Reaper is used to conduct surveillance and targeted strikes, and it can cost between $30 million and $50 million depending on the type of sensors and weapons it carries, according to the Air Force. The potential taxpayer cost of recent losses is over $1.3 billion for that weapon system alone.
The drones fly slowly and often at low altitudes, making them relatively easy targets for Iran’s military and its regional proxies in Yemen and Iraq.
–Separately, the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defense agreement last Friday, laying the foundation for closer military ties among three U.S. allies looking for new ways to shore up their security after years of upheaval in the Middle East.
The agreement comes as the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has created new risks for the region while raising new uncertainties about the American security umbrella. President Trump is now looking for an exit that many countries fear could leave them exposed to an angered and emboldened Iran.
A Turkish official said the pact includes a collective defense clause and is purely defensive, not aimed at any specific actor. Other countries are welcome to join the agreement, the official said.
—It is sickening watching extremist Israeli settlers displace Palestinians and it has gotten way out of hand this year, with the Israeli military often just standing by, as Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn’t want to offend this key voting bloc ahead of the upcoming election.
For five nights this week, Israeli settlers surrounded three Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, including one owned by a Palestinian American. On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists.”
It was an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration, the president having given unprecedented support to Israeli settlements over the years.
“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Huckabee said in a post on social media.
—
Wall Street and the Economy
All about the inflation data this week, with both the consumer and producer price indexes for July offering no negative surprises, which helped buttress the view that the Federal Reserve will hold the line on interest rates when it next meets in mid-September.
The CPI rose 0.1%, 3.4% year-over-year on headline; 0.2% and 2.5% ex-food and energy. All four figures exactly as expected.
Some key components of CPI included food at home, up 2.7% year-over-year, gasoline (all types) up 24.6%, airline fares up 25.5%, uncooked ground beef up 9.0%, fresh fish and seafood up 7.8%, tomatoes up 12.8%, roasted coffee 9.4%, but lettuce, thanks to cyclospora, fell 15.1% in July.
The PPI was unchanged on headline when a 0.2% gain was expected, up 4.7% from a year earlier, also two-tenths better than consensus, while on core, the numbers were 0.2% and 4.2%, the last one the moneyball.
PPI feeds into the Fed’s key inflation barometer, the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, so many strategists lowered their forecasts (slightly) for core PCE, which will be reported next on Aug. 26.
Bonds rallied on the news, especially the inflation-sensitive 2-year Treasury, helped by the fact oil was generally well-behaved amid the stalemate in the Gulf this week.
In other economic news, July retail sales fell 0.6% when a gain was expected. Ex-autos the figure of -0.3% was also a big miss off consensus. This also argues for holding the line on interest rates.
But…we still have another round of CPI/PPI a week before the Fed’s Open Market Committee convenes, as well as the PCE report.
July existing home sales fell by 1.7% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.06 million units, essentially in line with expectations. The median price was $434,100 for all housing types, a 2% increase from last year.
“Home sales have been remarkably stable, even amid the rising mortgage rate environment of the past few months,” said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Year-to-date sales are up 2.4% and there’s no doubt that the housing market would be thriving if average mortgage rates were to return near 6%.”
But, alas, Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage this week is 6.67%.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate of third-quarter growth is 4.3%, down from 5.8%.
No market-moving economic releases next week.
On the budget deficit front, the U.S. budget had been improving late 2025, as the federal government cut education spending and took in revenue from tariffs, but that progress has stalled noticeably.
On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released data that revealed a deficit of $432 billion in July, the biggest monthly deficit since March 2021. As in, the country’s spending exceeded its revenue by the highest margin in more than five years. This brings the shortfall for fiscal 2026 (which began Oct. 1) to $1.8 trillion, 10% higher than the prior year. Adjusting for calendar effects, like fewer weekdays, the deficit is up 5% year-over-year.
Tariff refunds are limiting federal revenue. The government paid out $33 billion in refunds in July, taking the total for the year to $115 billion. A sharp decline in corporate income-tax revenue and higher tax refunds to businesses, stemming from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, have also hurt the U.S. government’s cash coffers.
Net interest on the Treasury Debt is $931 billion ($104bn in July), with two months to go in the fiscal year. Spending on National Defense is $804bn. Think about that.
Net interest is right behind spending on Social Security and Medicare.
On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit will be $2.1 trillion this fiscal year, $200 billion more than the projection published in February.
Europe and Asia
We had a flash estimate of second-quarter GDP in the eurozone, an increase of 0.4% compared with the previous quarter. Compared with Q2 2025, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 1.0% in the euro area. [Eurostat]
June industrial production rose 0.2%, just 0.1% year-on-year.
Britain: The UK economy unexpectedly expanded in June, as sunny weather and World Cup football helped cap another quarter of healthy growth.
GDP rose 0.3% after flatlining in May, the Office of National Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had expected a 0.1% decline. It left growth in the second quarter at 0.4%, only marginally slower than the 0.6% in the first three months of the year.
Businesses in alcohol manufacturing, food and beverage serving and TV production were among those saying the World Cup boosted sales in June as England progressed through the tournament. Sizzling temperatures were also cited as a lift in retail.
In Asia….
China’s July inflation rate came in at 0.5% year-over-year, less than forecast. July PPI was 3.5% Y/Y.
Japan’s July producer prices rose 0.1% over June, but 7.2% year-over-year.
Street Bytes
—Stocks finished mixed on the week, the Dow Jones losing 0.6% to 53732, but the S&P 500 was up 0.4%, hitting an all-time closing high of 7799 Thursday, and Nasdaq up 0.1%.
Next week the Big Box retailers’ report their earnings, and hopefully they provide some insight into the health of the consumer.
—U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 3.90% 2-yr. 4.17% 10-yr. 4.69% 30-yr. 5.26%
A $42 billion auction of 10-year U.S. Treasuries resulted in the highest yield for the benchmark securities since 2007, luring decent appetite from investors who’ve been demanding more compensation to finance the U.S. government.
The yield came in at 4.683%, the most since the global financial crisis.
The government then sold 30-year bonds the next day at the highest interest rate in a quarter of a century.
The yield at the $25 billion sale Thursday came in at 5.216%, the most since 2001, even as a drop in oil prices supported U.S. debt in secondary-market trading. [But not Friday!]
—The Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell below 300 million barrels, hovering at its lowest level since the 1980s, specifically today at its lowest level since 1983, with inventories at 298.7 million barrels, according to data from the Department of Energy, near the generally accepted operational minimum of 250-300 million barrels.
The U.S., like other countries, has been releasing stored crude to make up for supply disruptions in the Middle East, with the Trump administration ordering the release of 172 million barrels in March to steady global markets.
Separately, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 9.07 million barrels in the week ending Aug. 7th, far exceeding expectations for a 500,000-barrel draw. The larger-than-expected build was driven partly by higher crude imports relative to exports.
For example, at least 9 million barrels from the Middle East is set to arrive at U.S. ports throughout August, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler. That’s a big spike, but still only about half of the average level from before the start of the conflict.
EIA (Energy Information Administration) data showed U.S. crude inventories rose by 17.4 million barrels last week, marking their largest weekly increase since 2023.
Despite the latest increase, commercial crude inventories, excluding the SPR, have declined by just over 49 million barrels over the past 17 weeks.
U.S. crude production rose to 13.804 million bpd from 13.796 million bpd, up 600,000 bpd from a year earlier. [Source: American Petroleum Institute]
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency said global oil demand is set for a deeper contraction this year as renewed hostilities in the Middle East and disruptions at key shipping chokepoints derail the recovery in supplies, pushing up fuel prices and weighing on consumption.
The energy watchdog now expects global oil consumption to fall by 1.6 million barrels a day in 2026, compared with its previous forecast for a 1-million-barrel-a-day decline. Demand is forecast to fall by 2.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter following a 4.9 million barrel-a-day drop in the second quarter, before returning to growth in the final three months of the year.
The IEA expects the global oil market to run a deficit of 1.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter, more than double its previous estimate of roughly 800,000 barrels a day.
—Nvidia announced partnerships with Goldman Sachs and five asset-management heavyweights – BlackRock, Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, Brookfield Asset Management, and KKR – to fund data-center construction.
The consortium will deploy $500 billion over time, supplying Nvidia customers with pools of capital “at attractive rates” to support their access to Nvidia’s chips and artificial-intelligence platform.
“We began by building chips,” Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, said in a statement. “Today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories.”
The deals, which have yet to be finalized, give Nvidia more financial firepower to support its own customers – hence the “Bank of Nvidia” moniker.
Nvidia has made 66 private-company investments in 2025 and 2026, according to FactSet, with some investors questioning whether the board should instead return that capital to shareholders. In this case, Nvidia is committing “third-party capital” through its partners.
The agreements won’t ease concerns about circular financing, though, as Nvidia is at the center of a dizzying web of investment between cloud providers, chip makers, AI labs, and others. There is plenty of upside for Nvidia if its funding supports more AI demand, but it is more exposed in an inevitable downturn. Whether that’s next year or 3 or 4 years from now is the question.
Separately, Bank of America said Wednesday it plans to deploy $250 billion by July 27 to support U.S. digital and infrastructure projects, a move it says will boost the country’s economic growth and help create tens of thousands of jobs.
BofA said its “Critical Infrastructure Finance Initiative,” launched on the heels of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, will provide primary market lending, investments, capital markets services, and banking and advisory offerings.
This announcement comes days after Morgan Stanley said it would facilitate roughly $1.5 trillion over the next decade to finance technology and energy infrastructure projects.
Last year JPMorgan Chase launched a $1.5 trillion plan to facilitate, finance and invest in industries deemed critical to the U.S. national security and economic resilience, including defense, energy and advanced manufacturing.
Bank of America’s financing will target digital infrastructure, including data centers and computing; energy and power infrastructure, including renewable generation and energy storage; and core infrastructure such as transportation and natural gas.
—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a 45% rise in its monthly sales, a sign of sustained demand for AI hardware in the face of market volatility.
Revenue at the go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. reached $14.5 billion in July. Analysts were estimating a 46.8% increase in sales for the current quarter.
Last month, TSMC raised its spending and revenue projections for the year, reflecting confidence that torrid growth in demand for chips powering AI development would extend into 2027 and beyond. TSMC now expects its capital expenditure to reach a record level of $60 billion to $64 billion in 2026 and forecasts its full-year sales to grow slightly above 40% in U.S. dollar terms.
–Soaring memory-chip prices have been a big worry for Apple this year. But the iPhone maker thinks a Chinese company can help it to address the crunch, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Apple has been testing ChangXin Memory Technologies’ chips across iPhones and Macs sold in China and hopes to get the Trump administration’s approval, according to the Journal.
CXMT, which recently listed in China, has advanced rapidly in conventional dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), taking 7% of the global market share by revenue in the second quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.
U.S. investors in memory-chip maker Micron take note.
But it’s unclear whether U.S. manufacturers will get government approval to buy CXMT-produced memory and, in any case, the Chinese company gives priority to domestic customers, according to the Journal. That should limit the threat to Micron’s market share.
But CXMT is also looking to make inroads into high-bandwidth memory (HBM), crucial for AI servers.
—Intel Corp. raised $20 billion in an upsized share sale, a third more than it was targeting when it announced the deal Monday morning.
The chipmaker priced the offering at $95 per share, which represented a 6.5% discount to Friday’s closing price. The share sale drew more than $100 billion in demand, people familiar with the matter said.
Intel’s deal shows the resilience of investor demand for stocks along the artificial intelligence supply chain.
—Cisco Systems is yet another tech hardware company to report strong financial results driven by ongoing artificial-intelligence demand.
On Wednesday, Cisco reported adjusted earnings of $1.22 a share on revenue of $17.1 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter ended on July 25. The Street was at earnings of $1.17 per share on revenue of $16.8 billion.
Cisco’s networking segment – which includes gear used in AI data centers – has grown as enterprise demand for AI infrastructure continues to rise. Networking revenue was $9.79 billion in the period, higher than the $9.66 billion that analysts expected and marking a 28% increase from last year.
Cisco expects total fiscal 2027 earnings to be between $5.05 and $5.11 a share on revenue between $72.2 billion and $73.4 billion, ahead of the Street’s expectations for full-year earnings of $4.83 a share on revenue of $69.1 billion.
But investors took the stock down after the results, probably because gross margins for the quarter, 66.3%, declined from 68.4% last year. This could be due to the rising cost of components used in AI hardware, like memory.
The bar was also set very high coming into earnings, as the shares had gained 61% this year.
—Oracle has drawn up plans for a new round of layoffs in August, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal document viewed by Business Insider.
Managers have been asked to submit lists of affected employees, with the goal of trimming payroll before Oracle’s fiscal second quarter opens on Sept. 1.
The company has already cut 21,000 jobs in 2026, or 13% of its workforce.
Oracle has acknowledged that AI adoption is a factor behind the reductions, language that rarely shows up so directly in a corporate filing.
Oracle spent $55.7 billion on infrastructure in fiscal 2026, outspending its cash generation by $23.7 billion.
To cover the gap, Oracle raised $43 billion in debt and another $5 billion through stock sales during the year, and it expects to raise roughly $40 billion more through a mix of debt and equity in the current fiscal year.
Cutting payroll is one of the few ways Oracle can offset a data center bill that keeps climbing.
—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2026
8/13…116 percent of 2025 levels
8/12…104
8/11…81
8/10…91
8/9…116
8/8…86
8/7…94
8/6…114
—China’s auto market remained under pressure in July, as higher oil prices and a weak macro environment weighed on demand.
Retail sales of passenger cars fell 20.9% in July from a year earlier to 1.46 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said Tuesday. Sales fell 8.8% compared with June.
After falling since October, auto sales didn’t show a recovery at the start of the second half of the year. Instead, the market weakened further amid higher oil prices, a seasonally slow period and demand pulled forward by sales campaigns in June, the CPCA said.
As oil prices have risen, domestic gasoline prices have risen sharply this year, raising the cost of owning and maintaining a fuel-powered car for the public, the agency said. This has further weakened demand for conventional vehicles while accelerating the shift toward electric vehicles and hybrid cars, the agency said.
New-energy vehicles, a term used to describe both EVs and hybrid cars, continued to gain market share. New-energy cars accounted for 65.1% of total sales in July, the agency said. That said, retail sales of new-energy cars fell 3.9% from a year earlier to 951,000 units in July.
Robust exports provided some support to Chinese automakers and helped offset weak domestic demand. China’s NEV exports more-than doubled again in July, while total vehicle exports reached 918,000 units last month, the CPCA data showed.
In July, Tesla exported 66,300 units made at its Shanghai plant and sold 93,579 units to Chinese buyers.
—Taylor Fresh Foods issued a sweeping recall of numerous salsas, dips, guacamole and other products sold in more than two dozen states after reports linked jalapenos peppers to a multistate outbreak of salmonella.
Earlier, the company was linked to the iceberg lettuce suspected of being responsible for the cyclosporiasis outbreak.
The current recall impacts some major retailers such as Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger and Stop & Shop.
—Smithfield Foods cut its outlook for the year, as inflation-weary consumers continue to be choosier in the grocery store and higher costs pressure operations.
CEO Shane Smith said Tuesday that consumers are buying less pork and fewer hams as they face persistent inflation.
At the same time, the owner of Farmer John Bacon and Eckrich smoked sausage said costs are elevated and likely remain that way for the rest of the year. Higher fuel and freight costs pressured profit during the recent quarter, though operational efficiencies helped offset the weight.
But note the comment on ‘higher fuel and freight costs,’ much of their product going by truck, thus my focus on the price of diesel, sports fans.
Smithfield now expects total sales to be roughly flat this year, compared with a prior forecast of up low single digits. Analysts were looking for sales of $15.72 billion, representing a 1.2% increase year-over-year.
Second-quarter sales of $3.7 billion were down 2.3% from a year ago, which was actually better than the Street expected.
I’m suddenly very hungry for some sizzling bacon.
—Tyson Foods announced that it would be restructuring its beef operations by closing two plants and pursuing the sale of a third.
In a press release Aug. 13, the company said it would close its plants in Joslin, Ill., and Eagle Mountain, Utah. It is also pursuing the sale of its beef plant in Pasco, Washington.
—Home Depot, which reports earnings next week, announced that CEO Ted Decker was taking a temporary leave of medical absence. While remaining tight-lipped about the reasons behind his medical leave, management said Decker is expected to return in the next few months.
–The president’s media company, Trump Media & Technology, the company behind the Truth Social platform, posted a massive loss in the second quarter, $238 million. In response, ‘DJT’ announced plans to ditch new business lines and refocus as a forum for users to post their views.
The company branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto, and the loss ended up being more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier. The per-share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents.
New CEO Kevin McGurn said a yearlong effort to expand by branching into new industries including online betting and crypto would now be largely abandoned as he refocuses the business on its social media mission.
And that mission won’t be easy. While the president’s Truth Social posts attract media attention, traffic to the platform has fallen sharpy this summer.
Last month, the overall number of monthly visitors to Truth Social was down about 36 percent from a year ago, according to estimates by the online tracking firm Similarweb. Monthly visitors to the site fell by a slightly greater amount in June, compared with last year. By contrast, much bigger social media platforms such as X and Threads have posted higher numbers of visits this summer.
Overall, for the first seven months of 2025, the average number of monthly visits to Truth Social was 28 million. For the same period this year, the number was 25 million. I did not see the specific numbers for July that speak to the 36 percent drop in the month over July 2025. [My traffic actually hit an all-time high in July. And thus far, August is strong.]
—The top editor of Forbes was fired last month after the company discovered that he had received a payment of about $6 million from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine.
Randall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, has teamed up with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers.
Lane admitted he made a mistake and took responsibility for it. Forbes has policies requiring its employees to seek permission before conducting outside business activities and prohibiting them from gaining personally – directly or indirectly – from the company’s business dealings, according to the employee handbook, as reported by the New York Times.
—Spider-Man: Brand New Day vaulted to another monster weekend at the global cinema and is expected to push Hollywood’s domestic summer box office sales to $4 billion by Monday.
Domestic summer movie ticket revenue is projected to reach $3.985 billion by Sunday night, and cross the $4 billion threshold on Monday, Rentrak’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian told Barron’s. That’s 22% above last year’s summer box office and 4.4% better than the summer of 2019.
The current record for summer box office, as calculated from the first Friday in May through Labor Day, is $4.755 billion, set in 2013, he said.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, distributed by Sony Pictures, sold another $145 million in domestic box office tickets in its second weekend, on top of its first weekend’s record $360 million, bringing its domestic ticket sales total through Sunday to an estimated $655.1 million, according to Rentrak.
Spider-Man sold another $381 million internationally to top the worldwide box office for the second straight weekend, bringing its international ticket sales to $1.01 billion – including $186.7 million in China – and its global total to $1.67 billion.
Hollywood’s year-to-date domestic box office sales are an estimated $6.61 billion, or 18.5% higher than at this point in 2025.
Universal’s The Odyssey is up to $461.2 million in domestic box office sales, and it has done another $1.1 billion worldwide, including $289.3 million on global IMAX screens. This is Christopher Nolan’s biggest hit, outselling The Dark Knight Rises’ $1.09 billion in 2012.
—A group led by former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner (Jared’s brother) agreed to buy a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter, the billionaire who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and whose financial empire is the subject of a federal probe.
Kushner and Iger are in agreement to buy a majority stake in the basketball franchise in a deal that values it at around $12.5 billion, marking the highest-ever valuation for any sports team.
Walter bought the Lakers last year from the Buss family, which had owned the team since 1979 and maintained a minority stake. That deal valued the Lakers at $10 billion, a record price tag at the time.
Walter, the 66-year-old CEO of Guggenheim Partners, is in the crosshairs of a federal investigation looking into whether private-credit deals involving his various companies constituted fraud. Walter’s businesses have denied any wrongdoing.
—Luigi Mangione admitted on Friday that he shot and killed health care executive, Brian Thompson, outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024, as he pleaded guilty to two federal stalking charges.
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Mangione told the judge. “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.” Federal prosecutors said they would seek the maximum sentence of life in prison when Mangione is sentenced in December.
Accepting the plea, Judge Margaret M. Garnett informed Mangione that he should expect to serve at least 85 percent of whatever sentence she gives him. With Thompson’s family and friends in the front row of the courtroom, Mangione showed virtually no emotion during the proceeding but answered questions clearly.
He still faces a murder charge in state court, where he is scheduled to go on trial next month, but his lawyers said they had filed a motion to dismiss the state indictment on the legal ground of double jeopardy, which holds one should not be tried twice for the same crime.
Foreign Affairs
Russia/Ukraine:
—In the early hours of Saturday, at least three people, including a child, were killed in Russian attacks near Kyiv, just days after strikes across Ukraine killed 21 people.
A Ukrainian attack on Russia’s border region of Belgorod killed five people and injured two dozen others, overnight Saturday, while Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing two and injuring 13. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Saturday in the Serbian capital Belgrade for his first visit, where he met with President Aleksandar Vucic to discuss economic ties, security issues and relations with the European Union.
Vucic had been an ally of Vladimir Putin for years before relations soured after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Serbia hasn’t joined sanctions against Moscow, it has condemned the war and reduced Russia’s economic influence over the country. In turn, Russia has accused Belgrade of backstabbing it by helping to arm Ukraine.
But Serbia is still dependent on gas imports from Russia.
Monday, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk killed at least 13 people and wounded 39 others, authorities in the Tatarstan region said.
The city came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities. The city is roughly 1,200 km (745 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, and is home to one of Russia’s largest and most advanced oil refineries and it’s been attacked before.
But a Russian attack Monday killed at least 10 people, including six in Zaporizhzhia, with President Zelensky saying Russia used North Korean missiles.
In a video address, Zelensky said “for the first time” Russia “cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea.”
“The more North Korea strikes there are here in Ukraine, in Europe, the more their missiles and soldiers are used, the more they correct their shortcomings and blind spots,” Zelensky said, adding that this poses a danger to the rest of the world.
Wednesday, Ukraine then launched a massive attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, home to major oil and grain terminals and a naval base. There were large fires in the port area, as Ukraine targeted it with several hundreds drones, killing three people.
Two major grain export terminals were damaged, as well as the last big Russian naval base on the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s military later said four Russian warships, including two frigates, were hit.
Most of Russia’s Black Sea fleet is docked in Novorossiysk – after it was forced to vacate its former home base of Sevastopol, in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, which was too exposed to Ukrainian attacks.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, President Zelensky said that Ukraine would need a tenth of the current U.S. stockpile of interceptor missiles to stop all Russian ballistic missile attacks.
He said Ukraine has a fraction of the interceptors it did in 2025, while “Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before.”
Reuters reported Friday that Ukraine sent Russia an offer suggesting they both halt attacks on civilian targets in the Black Sea, after mounting strikes on vessels and ports there raised fears over global food supplies.
—President Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for Western seizures of its commercial vessels, describing them as “piracy.”
Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in Feb. 2022.
France and the UK have detained tankers suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.
Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.
Last Friday, the Senate voted 86-11 to pass the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s legislation to use new sanctions and tariffs to raise the pressure on Russia to end its brutal assault on Ukraine.
Graham’s bill would let the president put tariffs up to 100% on the top five countries that buy Russian oil and gas and the top five that enable Putin’s oil-sanctions evasion.
—Russian air strikes have destroyed more than 10 million books in attacks on warehouses in recent months, threatening an industry that initially benefited from rising demand for Ukrainian-language literature at the start of the war. A Russian drone strike Aug. 1 on Ranok, one of Ukraine’s largest children’s publishers, destroyed about 8 million books.
These are deliberately planned attacks. Education Minister Andrii Butenko described them as an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian language, history and memory, “everything from which the identity of our children grows.”
Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine’s separate statehood and argued that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
China: From Patrick Tucker / Defense One:
“The United States would run out of the interceptors it needs to take down Chinese missiles ‘within days’ of a conflict, according to a new report from the Heritage Foundation. It’s the latest in a series of warnings from experts and commanders highlighting a critical gap….
“It’s not a new problem. A 2023 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies concluded that the U.S. would ‘within the first week of a Taiwan conflict’ run out of key munitions, such as Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancements, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors, and SM-6 and SM-3 Standard missiles. In May, CSIS reported that the United States will be in ‘a window of vulnerability for several years, until inventories return to their previous levels, and another several years before they get to the levels that war planners desire.’
“The Trump administration is trying to wring more production out of industry,” such as deals with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for PAC-3 missiles and THAAD interceptors.
“And yet these deals – and the goals the Pentagon set in January – are too small to quickly restore an arsenal depleted by Trump’s war on Iran. ‘Those metrics that were set prior to [Operation Epic Fury]. That was before we just lit off billions of dollars in a decade worth of production per week in some cases,’ said Tom Karako, who leads CSIS’ Missile Defense Project.
“The Heritage report makes its own estimate of weapons expended in the war: ‘During the first four days of Operation Epic Fury, U.S. and allied forces used approximately 1,738 theater surface-to-air munitions to defend against 565 Iranian ballistic missiles and 57 cruise missiles.’
“The report says the Pentagon currently has ‘less than 10 percent’ of the PAC-3 MSE, THAAD, SM-6 and SM-3 interceptors ‘required to deter or, if necessary, prevail, in a protracted, high-intensity conflict with China.’
“The Heritage report is dire, but it may not go far enough, as it does not factor in how China may use low-cost drone warfare to further frustrate U.S. operations in the region.
“In an April hearing, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command leader Adm. Sam Paparo also communicated his concerns about missile shortfalls and a lack of solutions for countering cheap drones. ‘Current production timelines are misaligned with operational expenditures and the threats we face,’ Paparo said.”
Seth Jones / Wall Street Journal:
“The U.S. has been too slow to learn from the war in Ukraine and protect its bases and other infrastructure in the Middle East. The challenge in the Pacific is much greater. China presents a more serious threat than Iran with a larger and more capable stockpile of drones and cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles. U.S. military bases and other infrastructure across the Pacific – from Japan and the Philippines to Guam and South Korea – are highly vulnerable to Chinese and North Korean missiles and drones.”
And this is depressing. Ukrainian President Zelensky met with Lockheed Martin representatives to discuss the possibility of license-building a Ukrainian version of the PAC-3. But such an agreement would not produce usable missiles until 2030.
Back to China, the United States and 40 other nations have called for at least 24 hours’ notice before long-range ballistic missile launches, following a rare Chinese missile test in the Pacific last month that they said raised concerns over accidents and military miscalculation.
In a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, the governments called on countries – particularly nuclear-weapon states – to provide advance warning for launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and space launch vehicles.
While the statement did not name China, it criticized “recent missile testing activity in the Pacific area” that it said had failed to follow standard notification practices adopted by most states.
Beijing rejected the statement.
Lastly, we note the passing of a giant in his time, Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier who played a pivotal role in guiding his country toward a market-based economy in the 1990s and subsequently into the World Trade Organization. He was 97.
Zhu, who worked under Jiang Zemin, the Communist Party leader at the time, contributed more to liberalizing the Chinese economy and making it more internationally competitive than any other recent leader except Deng Xiaoping. Zhu’s initiatives propelled rapid growth in China that lasted, with a little slowing along the way, until the housing market began to crash in 2021.
But his measures also set the stage for China’s recent problems with excessive debt and its huge trade surpluses, which have led to trade wars with the United States during President Trump’s terms in office.
North Korea: Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday toward the sea off the Korean peninsula’s east coast, South Korean and Japanese authorities said, days ahead of major joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington long denounced by Pyongyang.
There was no immediate statement from North Korea on the launch, which has experts concluding this was because it was the launch of a new, secret weapon.
Random Musings
–Presidential approval ratings….
Rasmussen: 43% approve of President Trump’s job performance, 55% disapprove (Aug. 14).
—Among the big stories in Tuesday’s multi-state primaries….
Moderate Democrat David Crowley upset Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin’s primary for governor, Crowley with 39.8% to Hong’s 39.4%. Crowley will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.
This was a huge upset for Crowley, as some polls had Hong up as much as 20%.
I know Republicans wanted Hong to win because she, and those of her ilk, are perceived to be easier to beat in a general election.
But speaking as an American, I was psyched to see Hong go down. What a miserable candidate who, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, represents nothing but trouble. [Mamdani is already imploding.]
Minnesota State House Speaker Lisa Demuth beat election denier Mike Lindell for the Republican nomination for governor (43.8% to 32.5%) and will be a decided underdog against former Senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar. I’m a Klobuchar fan, but very glad Demuth whipped Lindell into submission.
The Minnesota Senate race will be fascinating, as Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan beat centrist congresswomen Angie Craig. Flanagan, a Progressive, takes on moderate Republican and former NFL sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya.
And in South Carolina, Senator Darline Graham will face Rep. Ralph Norman in a special election runoff to run for the seat held by her late brother, Lindsey Graham. The winner faces off against Democrat Annie Andrews, a physician from Charleston.
No Democrat has won a Senate race in the Palmetto State in decades.
—The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general, elevating President Trump’s one-time personal defense lawyer to lead the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency.
Republicans closed ranks and supported Blanche in a 50-49 vote even after two GOP senators joined Democrats in opposition. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), one of the holdouts, came out in support of Blanche after Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) voted against him.
Monday, Blanche was sworn in. He had gained the support of enough Republicans in part by withdrawing an order creating the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for alleged victims of political prosecutions.
But other parts of the president’s controversial settlement with the IRS remain active, and Trump also raised doubts about whether the fund is actually still alive.
“That’ll be up to Todd Blanche,” Trump told reporters when asked Monday.
—The Senate adjourned for its long recess at 4:36 a.m. on Saturday, without taking any concrete steps toward passing the voting restriction bill (SAVE Act) that President Trump has demanded for months.
Republican lawmakers had insisted they would work tirelessly to enact election changes that Mr. Trump has suggested the party needs in place to win the midterm elections. Instead, they departed with little to show for their efforts, other than a performative pre-dawn procedural vote on a watered-down version of the bill that they knew they could not pass.
Even the staunchest advocates of the SAVE Act eventually conceded what had been clear all along: There was simply not enough Republican support to push through the strict voter identification legislation. With the party’s majority at risk, senators were eager to abandon the effort so they could get home to their states to campaign for re-election.
–Last Friday, the Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s access to classified material and accused him of leaking sensitive information about Air Force One to reporters.
The Trump administration subpoenaed several New York Times journalists last month after the outlet reported that the luxurious, $400 million Boeing 747 jet gifted to the president by Qatar was swapped out ahead of Trump’s return from the NATO summit in Turkey over a “security precaution.”
“I’m mystified,” Kendal said in a text message when asked for comment. “I’ve been extremely careful to not say anything that could be classified, and as far as I know I have not said anything classified.” He added, “So far no one has told me what I’m supposed to have revealed.”
We then learned Monday, through reporting by the Washington Post, that Trump, threatened by Iran, used an elaborate ruse to fly home from Turkey. The press traveling with Trump was misled about his whereabouts, which was done because of the seriousness of the threats against him.
It had been known that Trump had traveled aboard an older version of Air Force One from Turkey to Great Britain, and not a newer version of the plane gifted by Qatar.
But then we learned Trump was shuttled to a smaller plane through an airport catering truck usually used to load metals and other supplies before a flight. The smaller plane was an Air Force C-32A. The old Air Force One, with the media and White House staff on board, and, we then learned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, was a “decoy.”
After Trump arrived in Britain, he was secretly moved back to the older version of Air Force Once. He then disembarked in view of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the plane donated by Qatar, which he flew to Washington.
Trump then confirmed Tuesday that he secretly swapped planes.
“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters. “I just have to do what they say.”
Multiple reports have the U.S. detecting a credible Iranian threat to fire a shoulder-fired missile at the plane. The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence had information of a person near the NATO summit who had been seen with a shoulder-fired missile.
—President Trump announced on Wednesday that Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, would step down at the end of the month.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Leavitt, who recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child, would be departing to spend time with her young children and family – a decision he said, “I totally understand and respect.”
Leavitt, the youngest person to assume the role, worked for Trump in his first term and on his second campaign. In her role as press secretary, she was the ultimate loyalist and defender of Trump’s policies. It’s a big blow for the president to lose such a trusted adviser right before the midterms. It’s kind of interesting that she couldn’t wait until after.
—President Trump on Truth Social, Tuesday:
“I am proud to announce that American Citizen Robert Gilman, a former United States Marine, is coming HOME! In a well known Media story, Robert was imprisoned in Russia in 2022, during the Biden Administration. After my discussions with President Vladimir Putin, Russia has agreed to release him, very much on a Humanitarian Basis. We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return – No exchange took place….”
Putin’s Goons tortured Gilman!
—President Trump signed an executive order aimed at revamping the childhood vaccine schedule, calling for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot to be split up and administered across different visits.
Separate vaccines for the three diseases are not available in the U.S. and public health officials have expressed concern that spacing out the vaccines could increase the risk that children become infected with the illness in between visits.
The president also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to improve vaccine safety research, drawing unsubstantiated connections between vaccination rates and autism.
“Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Among Trump’s crazy statements in the Oval Office Monday was:
“Large amounts – like vats – of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body,” the president said.
In realty, the volume in most vaccines is about half a cc – roughly one-tenth of a teaspoon of liquid, said Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Trump claimed that his administration’s recommendations would cut the amount of vaccine administered to children to one-fifth of the level that they currently receive at a given medical visit. He also said he adopted a similar schedule when vaccinating his own children, even though it meant more trips to medical offices.
“It’s inconvenient, it’s five stops, but it’s something that I think will have a huge impact on autism,” the president said.
States, not the federal government, set their own vaccination requirements for schoolchildren. The order advises states to consider updating their mandates to reflect the new recommendations. But many states have lost faith in the Trump administration’s vaccine guidance and no longer follow the federal government’s recommendations.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a medical doctor who chairs the Senate’s health committee, said splitting up the vaccines will make people less safe by requiring “more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots.”
“I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy wrote on X, adding, “Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order.”
Cassidy, the key vote in confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be HHS secretary, supported the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Erica Schwartz, only after Cassidy said he was confident that she understood the importance of reassuring the public that vaccines are safe and do not cause autism.
—President Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday.
The new mandate would likely cost $billions and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.
The move comes after years of Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors.
This is freakin’ nuts!
—Western Europe experienced its hottest June-July on record as climate change fuels a historic summer of heat, drought and wildfires across the region, the EU’s global warming monitor said.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and the first two months of summer have been marked by successive heatwaves, scorching temperatures and bone-dry conditions.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said the combined average temperature in western Europe for June-July was 21.6 (about 71 F.) – beating the 2022 record for the same period.
Copernicus cited “the exceptional persistence of heat” so far this summer, while levels of soil moisture were “significantly lower” than in July 2022 when the last severe drought gripped western Europe.
The heat and drought increasingly reinforce one another, Copernicus added.
And I’ve told you about the river situation, with the Seine, Rhine and Danube at historically low levels. This impacts transportation, irrigation and energy production.
Hungary is taking steps to raise the level of the Danube River to ensure the country’s only nuclear power plant can continue operating, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Wednesday.
The Paks nuclear plant has been on the brink of shutting down for the first time in its 44-year history. The Soviet-built plant uses water from the Danube to cool its four reactors and it’s been operating at little more than 10% of capacity due to the record-low water levels.
Romania had to shut down its only nuclear power station because of low water levels in the Danube. The Cernavoda plant, where two reactors produce about 20% of Romania’s electricity, is not expected to be restarted within the next 10 days. An effort to try to increase the water flow to the plant failed.
Copernicus also said the world’s oceans hit record-high temperatures for a second straight month in July, driven by marine heatwaves around Europe and a powerful El Nino taking shape in the Pacific.
Global average sea surface temperatures in July were 20.96 C, beating the previous record of 2023.
—The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is on track to eclipse the deadliest one in history that killed over 11,000 people out of more than 28,000 cases, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
“At its current pace, it’s on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing in history, has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases.
It is unlike most previous Ebola outbreaks because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments.
—A deadly wildfire in western Canada has forced over 20,000 people to flee ground. At least one woman died. Over 100 fires are burning across British Columbia.
—The contiguous United States set a record for its hottest month ever in July, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Last month averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 C.) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl’s July 1936 by an eighth of a degree.
Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter than normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast.
The biggest driver of the heat was at night. Nighttime lows, which are crucial for people and agriculture to recover from hot days, smashed the old record for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change, according to scientists.
—Record rainfall in Japan stranded thousands of travelers at Tokyo’s Narita airport on Friday, bringing floods to the surrounding area that disrupted transport, knocked out power and killed eight people.
During one of Japan’s busiest holiday weeks, more than 14 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in parts of the Chiba area adjoining Tokyo, inundating roads and railways, with soldiers sent to help with rescue efforts.
—The death toll in Colombia’s earthquake rose to 281 on Thursday, with 379 still missing, according to the government.
Imagine, Colombia inaugurated a new president last Friday, Abelardo de la Espriella, in a festive celebration. And then days later, he has to deal with an immense national tragedy and massive devastation. It’s not fair.
–Finally, our thoughts and prayers to our fellow citizens suffering as a result of the massive ongoing flooding in Indiana, Illinois and other parts of the Midwest.
It’s also staggering that Illinois has seen the most tornadoes of any state thus far in 2026.
—
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
Slava Ukraini.
God bless America.
—
Gold $4375…Silver $64.70
Oil (WTI) $82.23…Brent $88.41
Regular Gas: $4.07; Diesel: $5.42 [$3.16 – $3.71 yr. ago.]
Bitcoin: $62,904 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]
Returns for the week 8/10-8/14
Dow Jones -0.6% [53732]
S&P 500 +0.4% [7785]
S&P MidCap +1.0%
Russell 2000 +1.2%
Nasdaq +0.1% [26729]
Returns for the week 8/10-8/14
Dow Jones +11.8%
S&P 500 +13.7%
S&P MidCap +18.8%
Russell 2000 +23.7%
Nasdaq +15.0%
Hang in there.
Brian Trumbore
