WS #14273

The dominant theme remains the Middle East escalation, which is now at a critical inflection point: the 60-day US-Iran MOU expired Monday with no extension, and Iran has explicitly ruled out talks, threatening to shift to a 'fully offensive' posture in the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy fails. This is corroborated across Reuters, CNBC, AP, and multiple international outlets. Concurrently, President Trump escalated rhetoric by threatening to bomb Oman over its parallel negotiations with Iran on Hormuz transit, and claimed the US will become the 'guardian' of the strait and expects compensation. These developments are pushing oil prices sharply higher—Brent above $91, WTI near $84—and are pressuring global equities while lifting gold. The market is also grappling with a 30-year Treasury yield at 5.31%, the highest since 2007, with a $25B 30Y auction clearing at 5.216%, signaling fiscal stress and term-premium pressure. In corporate news, Nvidia's $105B guarantee and $1.5B investment in SB Energy for an OpenAI data center in Ohio is a major AI-infrastructure catalyst, supporting semiconductor and AI-related names. The memory-chip supply chain narrative remains intact, with GigaDevice surging 6.35% and continued bullishness on MU, SNDK, and AXTI. The overall market narrative is one of geopolitical risk premium building, with oil and bonds driving risk-off sentiment, but AI capex stories providing selective strength.