WS #13852

The dominant narrative remains the US-Iran/Hormuz standoff, which is ESCALATING. Trump's demand for 50 years of Iranian compensation has killed the short-lived Hormuz reopening hopes, pushing Brent above $90 and WTI above $84, with oil prices up over 2% today. This is corroborated across multiple sources (Coindesk, GDELT, investing.com, marketwatch). The oil spike is driving second-order effects: energy stocks (XLE, XOP) are leading, gold is at two-month highs above $4,400/oz, and the Canadian dollar is strengthening. Bitcoin has fallen below $64K, pressured by the Hormuz hopes evaporating and corporate crypto enthusiasm shifting to AI, with Strategy selling BTC. The key macro catalyst is Wednesday's US CPI report, which is now the week's defining event; a hot print could revive rate hike fears. In corporate news, Cardinal Health reported a strong Q4 beat (EPS $2.91 vs $2.42 est) and raised FY27 guidance, while Sea Limited missed EPS but beat revenue. Apple is facing a Jefferies downgrade to Underperform with a $263.66 target, citing soaring memory costs and a possible cancellation of the glass iPhone, which is a MAG7 carve-out signal contradicting any tech rally narrative. Intel's $20B share sale upsize is pressuring INTC, down 4.6% premarket. The Nvidia $500B AI infrastructure financing story remains ongoing but with no new data. No counter-signals to the oil/Hormuz escalation have emerged.