Soaring Death Toll In Lebanon Toll As Full-Fledged Israel, Hezbollah Fighting Returns

The Iranian government has allowed a number of foreign vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, with some reports stating that a one-month permit had been granted to certain ships. Once a conduit for much of the world’s oil supply, the strait was effectively closed by Tehran in response to US and […]

MSFT Plans First Voluntary Buyout In 51-Year History; Gates Foundation To Slash 20% Of Staff Summary:  First CNBC reports MSFT's first-ever Voluntary Buyout in 51-Year Company History, Then a report by BBG on Meta planning 10% Workforce Cut, All Within Hours To note: Reuters First reported Meta's 10% cut late last week (report)   Meta Layoffs  First, Microsoft unveiled a voluntary buyout program, a move that could incentivize thousands of employees to leave. Now, Meta Platforms has reportedly followed with plans to cut 10% of its workforce. Taken together, today's back-to-back announcements suggest that as Big Tech continues...

US Industrial Production Disappoints (Again) In June US Industrial Production rose just 0.1% MoM in June (less than the 0.2% MoM rise expected), after also disappointing in May. That slowed the annual growth in production from 1.6% YoY to +1.1% YoY... The recent blip higher in Capacity Utilization faded last month (76.1% vs 76.2% exp) with the down-trend seemingly still in tact... If 'soft' survey data is in any way predictive of reality, then we should be seeing a sizable trend higher in industrial production... ...or maybe it's just another useless sentiment signal. ...