Bank of America Jumps On Record Equity Trading Revenue, Net Interest Income Forecast Increase, Offset By FICC Miss Following stellar equity trading results from Goldman and JPMorgan, this morning Bank of America reported that its traders also pulled in the business’s highest quarterly revenue in more than a decade, riding a wave of volatility that pushed the firm’s stock-trading desk to an all-time record. Bank of America said […]

US Prosecutors Make Surprise Visit To Fed HQ Renovation Project Federal prosecutors on Tuesday made a surprise visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters building that’s undergoing a $2.5 billion renovation, as they continue to investigate whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell lied to Congress about the cost and scope of the project. Construction workers told the prosecutors they couldn’t come on the site without prior authorization, the […]

Shoe Brand Allbirds Pivots To AI, Changes Name To NewBird AI, Stock Rips More Than 360% Just when you thought you’d seen the last of the AI pivot idiocy… Allbirds (yes, the wool sneaker people) is mooning—up as much as 360%—after announcing it’s ditching shoes and pivoting to, of course, AI. This comes just weeks after agreeing to sell off its brand and footwear business for $39 million, according to Sherwood News. The […]

War ‘Very Close’ To Over, Trump Says, As Iran Ceasefire Extension Reportedly Advances, But More US Troops Deploy Summary The Iran war is “very close to over” with authorities in Tehran eager to agree a peace deal, Trump says, adding: “We’ve beaten them militarily.” AP/Bloomberg reporting the two sides have an “in principle agreement” to pursue further diplomacy; however, this is batted down as ‘unconfirmed’ by Tehran & a […]

Is The Iran War Good For The Petrodollar? Diana Choyleva wrote an excellent editorial for the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Iran War Is A Boon For The Petrodollar.” She pushes back against claims that the Iran conflict is accelerating the death of the petrodollar. Instead, RealInvestmentAdvice.com points out that she argues the opposite: between Iran and Venezuela, the U.S. is defending and bolstering dollar dominance in […]

Yet Another Historic Church Torched In Canada Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Another historic church lies in ashes after a major fire tore through Saint-Romain, Quebec, last night. The building, whose construction began in 1893, is the latest casualty in a relentless campaign against Canada’s Christian institutions that has seen arsons more than double since 2021. A historic church, originally built in 1893 and […]

Futures Unchanged Just Shy Of All Time High On Peace Hopes, Solid Earnings US equity futures are flat following yesterday’s rally as market awaits news on the Iran war resolution and as we traverse earnings season. As of 8:15am ET, S&P 500 futures are little changed after the benchmark closed within a whisker of a record. Risk sentiment took a small knock in recent trade after Iran cautioned that it will not allow shipments […]

Nvidia Unveils New AI Open Model, Sparking Rally In Quantum Stocks Nvidia unveiled the world’s first open-source AI models to accelerate the development of quantum computing. The news sent shares of several Asian software and cybersecurity firms soaring and sparked a rally in U.S.-listed quantum stocks in premarket trading. Nvidia’s Ising open-model family is designed to improve two critical areas: quantum processor calibration and […]

Tether Launches Self-Custodial Wallet Supporting USDT, Bitcoin, & Tokenized Gold Authored by Naga Avan-Nomayo via TheBlock.co, Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is stepping further out from behind the rails with the launch of its self-custodial wallet, which it says is designed to put its payments infrastructure directly in the hands of users, rather than operating solely as a backend layer for crypto […]

Kering And Hermès Sink As War Batters Earnings; Goldman Warns Luxury Dip-Buying Is “Premature” Goldman’s Natasha de la Grense summed it up well this morning: “Money was waiting on the sidelines to buy luxury for a de-escalation play – that feels premature with three misses in three days.”  Disappointments from Kering and Hermès, both of which fell short of analyst estimates, reinforced the view that the industry of fine wine, […]

Goldman Highlights Global Nuclear Progress Across SMRs And The Fuel Chain March saw the submission of multiple construction permits for new reactors, while new designs like India’s thorium reactor, obtained their first criticality. Microreactors in the US also progressed through DOE regulatory pathways as they approach a criticality deadline in July.  Last month also saw multiple headlines in the US across the nuclear fuel chain. […]

Roblox Rolls Out Restricted Accounts For Under-16 Users Amid Lawsuit, Social Media Ban Authored by Rex Widerstrom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), While managing to avoid Australia’s under-16 social media ban, the global game creation platform Roblox has moved to introduce restricted accounts for children and teenagers. A 7-year-old teenage boy looks at a photo screen with Roblox, a social media networking app that will not […]

Europe Drafts Pie In The Sky Plan To Free Up Hormuz Without ‘Belligerent’ Parties This is quite the ambitious headline revealing the latest ‘plan’ for Hormuz to come out of Europe, as it sits on the sidelines watching the US get potentially bogged down in the region following a month of heavy airstrikes on Iran: Europe drafts postwar plan to free up Strait of Hormuz without US, WSJ reports. This is apparently a plan for after the […]

Rolls-Royce 470-Megawatt Nuclear Reactors To Power 3 Million UK Homes For 60 Years Authored by Mrigakshi Dixit via Interesting Engineering, The UK’s new nuclear approval at Wylfa officially kicks off what the government calls a “golden age” for the nation’s energy sector. Depiction of Rolls-Royce SMR site at Wylfa on Anglesey, North Wales. On April 13, the government approved the development of three Small Modular Reactors […]

Twin Suicide Attacks Rock Algerian City Near Where Pope Is Visiting Algeria has been hit by two terror attacks during Pope Leo XIV’s visit, officials say – though at this point there doesn’t appear to have been any direct effort at targeting the Pope or his accompanying officials. Twin suicide attacks rocked a city outside Algeria’s capital Monday, just as the American-born Pontiff began his historic visit to the country, AFP […]

Is The EU’s €90 Billion Loan To Ukraine Meant To Buy Time For The Return Of Democrats Authored by Andrew Korybko, Orban’s “democratic ouster” is expected to remove Hungary’s procedural opposition to the EU’s planned €90 billion loan to Ukraine that’ll be financed by members raising common debt. RT published a detailed article about this plan here last December, which was a compromise for financing this loan […]

Italy’s Anti-Israel Opposition Declares ‘Victory’ After Meloni Suspends Defense Pact Italy has suspended the automatic renewal of its defense agreement with Israel amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, now ‘paused’ as a two-week ceasefire holds in order to give a chance for talks. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the significant status change following weeks of tensions over the Israel question, and after other European […]

After Orbán Loss, Polish MEP Warns EU Set To “Subjugate Everything And Everyone” As VDL Moves Quickly To Abolish Veto Power Via Remix News, On the back of Péter Magyar’s victory in Hungary, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU needs to work on getting rid of member states’ veto powers. For many who backed Viktor Orbán, one of their greatest fears was exactly what von der Leyen is now advancing: […]

Virginia Governor Pushes Amendments On Gun Legislation Amid DOJ Warning Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger wants the Commonwealth’s General Assembly to shore up what she sees as shortcomings in gun control bills it sent to her after its regular session. Semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms, including some that were modified using 3D printed parts, at the […]

Western Australia Establishes Strategic Fuel Reserve Australia is facing a historic energy crisis with much of its gulf-sourced energy facing not one but two blockades. But at least some parts of the country are doing something about it, even if it is too little, too late.  Western Australia will establish its own strategic reserves of diesel fuel to ease “acute shortages,” the state’s government said. As Bloomberg […]

Hezbollah Chief Torches ‘Futile’ Israel Talks, Urges Lebanon Walkout As Rubio Hypes ‘Historic Opportunity’ The Israel-Lebanon peace talks which have kicked off at the State Dept. in Washington D.C. on Tuesday are unprecedented and historic, and yet they remain largely symbolic and are unlikely to lead to much in terms of ending the conflict with Hezbollah. That’s of course because Hezbollah is not actually represented, only Lebanese […]

Australia’s Qantas To Cut Domestic Flights Amid Fuel Price Surge Authored by Monica O’Shea via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Australia’s flag carrier Qantas will cut domestic flights and redeploy capacity from the United States towards Europe as fuel prices double. Qantas Airways ground staff are seen on the tarmac near planes at the domestic terminal of Sydney International Airport in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 14, 2026. David […]

Swalwell Resigns From Congress – Effective TODAY, After Fresh Rape Allegation And Corroborating Campaign Records Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) resigned from Congress on Tuesday, effective today, capping a stunning collapse of his political career just one day after he suspended his bid for California governor. The move came hours after a new accuser, Lonna Drewes, held a press conference in Beverly Hills alleging that Swalwell drugged, […]

Netanyahu Boasts: Trump Admin Briefs Me Every Day On Iran Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he spoke with Vice President JD Vance after the US-Iran talks in Pakistan and described the call as part of a daily report the Trump administration provides him. “I spoke yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance. He called me from his plane on his way back from […]

Tesla China CEO Says Shanghai Gigafactory Is “Golden Key” To Optimus Robot Production Tesla’s China president was quoted by local media on Tuesday as saying the Shanghai Gigafactory could eventually play a major role in mass-producing humanoid robots. The comment comes after Tesla said earlier this year that it would pivot away from producing Model S and X vehicles at its California factory and convert the vehicle production lines […]