Boon & Knopers Advisory

Boon & Knopers Advisory biedt vermogensregie en strategisch advies op het snijvlak van geopolitiek, economie en maatschappij.

[zerohedge @zerohedge]

It got lost in the news firehose, but this is the craziest chart today, and maybe this decade

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

BREAKING: Tokenized gold prices surge to a high of $5,494/oz as the US and Israel strike Iran and Iran retaliates.

Traditional gold markets remain closed for 34 more hours.

[Bloomberg @business]

OPEC+ will consider the option of a larger supply increase when key members meet on Sunday, according to a delegate, after Israel launched airstrikes on targets in Iran https://t.co/NZwMmfvX0T

[Reuters @Reuters]

Exclusive: Venezuela suspends 19 oil, gas production-sharing contracts signed under Maduro, sources say https://t.co/wi4dxDk9jq https://t.co/wi4dxDk9jq

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

China’s Treasury holdings just hit $683 billion. Lowest since 2008.

Every financial account on this platform is screaming “China dumps US debt.”

One problem. The US Treasury Department’s own FAQ states that when a security is held in a custodial account in a third country, the true country of ownership will not be reflected in the data.

Belgium’s Treasury holdings surged $120 billion in twelve months. Belgium. Population 11 million. Home to Euroclear, which settles $42 trillion in assets annually.

Brad Setser at the Council on Foreign Relations has tracked this for years. Adjusted for custodial accounts in Belgium and Luxembourg, China’s actual Treasury exposure has been roughly flat since 2011.

The “dump” is a custodial migration. Not an exit.

So the whole narrative is fake?

No. This is where everyone gets it wrong twice.

China’s share of total foreign Treasury holdings collapsed from 28.8% in 2011 to 7.3% today, the lowest since 2001. The PBOC has bought gold for 15 consecutive months straight. Reserves hit a record 2,308 tonnes. Gold is above $5,100 while the People’s Bank quietly assembles the largest non-American gold reserve in the modern monetary era.

China is not panic-selling Treasuries. China is doing something far more consequential. It is rebuilding its entire reserve architecture for a world where dollar assets can be frozen with a single executive order.

Russia lost $300 billion in a weekend in February 2022. Every central banker on earth watched. The lesson was never about Russia. The lesson was about the dollar.

The headline is wrong. The diversification it accidentally reveals is the most significant monetary realignment since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.

If China were truly liquidating $600 billion in Treasuries, the 10-year yield would not be sitting quietly at 4%.

Falsifier: If 10Y yields spike above 5% on confirmed PBOC sales within six months, this framework breaks. Watch Belgium’s next TIC print.

[Barchart @Barchart]

Chinese Holdings of U.S. Treasuries plunge to lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis 🚨🚨

[Bloomberg @business]

While the world’s attention has been fixated on Elon Musk’s long-promised Optimus robot and the high-stakes AI race between the US and China, Hyundai Motor has emerged as a leader in humanoid robots. Read more: https://t.co/aGu964iTw9

📷️: Hyundai Motor, Tesla

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

Italy is pushing to suspend the European Union's most important climate policy until it undergoes a “deep revision,” arguing the carbon market has become a burden on European industry.
https://t.co/a1FhZRSsLN

[Bloomberg @business]

India’s market regulator has allowed the country’s $384 billion actively managed equity funds to park more of their money in gold and silver https://t.co/d77vCT01ZZ

[Boon & Knopers Advisory @BoonKnopers]

Europa richting oorlog met Rusland? | Nieuwe Wereldorde & Epstein-files ... https://t.co/xOXGdjEd9q via @YouTube

[Reuters Energy and Commodities @ReutersCommods]

EU seeks G7 coordination on maritime services ban on Russian seaborne oil https://t.co/im7YcfEwsf

[BRICS News @BRICSinfo]

JUST IN: 🇨🇳🇩🇪 China showcases AI humanoid robots performing kung fu moves during Germany Chancellor Merz's visit.

[Reuters @Reuters]

Belgium to install air‑defence system at port of Antwerp in 2027, newspaper says https://t.co/hzdD8I0Lvt https://t.co/hzdD8I0Lvt

[Alexander Stahel 🌻 @BurggrabenH]

This is getting interesting

Urals at the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk traded at $42.09 on Friday, while the grade at Novorossiysk in the Black Sea slumped to $40.44, the Argus data show.

That’s much lower than the government assumed when planned nation’s budget for this year and anticipated it would average of $59 a barrel in 2026.

By the time Urals reaches India, the discount to Brent shrinks to over $12 a barrel, according to Argus Media.

That’s still the widest gap since April 2023 but it’s not clear whether the so-called delivery spread — the big gap between export and delivered prices — ends up in Russian hands.

[Financial Times @FT]

Defence and AI spending sends global debt to record $348tn https://t.co/9pluqL3qLq

[Bloomberg @business]

A hacker exploited Anthropic's AI chatbot to carry out a series of attacks against Mexican government agencies, resulting in the theft of a huge trove of sensitive tax and voter information, according to cybersecurity researchers https://t.co/znRkgGDGyY

[Javier Blas @JavierBlas]

It's 10 years since the US revolutionized the LNG market.

But I'm old enough to remember when several European countries, most notably France, looked at **legal means** to ban imports of American LNG because it came from fracking. That was in 2016.

Ah, how the world changes.

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

The Pentagon wants Claude’s safety guardrails removed by Friday.

A hacker just showed the world what happens when you remove Claude’s safety guardrails.

According to Bloomberg and Israeli cybersecurity firm Gambit Security, an unknown attacker jailbroke Claude, prompted it in Spanish to act as an elite hacker, and used it to infiltrate multiple Mexican government agencies. Claude found the vulnerabilities. Claude wrote the exploit code. Claude automated the data theft. 150 gigabytes of sensitive taxpayer and voter records stolen.

The attacker broke through the guardrails by splitting malicious tasks into small, innocent-looking steps so Claude never saw the full picture of what it was being used for. The same technique a Chinese state-sponsored group used last year when it turned Claude into an autonomous espionage machine that attacked 30 global targets, performing 80 to 90 percent of the hacking campaign with almost no human involvement.

And this is what happens when someone has to trick Claude into cooperating. When they have to work around the safety systems. When the guardrails are still there and someone finds a way past them.

Now imagine what happens when the guardrails are gone entirely.

That is what the Pentagon is demanding by 5:01 p.m. Friday. Full removal of restrictions. “All lawful purposes.” No limits on surveillance. No limits on autonomous weapons. And if Anthropic refuses, Defense Secretary Hegseth will invoke the Defense Production Act, cancel the $200 million contract, and blacklist the company.

The same week a hacker proved that a jailbroken Claude can autonomously compromise government systems and steal 150 gigabytes of citizen data, the United States government is demanding the right to run Claude with no guardrails at all.

Chinese labs are distilling Claude to build versions with zero safety restrictions. Hackers are jailbreaking Claude to steal government secrets. And the Pentagon’s official position is that Claude has too many safety restrictions.

Three different actors. Three different continents. All trying to do the same thing: get Claude without guardrails.

Only one of them is the American government.

Full analysis on Substack. https://t.co/AEv8EMPdsZ

[Energy Headline News @OilHeadlineNews]

Bloomberg: The cost of hiring an oil supertanker for a one-year period has risen to an all-time high, reaching $92,000 per day.

[Theresa Fallon @TheresaAFallon]

There are around 300 million barrels of Russian and Iranian oil at sea, according to ship tracker Vortexa. Traders are struggling to find buyers—who have become hesitant as sanctions have piled up—particularly given the ample supply in global markets. WSJ