WS #10410

The dominant signal in this window is the resignation of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, confirmed by multiple major news outlets (BBC, NPR, AP, Al Jazeera, Axios) and corroborated by social media posts. This introduces political uncertainty in the UK, with GBP under pressure and USD gaining safe-haven demand. The frontrunner to replace Starmer is Andy Burnham, with a leadership contest timeline that could see a new PM by July 17. Separately, US-Iran talks are reported to have made encouraging progress, which could de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and potentially impact oil prices. A missile strike on a sanctioned Russian semiconductor plant in Voronezh and continued Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow airports add to geopolitical noise but are not new escalations. In corporate news, AbbVie is nearing a $10.9B deal to acquire Apogee (APGE), sending APGE shares soaring. Micron (MU) stock rose over 3% pre-market after a Bernstein price target hike to $1,300, citing strong memory pricing and AI-driven HBM demand. Intel (INTC) hit a 52-week high on Apple foundry rumors, though analysts are divided. Roth Capital upgraded ConocoPhillips (COP) and APA Corp (APA) to Buy. The UK political crisis is the most actionable development for FX markets, while the US-Iran talks and AbbVie-Apogee deal are significant for energy and biotech sectors respectively.