WTI crude surged +11.52% to $105.48 as US-Iran ceasefire talks collapsed — “garbage” per Trump Tuesday — while CPI 3.8% and PPI 6.0% pushed rate-hike odds from under 3% to over 50% in 72 hours and the 10Y to a one-year high of 4.601%. Kevin Warsh was sworn in as Fed Chair inheriting this stagflation stack. The Trump-Xi summit briefly drove records (S&P 7,500, Dow 50,000 Thursday) before crashing Friday on zero binding deals — tariffs, chips, and Taiwan all unresolved.
MIB Weekly: Stagflation Confirmed, AI Capex Accelerating, Summit Resolved Nothing — Own Energy & AI Infrastructure, Sell Rate-Sensitive Duration Through the Fall Diplomatic Window
MIB: The Cut Consensus Is Dead — Can Warsh’s Fed Avoid a Hike Without a Bond Market Tantrum?
April CPI hit 3.8% — hottest since May 2023 — eliminating all 2026 cut bets and lifting hike odds to 30%; QCOM crashed 11.5% as Monday’s record highs evaporated. WTI settled at $102/bbl (+4.1%) with Goldman warning on downstream product shortages from naphtha to aviation fuel. Goolsbee explicitly tabled rate hikes; Warsh’s Fed Chair vote is Wednesday. UNH’s EPS beat (+9.7%) lifted Healthcare to S&P top sector. $166B in tariff refunds began flowing back to Walmart, Target, and Nike.
MARKETS: Bull Flows. Bear Physics. One Timeline.
For three years the US equity market ignored soft recession signals and was arguably right to. It now faces its first hard signal — the largest oil supply disruption in history — and thirteen consecutive up-days into a Federal Reserve pause suggest the same mechanisms that dismissed the soft signals may dismiss it. Mechanical buyers carry the tape. Demand destruction already sits in the weekly data. Q2 earnings are the collision point. Between now and late August, the market will answer.
MIB: Oil Crosses $100, Record G7 SPR Release, FOMC Blackout Begins & February CPI Due Tomorrow
WTI crude breached $100/bbl intraday (peak $119) — biggest oil supply disruption in history. G7+IEA authorized a record 300-400M barrel SPR release. Trump told CBS “war is very complete” — Dow swung from -900 to +239 in hours (S&P +0.83%, Nasdaq +1.38%). NOC +6%, LMT hit all-time high as defense broke out. CCL -6%, RCL -4% as cruise lines bled. Oracle reports tonight; February CPI drops tomorrow.
MIB: Stagflation Confirmed — 92K Jobs Vanish, WTI Hits $88, and Trump Demands Iran’s Unconditional Surrender
Feb payrolls -92K (S&P -1.3%), worst miss in years — unemployment jumped to 4.4%. Trump demands Iran ‘unconditional surrender’; WTI surged to $88 as Hormuz stays shut (Day 7). GDPNow crashed to 2.1% from 3.0% in four days. MRVL +23.2% on AI data center blowout. Fed cuts repriced to July; markets now price two 2026 cuts.
