{"id":11342,"date":"2026-07-09T11:04:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=11342"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:04:46","slug":"trump-set-to-rip-up-the-memorandum-of-understanding-with-iran-and-wall-street-doesnt-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=11342","title":{"rendered":"Trump set to rip up the ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Iran\u2014and Wall Street doesn\u2019t care"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ONE BIG THING<\/h3>\n

Federal judge throws serious shade on Musk\u2019s tiny settlement in Twitter lawsuit<\/b><\/h2>\n
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A federal judge reluctantly signed off on the settlement of an SEC lawsuit against Elon Musk, using language suggesting that the deal was a lousy one for shareholders. The SEC alleged he broke the law in 2022 by failing to disclose that his stake in Twitter had crossed a 5% threshold. Musk didn\u2019t make the disclosure because he knew it would drive up the stock price and thus cost him more to continue increasing his stake in Twitter, the suit claimed. Authorities claimed he bought $500 million worth of Twitter shares after he was supposed to publicly disclose his portion of the company, and saved himself $150 million by not doing so\u2014value that could have gone to shareholders had it been disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The settlement was for just $1.5 million, <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Amanda Gerut reports<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The judge said she had \u201cserious misgivings\u201d and saw \u201cred flags\u201d in the settlement, given its small size. \u201cThat bears repeating: Elon Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth close to $1 trillion, allegedly ignored his obligation to file SEC disclosures at the expense of other investors to the tune of $150 million,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhether the Executive Branch (through the SEC) has done enough to hold Mr. Musk to account for his alleged violations is, like many other issues, for our citizenry to decide at the ballot box.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

THE MARKETS<\/h3>\n

Asia leads global stock rally as price of oil declines despite renewed attacks in the Middle East<\/b><\/h2>\n

After yesterday\u2019s losses, stocks clawed back some ground today, ignoring a new round of U.S. missile strikes on Iran. The price of oil declined despite the reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are investors so bullish when there is so much bad news?<\/b> Because retail investors have returned to the market, according to Arun Jain at J.P. Morgan. In the week through July 8, mom-and-pop traders net bought $8.9 billion in stocks, way above the average of $6.8 billion, Jain said in an email.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • S&P 500 futures<\/b> were up 0.24% this morning. The index lost 0.28% yesterday.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • In Europe,<\/b> the Stoxx 600 was up 0.32% in early trading and the U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100 was down 0.45% before lunch.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Asia: <\/b>South Korea\u2019s KOSPI was up 0.62%. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was up 1.38%. India\u2019s Nifty 50 was up 0.77%. China\u2019s CSI 300 was up 2.54%.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Brent crude<\/b> was $77 this morning from a high of $80 yesterday.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Bitcoin<\/b> rose to $62.8K.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Investors balk at Amazon\u2019s \u201csurprise\u201d new AI debt<\/b><\/h2>\n

    On Tuesday, Amazon issued $25 billion in new debt, and investors choked. The offering came as a \u201csurprise,\u201d according to Bank of America analysts Yuri Seliger and Sohyun Marie Lee. The company had already issued $67 billion this year. \u201cInvestors are pushing back,\u201d <\/span>they said in a note sent to <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    That pushback came in the form of widening \u201cspreads,\u201d the extra risk premium that investors demand for buying debt. \u201cThe unexpected bond deal pushed 30-year hyperscaler spreads from +6 to 15 basis points wider on the day [and] contributed to the +8 basis point jump in 10-year Treasury yield,\u201d they said.<\/span><\/p>\n

    On top of that, \u201cthe oversubscription level [the excess of demand for the debt] was the lowest among all the recent deals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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    MORE FROM FORTUNE<\/h3>\n

    $5 billion CEO says he doesn\u2019t just call references\u2014he also secretly hunts down managers you didn\u2019t list to ask about your personality<\/span> – Orianna Rosa Royle<\/span><\/p>\n

    Trump has created a \u2018trickle up\u2019 tariff economy that means U.S. companies aren\u2019t done hiking consumer prices over import taxes<\/span> – Sasha Rogelberg<\/span><\/p>\n

    Microsoft\u2019s Brad Smith on Washington\u2019s AI policy: \u2018Regulation without transparent or complete rules\u2019<\/span> – Beatrice Nolan<\/span><\/p>\n

    Elon Musk\u2019s judge has \u2018significant misgivings\u2019 about $1.5 million Twitter settlement\u2014but approves it anyway<\/span> – Amanda Gerut<\/span><\/p>\n

    IRAN<\/h3>\n

    Trump\u2019s \u201cmemorandum of understanding\u201d is being bombed to smithereens<\/b><\/h2>\n

    The U.S. military hit 90 targets in Iran<\/b> overnight in retaliation for yesterday\u2019s attacks by Iran on various U.S. sites in the Gulf region. The U.S. has now made 170 strikes on Iran over the last two days. In response, Iran said it had targeted U.S. bases in Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    President Trump said he was not hopeful<\/b> that Iran would be willing to finalize a peace deal and that he was ready to continue the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cThis is in retribution for yesterday\u2019s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!\u201d, <\/span>he said on social media<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Speaking at the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said Iran wants “to make a deal” but “I don’t know if they’re worthy” and that talks are a “waste of time,” <\/span>the BBC reported<\/span>. “We just hit them very hard, and I say we hit them 20 to 1,” he said. “They hit us, we\u2019re going to hit them 20”.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Trump has largely abandoned the \u201cMemorandum of Understanding\u201d<\/b> that was supposed to be a framework to end the conflict, <\/span>the <\/span>Wall Street Journal <\/span><\/i>reports<\/span>: \u201cTo me, I think it\u2019s over,\u201d the paper said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to deal with them \u2026They\u2019re liars, they\u2019re cheats, they\u2019re sick people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz<\/b> is back down to single figures. Surprisingly, the price of a barrel of Brent Crude oil sank to $77 this morning from a high of $80 yesterday.<\/span><\/p>\n

    QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/b><\/h2>\n
      \n
    • \u201cIf the peace deal breaks, and it\u2019s too early to tell, it won\u2019t just raise oil prices; it would also increase pressure on AI supply chains in Asia, force central banks to be hawkish, tighten financial conditions, and could shift the outcome of the U.S. midterms. The cascade runs fast.\u201d\u2014Ryan Sweet, chief global economist at Oxford Economics.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      CHART OF THE DAY<\/h3>\n

      The oil market briefly forgot to measure risk<\/b><\/h2>\n

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      <\/span><\/p>\n

      Among many assets that attempt to price \u201crisk,\u201d there are two that usually move in tandem. One is the yield on the 10-year Treasury. The other is the price of Brent crude oil. As this chart from Deutsche Bank shows, after the war with Iran started, the price of oil went up, and the amount of yield demanded for the risk of holding U.S. debt went up with it. But at the beginning of July, with major actions in the conflict seemingly in the rearview mirror, the price of oil fell, but the yield on the 10-year did not.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The price of oil surged again yesterday after the U.S. and Iran resumed bombing each other\u2014reminding oil traders that the Strait of Hormuz injects risk into the market whether the two sides are fighting or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

      VAR, BUT FOR JOBS!<\/h3>\n

      Has the World Cup somehow managed to reduce<\/em> employment in the hotel and restaurant sector?<\/b><\/h2>\n

      An interesting puzzle buried in the most recent employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was how on earth <\/span>America managed to see a decline in leisure and hospitality jobs while hosting the World Cup<\/span>. Yesterday, two sets of analysts at Bank of America came to opposing conclusions on that issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

      BoA\u2019s U.S. economist Shruti Mishra published data showing that private payroll data collectors generally show the same trend as the government\u2019s nonfarm payrolls number: leisure jobs are down across the board:<\/span><\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/div>\n

      <\/span><\/p>\n

      But over at Bank of America Institute (the bank\u2019s think tank), Liz Everett Krisberg and David Tinsley produced these charts based on payroll data that the bank can see via transactions in its customer accounts. \u201cWhile host cities have seen a larger pickup in job growth in 2026 relative to the second half of 2025, non-hosts have also seen an acceleration,\u201d they said in a note:<\/span><\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

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      <\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      • Caveats:<\/b> Private payroll data is notoriously volatile and unreliable compared to the official BLS numbers; and the official number will probably be revised two or three times as new data comes in. So we will get an answer as to whether the World Cup somehow reduced hospitality jobs in the U.S. \u2026 several months from now.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        NUMBER OF THE DAY<\/h3>\n

        $600 billion\u00a0<\/h2>\n

        The amount of AI-related debt that has been issued since 2024 by hyperscaler companies, according to Shamshad Ali and his team at Goldman Sachs.<\/span><\/p>\n

        THE FRONT PAGES TODAY<\/h3>\n

        Trump says US will give Ukraine license to produce Patriot defense systems<\/span> – AP<\/span><\/p>\n

        Ukraine\u2019s drone playbook is wreaking havoc in Russia \u2014 and upending where NATO wants to invest<\/span> – CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

        GOP megadonor Ken Griffin says he’d back Rubio over Vance in 2028<\/span> – Axios<\/span><\/p>\n

        He Earns $33 an Hour as a Costco Cashier. Now He\u2019s a Millionaire<\/span> – WSJ<\/span><\/p>\n

        SK Hynix US Offering Is More Than Seven Times Oversubscribed<\/span> – Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

        \u2018Hysteria\u2019 Grips San Francisco\u2019s Housing Market as A.I. Wealth Pours In<\/span> – NYT<\/span><\/p>\n

        ONE MORE THING<\/h3>\n

        The toxic manager you deliberately left off your reference list might already be on the phone with your future boss<\/b><\/h2>\n

        Netskope chief Sanjay Beri <\/span>told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Orianna Rosa Royle<\/span> that when job candidates give him their references, he doesn\u2019t just call the names candidates hand over\u2014he also tracks down the ones they left off, to find out what they\u2019re really like.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \u201cWe do a heck of a lot of background checks and references, and a lot of those references are literally just on cultural fit,\u201d the CEO of the $4.8 billion software company said. \u201cSo we will try to find people they know, maybe the references they didn\u2019t give.\u201d It means (for Netskope applicants anyway) the coworker you butt heads with two jobs ago or the manager you conveniently left off the reference list could already be on a phone call about you before you\u2019ve even had your final interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        #Trump #set #rip #memorandum #understanding #Iranand #Wall #Street #doesnt #care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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