WS #14288

The US-Iran conflict remains the dominant market driver, with the MOU expiring Monday and President Trump rejecting an extension, while Iran shifts to a 'fully offensive' posture. This has pushed Brent above $91/bbl and WTI to $84.68, up ~2.8%, and the 30-year Treasury yield to 5.31%, its highest since June 2007. US equities closed lower (S&P 500 -0.52%, Dow -0.51%, Nasdaq -0.32%) as higher oil and yields pressured risk assets, with energy the only S&P sector in the green (+0.87%). The situation is ESCALATING, with Trump threatening to bomb Oman and Iran's secret plan including strikes on undersea cables and a ground raid into Kuwait, per WSJ. Cross-source corroboration from Bloomberg, CNBC, and Xinhua confirms the market impact. In the AI space, Anthropic's annualized revenue run-rate has surpassed $65B (up 7x from end-2025), ahead of a potential IPO, and Nvidia's $105B commitment to finance OpenAI's Ohio data center was confirmed via SEC filing, reinforcing the AI infrastructure buildout. Memory stocks rallied strongly, with the Roundhill Memory ETF up 5.36%, on reports that the Trump administration is pressuring Apple to avoid Chinese memory chips, boosting Micron's strategic value. The Canada tariff deadline of August 19 looms, with Canadian inflation at 3.0% in July, adding to macro headwinds.