WS #13553

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is ESCALATING despite the Iran-Oman framework deal. Iran's parliament is reviewing a bill to ban US/Israeli-linked vessels from the strait, and Iran's deputy foreign minister explicitly denied direct US negotiations, demanding sanctions relief and blockade lifting before reopening. Oil prices surged (Brent +3.8% to $82.47, WTI +2.7% to $77.24) on attacks on Saudi tankers and the Iranian bill, while the dollar had its best day in two weeks. This counters the earlier de-escalation narrative. Separately, the memory/DRAM shortage story is strongly corroborated: Apple has ~$1B of A20 Pro wafers stranded at TSMC awaiting DRAM, Tim Cook warned of a '100-year flood' in memory prices, and Micron has sold out capacity through 2027. This is bullish for memory makers (MU, WDC, SNDK) and bearish for Apple's margins and iPhone 18 supply. China launched a cybersecurity review into Palo Alto Networks (PANW), a negative for the stock. The SpaceX lockup expiry (911.5M shares) is a known overhang but not new. Overall, the market is mixed with Dow down 0.7% on chip weakness, while energy and oil-related names outperform.