Those Big, Beautiful Bonds

Aluminum Supply Crisis Is About To Get Worse Aluminum prices in London are up nearly 17% since the onset of the U.S.-Iran conflict, as a growing chorus of top commodity desks, including Mercuria, Goldman, JPMorgan, and others, warn that the market is facing a major supply shock. That disruption, driven firstly by Middle East smelter outages and the Hormuz maritime chokepoint, is now colliding with new concerns that China may be forced to curtail output amid energy-use and emissions inspections, according to Bloomberg.  More color from the report: Chinese authorities are now moving...

FCC Head Carr Moves To Reshape TV Ownership Rules, Save Local Broadcasting From Being 'Mouthpieces' The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to scrap longstanding national limits on television station ownership - a regulatory overhaul that Chairman Brendan Carr says will give local outlets critical breathing room to compete and invest in community journalism - instead of being 'Hollywood mouthpieces.' The agency is scheduled to vote on August 6 to eliminate the ownership caps in favor of a flexible, case-by-case approach for reviewing deals. Carr detailed the plan in a Breitbart News op-ed,...

Supertanker Rates Hit Six-Year High: Here's What Driving It Global very large crude carrier (VLCC) rates have jumped to six-year highs due to two recent catalysts: first, a growing war-risk premium tied to the possibility of a US-Iran conflict, and second, ongoing consolidation in fleet ownership that is tightening vessel availability. Let's begin by noting that war-risk insurance premiums are rapidly being priced into VLCC tanker rates. The Strait of Hormuz has once again come into focus as the world's most important energy chokepoint, where any flare-up in a US-Iran...