Contacts Back On? Trump Proclaims Iran 'Talks Continuing At Rapid Pace' Amid Lebanon Ceasefire Efforts

'Worse Than COVID': Consumer Confidence Crashes In September The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index plunged in September (-6.7pt to 81.9) - the lowest headline print since April 2014. The Present Situation Index fell sharply, while the Expectations Index slipped further into negative territory. This was the fourth straight monthly miss for confidence and the biggest miss since Dec 2024... "Consumer appraisals of current business conditions became negative for the first time since September 2024," said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board. "Perceptions of the current labor market also worsened, though remained within positive territory. Over...

If This Was A Normal Week... Submitted by Peter Tchir of Academy Securities Maybe it was because I was in Europe that last week didn’t seem “normal.” Maybe that is why some of the things that I would think are most topical don’t seem topical (or at least weren’t what markets were responding to?). Or maybe it was just a weird week, where the underlying narrative wasn’t as much about the usual suspects, and was much more about supply (of bonds, energy, chips), stop losses (in every market everywhere), and dismal...

Chinese Firm Claims It Tracked US Jets Over Iran During Operation Epic Fury Authored by Ameya Paleja via Interesting Engineering, MizarVision, a private Chinese company specializing in geospatial intelligence, claims to have tracked US aerial refueling missions of its KC-135 and KC-46 tanker aircraft during Operation Epic Fury. A report published earlier this month analyzed these activities and provided links to strike patterns witnessed in Iran.  The recent strikes conducted by the US over the past month surprised many around the world, but data from transporters refueling flights provided valuable information about...