WS #9863

The dominant narrative remains the US-Iran peace deal implementation, which is now escalating with new details emerging. President Trump confirmed the deal is signed, the Strait of Hormuz will be fully opened on Friday, and oil is plummeting while stocks are rising. A senior US official stated the MOU explicitly opens the Strait toll-free for 60 days, with sanctions relief tied to Iran 'acting appropriately' and no unfrozen assets released yet. Trump also noted he may not be involved in the signing, with Vance handling it. The IMF remains on high alert over Middle East fallout, warning energy supplies will take time to recover. Macron offered French military help in Hormuz. Separately, Anthropic is meeting with the Trump administration over a national security dispute involving its AI models, which could impact AI sector sentiment. Meta announced new AI features for Facebook. The tech sector ETF (XLK) saw its biggest 9-week outperformance ever, up 28% over the S&P 500, reminiscent of late 1999/early 2000. A large dark pool order of $297M in QQQ was detected. The US-Iran deal narrative is escalating with concrete implementation details, while the Anthropic dispute adds a counter-current to the AI rally.