Authentic a

Brutally Direct.Politically Incorrect. Unbearably Honest. Incorrigible😜Independen Thinker🤔 I summarize mixed info. 4 those who, like me, like 2 stay informed.

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Us Strategic Petroleum Reserves last week dropped
< 300M
hitting its lowest level since 1983 said the
Energy Dept. on Monday.

This has raised concerns that the US govt. stockpile could be heading toward depletion.

Meanwhile, the Admn. extended its wavier of the
Jones Act 
for another 90 days
with some changes
as it aims to keep oil flowing amid the Iran war.

The 1920 law, which T first waived in March
requires that
US vessels conduct the transport of goods between American ports.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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NVDA
secured a
$500B commitment
from
6 Wall Street firms including:
Apollo
Goldman &
BlackRock
2
create dedicated funds 4 AI infrastructure financing.

Anthropic struck a
$9.1B deal
w/Riot Platforms
for
191 megawatts of data center capacity
people familiar said.

OpenAI bought back
~$7B of
employee shares
@ a
valuation of
$852B
people familiar said.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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US futures were relatively flat @
3:30 am.

Dow futures
down 64 pts

S&amp;P’s
down 4

Nasdaq
up 5 pts

Russell
down 5 pts.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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GOLD

It pushed higher again on MON
up $48
closing @
$4,389.

Tuesday morning it is
down $30
@
$4,359
as it looks 4 the next catalyst.

$4,500 is
the next level to watch.

A push up &
thru that opens the door to
a move towards
$4,750-ish.

A failure could see us test support back down at $4,160.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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Suddenly
traders R rethinking
a September rate hike
&
the hike is back on the table
&
Investors sold bonds so yields rose
&
the
10-yr went up to almost
4.71%
&
the
30-yr moved is back to 5.25%.

Even the
2-yr jumped ending the day
yielding 4.24%.

This is important because
unlike the
10-yr &
30-yr
which are driven by inflation expectations
fiscal concerns
&
term premium, the
2-yr is sensitive to
what investors THINK the Fed is going to do next.

This morning it is up 1 bps at 4.25%.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Monday’s oil surge
is
a reminded it that
if
inflation starts heating up again
the Fed may hike rates.

A rate hike will do NOTHING for oil.

It won’t open the Strait of Hormuz
&
it won’t solve an inflation problem being driven by a geopolitical supply shock.

That problem gets solved in the Gulf
not
at the Fed.

And the Iranians know this.
HOW TO MOVE FORWARD?
IDK.

(How does that saying go
being stuck between a rock &
a hard place?)

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

.
TUESDAY morning
Oil
trading up another $1.22, 1.5%
from Monday @
$83.90
after
T announced a
list of demands from Iran
including
making Iran financially responsible 4 past attacks, saying:

“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts. Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years.”

WHERE IS THE DEAL?

Winner takes all???

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Worthwhile Reading?

Evidence that a diverse diet is good for your gut microbiome,
The Microsetta Initiative 

How fibre and fermented foods affect your microbiome, Cell (2021)

Evaluating microbiome analysis from direct-to-consumer firms, Nature (2026)

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

.
T signaled he’s prepared
2 let economic pressure on Iran build rather than
launch fresh military strikes
marking a shift
from his threats 2 escalate the bombing campaign.

Comments come as
Iran & Oman discuss
reopening Hormuz 2 maritime shipping.

Meanwhile
Pentagon’s No. 2 official
urged defense COs. 2 boost production of
key weapons systems
as
the war exacerbates concerns about shortages.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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Market Snapshot

S&amp;P 500 Futures
7,790.25
+0.1%

Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index
1,202.60
+0.2%

WTI Crude Oil Futures
$78.80
+0.8%

Market data as of 06:40 AM ET.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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Taylor Farms,
the company linked to the cyclospora outbreak,
said
it was recalling products made with fresh jalapeños
that had been tied
to a salmonella outbreak.

.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

FlockHopper
plots driving routes that avoid the cameras.
Another,
Have I Been Flocked?
lets people search police departments’ Flock search logs, obtained through public-record requests.

DeFlock invites users
2
“discover + report automatic license plate readers”
in their communities.

YouTube videos w/millions of views show
how Flock’s security vulnerabilities allowed it
2 B hacked
&
then watched like a sort of
“Netflix 4 stalkers.”

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

😬😬
Ever notice one of these cameras in your neighborhood?

If u drive a car, 1 of them has almost certainly noticed u.
Odds R you’ve been clocked hundreds, maybe thousands, of times.

A company called Flock
has deployed 120K such devices atop lampposts
&
on street corners all around the US.

They photograph passing cars recording
every license plate number

They can identify a car’s make + model
as well as its dents + dings + even its bumper stickers.
(Your car climbed Mount Washington? Flock knows.).

It all goes into an enormous database
which a police dept. pays 4 access to.
Depts. can
& usually do
share their data w/other depts. creating a national network.

Flock’s surveillance dragnet
is so huge &
diffuse
that it has become an almost-invisible fact of life.
The CO. says it scans 20B license plates a month.
A vehicle
on average
is scanned about 800 times a year.

Police officers
can query Flock’s databases
2 track people in intimate detail w/out a warrant.
Some have used them
2 stalk romantic partners.

ICE agents have used them
2 hunt immigrants.
1 Texas officer used them
2 track a woman across state lines who
was suspected of having an abortion.

People R cutting them down
splattering them w/paint
covering them w/trash bags
&
shooting them with guns.

A Tennessee congressional candidate
charged w/felony vandalism
on an accusation of
shooting
4 Flock cameras
has received >$13K in
GoFundMe donations 4
his legal defense.

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Economic growth in
euro zone
is set 2 quicken
showing surprising resilience to the 2 Iran war
according 2 a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Meanwhile
forecasters pushed back predictions 4 an interest-rate increase in Switzerland
w/no move anticipated
before next June @ the earliest.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Oil extended gains
w/Brent
above $84 a barrel
as Iran & Oman
remain short of deal reopen Hormuz.

Global stocks approached a record high
as Asian investors renewed bets on AI shares
after a month of volatility.

Scott Bessent has signaled he’s eager
2 keep US bond yields from soaring
according to traders.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

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Iran rules out
direct US talks 4 now &
promotes a hardline ex-commander
as
its top security official.

UK hiring turns a corner after the longest slump on record
a survey shows.

Europe’s hot stock market is creating a buzz
among investors.

📉📈 Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures
7,790.75
+0.1%

WTI futures
$78.20
+0.0%

Spot gold
$4,348.07
+0.1%

Market data as of 02:15 AM ET

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

in the week ahead:

America’s inflation figures
4 July
R
published Wed
&
impact the Fed. rate decision next month.

The rate of inflation fell in June
but
it has been stubborn all year
in part due 2 energy prices
caused by
the war in Iran.

A disappointing jobs report
for July
further complicates the picture.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Stocks return 2 their winning ways.
But
was July's brief pain enough
2 satisfy the market gods?

Key Points
The stock market's
winning history – a hit rate of 100% over any past 20-year span -
is well understood.
But
investors recognize – or need to – the genuine hazard
in equities of interim loss
which can
jeopardize retirement plans or quality of life. 😟

The S&P 500 posted a
clean breakout last week
2
new records
after surviving a July momentum stock bust
&
basically churning in a 3% range
4
nearly months.

The liquidation of the hedge fund Situational Awareness
after
its leveraged AI-hardware positions unwound was
exactly the sort of offering
2
the market gods that frequently puts in a market low.

Still
there needs 2 B recognition that
the highs achieved
by those momentum stocks
in 2Q
came from massive leverage
&
crowding that won’t quickly return
not from pure fundamental improvement.

Sources warn
that
stocks R showing some market topping behaviors.
🤨🤔

[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
said his country is
not engaging in talks
but
said messages R being exchanged through intermediaries.

Last week US suggested
a deal w/Iran
2 open the Strait of Hormuz
was imminent.

Iran-backed Houthis reportedly carried out a
drone strike
on a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan.

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[Authentic a @Cioparella]

Iran denies
any direct talks with US
on opening Strait of Hormuz
as
Houthis claim attack on Saudi refinery.

https://t.co/PrZPcG8tqw
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