WS #10859

The dominant theme in this window is the ongoing tech selloff and debasement trade unwind, with gold, silver, and bitcoin all declining. A hawkish Fed under Chair Warsh and a stronger dollar are lifting real yields, making non-yielding assets less attractive. Bitcoin has fallen ~50% from its peak to near $58,000, tracking the decline in precious metals. The AI stock frenzy is pulling capital from both traditional metals and crypto. No new counter-signals or policy interventions have emerged to offset this trend. Separately, Apple is lobbying the Trump administration for an exception to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese firm CXMT, which could alleviate supply chain pressure if granted. Qualcomm announced it is pushing into data center CPUs with Meta as a customer, directly challenging Nvidia's AI hardware dominance. The Fed's annual stress test results showed the largest US banks could withstand over $708 billion in losses under a severe recession scenario, with the system maintaining minimum capital requirements—a positive for financial stability. The Anthropic Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models are being released to over 100 US companies and agencies, softening the earlier ban. The Israel-Lebanon framework agreement has been signed by Israel, Lebanon, and the US, but Hezbollah has rejected it, and heavy Israeli airstrikes continue in southern Lebanon. The Venezuela earthquake death toll has risen above 1,400. The European heatwave continues with record temperatures in Germany, Denmark, and Czech Republic. The Serbian president's resignation announcement is still pending. The tech selloff narrative is stable with no new escalation or de-escalation signals.