WS #12483

The dominant signal in this window is the sharp escalation in US-Iran hostilities, with multiple sources corroborating new US airstrikes on an industrial facility in Khomein, Iran, and a Houthi naval blockade against Saudi Arabia. President Trump issued a direct warning that Iran will 'pay many times over' for every American soldier killed, and Iran rejected a proposed 10-day ceasefire. A Saudi commercial vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve dropped 5.1M barrels last week. The narrative is clearly ESCALATING, with oil supply disruption fears intensifying. Separately, Google is developing a new AI inference chip 'Frozen v2' for Gemini, signaling continued AI infrastructure spending, which is bullish for custom silicon enablers like AVGO, TSM, and MRVL, but slightly bearish for NVDA's inference market share. The US head of AI safety resigned after three months, a minor negative for AI governance. Ryanair shelved its profit outlook after a Q1 miss, sending shares down ~6%. A judge paused the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. The UK's 10-year borrowing cost rose above 5% on concerns over new PM Burnham's fiscal plans. The Philippine sailor was injured in a clash with Chinese coast guard, escalating South China Sea tensions.