WS #16164

The geopolitical crisis in the Middle East is rapidly escalating, with Brent Crude surging past $111 per barrel following reports of Iranian strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. This supply shock is driving a stagflationary narrative, pressuring oil-importing economies like South Korea and lifting energy equities while threatening global food security. The UK's deployment of RAF Typhoons to defend Saudi Arabia marks a significant widening of the conflict, raising the risk of direct great-power entanglement and sustaining the escalation thesis. In corporate news, the market is digesting a mixed earnings and M&A session. Salesforce's $5.66 billion acquisition of Braze signals aggressive consolidation in the enterprise cloud space, while GM's profit forecast narrowing and Hasbro's outlook raise provide isolated pockets of stability. However, macro headwinds are mounting: US housing starts revised down sharply, and the US government's ban on Chinese DeepSeek AI tools introduces new friction in the tech sector. Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETF approvals continue to accumulate, with Switzerland and BlackRock filing, reinforcing the structural demand for digital assets despite the macro turbulence.