Iran ceasefire deadline Wednesday sent Brent crude surging toward $100 (S&P 500 -0.63%). Apple dropped a bombshell — Tim Cook stepping down, John Ternus in as CEO September 1 (AAPL -2.52%). Amazon’s $25B Anthropic deal is the largest AI infrastructure bet yet (AMZN +2.2%). Retail sales surged 1.7% but record gas station receipts flattered the number, crushing rate-cut hopes. UNH beat big (+6.96%); GE Aerospace sold off despite a 25% EPS beat (GE -5.56%).
MIB: Iran Deadline, Apple CEO Transition, and Record Retail Sales Crush Rate-Cut Hopes
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.
MIB: Hormuz Crisis Day 3 — Oil +15%, Stagflation Signal Flashes, Fed Pulls Back on Rate Cuts
US-Iran war enters Day 3 — gold hit $5,417 record Monday, oil +15% this week. S&P 500 -0.94%, trimmed from intraday -2.5% loss after Trump’s Navy escort announcement. Fed’s Williams and Kashkari pull back from 2026 cut forecasts as 10Y yields rise on stagflation fears. UAL -4.09%, DAL -5% on fuel shock. Target (TGT) +7.5% on earnings beat. CrowdStrike beats after the bell.
MIB: Sell America — Tariff Chaos & AI Disruption Send S&P Negative for 2026
SCOTUS struck down Trump’s IEEPA tariffs 6-3 — hours later he imposed a new 15% global tariff under Section 122, sending the S&P 500 -1.04% to 6,837 and negative for 2026. IBM cratered 13.0%, its worst day since October 2000, and CrowdStrike fell 11.3% as Anthropic’s AI coding platform upended legacy tech and cybersecurity. Gold hit a new all-time record above $5,164 on a ‘Sell America’ rotation. Fed’s Waller called a March rate cut a ‘coin flip’ as tariff chaos scrambles the inflation outlook. J.P. Morgan raised recession odds to 35%.
