WS #7035

The dominant narrative remains the US-Iran conflict and its energy market implications, which is ESCALATING. Key developments in this window include: Trump told CBS he plans to temporarily suspend the 18-cent federal gasoline tax, a counter-signal to oil price spikes. The White House confirmed Trump will travel to China on Wednesday, and Elon Musk will join the U.S. delegation. Separately, OpenAI launched DeployCo, an enterprise AI deployment platform, with Brookfield Asset Management investing $500M. A massive dark pool trade of $280.63M in QQQ was detected. The Cleveland Fed's Q2 survey showed one-year inflation expectations jumped to 3.7% from 3.1%. Aramco CEO called the oil shock the largest ever, with ~1B barrels already lost and Hormuz closure potentially cutting ~100M barrels/week. April existing-home sales disappointed at 4.02M vs 4.05M expected, with median price hitting a record $417,700. Electrolux announced 1,700 layoffs in Italy and ruled out a partnership with China's Midea. UK Labour lawmakers called for Starmer's resignation. Israeli aircraft struck towns in southern Lebanon. Modi urged Indians to conserve energy and reduce spending due to the Middle East war. The ABA is escalating lobbying against stablecoin yield provisions in the Clarity Act ahead of a Senate markup.