US Allows Venezuela To Fund Maduro's Defense After Court Challenge

Third Round of US Strikes Hits 140 Targets After Hormuz Ship Attack; Iran Retaliates On Kuwait, Jordan Bases Update 1210ET.  The escalation cycle intensified overnight and into early Sunday as the US conducted its third round of strikes this week, while Iran enforced its declared closure of the Strait of Hormuz and launched retaliatory attacks across multiple Gulf states. CENTCOM confirmed strikes began around 7:15 p.m. ET Saturday night, hitting approximately 140 Iranian military targets. These focused on degrading IRGC capabilities to threaten commercial shipping, including radars, missile/drone sites, launch systems, and...

Citadel Soars 6% In July Thanks To Situational Awareness Firesale Liquidation Some have speculated that one of the most proximal catalysts behind the collapse of Leopold Aschenbrenner's $45 billion and epically misnamed Situational Awareness hedge fund, besides his use of batshit insane Total Return Swap leverage that would make an average Korean momentum-chasing degen blush with envy, was Citadel's vocal warning early last week that the Fed would/should hike rates, a contrarian appeal which, while not taken seriously by any Fed watcher, may have spooked markets to the necessary and...

75% Of US GDP Growth In The First Quarter Was Due To AI On the surface, today's final revision (aka 3rd estimate) of the US Q1 GDP print was unremarkable: Real GDP grew 2.1% annualized in the first quarter, a reversal of last month's downward revision of 1.6%, but back to where the original print was when it was reported in April, when the BEA reported 2.0% growth.  The print reflected a downward revision to imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, that was partly offset by a...