Trump Says US ‘Must Respond’ After US Apache Helicopter Shot Down Near Iran

US PMIs Signal Stagflation Fears Accelerating As War Started With 'hard' US macro data having drifted weaker all year, consensus was expecting only a modest decline in S&P Global's US Composite index in preliminary March data (that presumably will be affected in some part by the war and its consequences). The consensus was right, but the picture was mixed with Manufacturing PMI surprising to the upside (52.4 vs 51.5 exp vs 51.6 prior) - highest since Oct 2025. Services PMI, on the other hand, disappointed, falling to the lowest since April 2025... Source: Bloomberg Overall,...

Turkey Liquidated Almost All Of Its US Treasuries In March To Defend Crashing Lira Two months ago, at the end of March, we reported that Turkey was aggressively dumping its gold reserves in a panic scramble to obtain dollar funding, which Erdogan's regime was using to keep the Turkish lira from crashing, and to also pay for energy imports which had suddenly soared in price as a result of the Iran war. The violent selling by Turkey (and other emerging markets) was behind the brutal plunge in gold prices, which tumbled...

Hegseth Orders Review Of US Force Posture In Europe, Warns NATO Laggards Of Consequences Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on June 18 announced a six-month review of U.S. force posture and basing in Europe, warning that NATO allies failing to meet defense spending commitments could face consequences as Washington pushes the alliance toward what he called a new era of burden-sharing. Speaking at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Hegseth said the review would examine America’s military footprint in Europe and...