WS #9546

The dominant theme remains the escalating US-Iran conflict, with President Trump reiterating threats to strike Iran 'VERY HARD TONIGHT' and seize Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure to assume total control of Iran's oil and gas markets. This is corroborated by multiple sources (CNBC, BBC, Axios, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Bloomberg, Politico, and numerous social media accounts), making it the highest-signal event. The conflict is clearly ESCALATING. Iran's IRGC has reportedly used ballistic missiles to target US military assets at Jordan's Al-Azraq airbase, and Iran has threatened Elon Musk's companies in the Middle East, including Starlink, as military targets. Three Indian sailors were killed in a US strike on an oil tanker. The Strait of Hormuz blockade continues, with Iran shutting the strait. US PPI came in at 6.5% YoY (vs 6.4% expected), the hottest since November 2022, driven by energy costs. Initial jobless claims rose to 229K (vs 219K expected). The ECB raised rates by 25bps to 2.25%, citing energy-linked inflation. SpaceX IPO demand remains massive, with Bloomberg reporting over $70 billion in retail orders and Evercore seeing 'wild-eyed' FOMO ahead. New Street Research initiated coverage with a $165 target. AST SpaceMobile stock climbs ahead of SpaceX IPO as BlueBird launch date confirmed for June 17. Coupang was hit with a record $410M fine for a data breach. Google is reportedly turning to Samsung for future AI chip manufacturing as capacity tightens. Broadcom launched cash tender offers for certain debt securities. InterDigital and Amazon entered into a patent license agreement. El Niño has officially begun, with a 63% chance of being among the strongest on record, threatening weather extremes.