{"id":6581,"date":"2026-06-10T10:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6581"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:39:38","slug":"u-s-strategic-petroleum-reserve-is-heading-toward-panic-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6581","title":{"rendered":"U.S. strategic petroleum reserve is heading toward panic levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s emergency reserve for oil and fuel supplies is slipping below Biden-era lows to its most exhausted level since the Reagan era\u2014when the nearly 50-year-old U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was still being filled up. The SPR will hit its lowest volumes since 1983 any day now\u2014if not already\u2014and continue sinking lower as the Trump administration keeps oil exports flowing to the rest of the world and tries to stop domestic prices from rocketing further, <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Jordan Blum reports<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed and the fear is it\u2019s just a matter of time before energy markets begin to \u201cpanic\u201d and fuel prices soar more uncontrollably, possibly in July or August, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. \u201cThe longer this goes on the fewer tools the administration has in dealing with it and the more risk there is to a slingshot for costs,\u201d De Haan told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The administration has drained 66 million barrels\u2014as of June 5\u2014and counting from the SPR since the war in Iran began, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Trump has authorized the overall release of 172 million barrels over several months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

THE MARKETS<\/h3>\n

The global selloff continues but the pace of the damage has slowed<\/b><\/h2>\n
    \n
  • S&P 500 futures<\/b> were down 0.9% this morning. The index sank 0.26% yesterday.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • In Europe,<\/b> the Stoxx 600 was down 0.31% in early trading and the U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100 was down 0.52% before lunch.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Asia: <\/b>South Korea\u2019s KOSPI was down 4.52%. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was down 1.89%. India\u2019s Nifty 50 was flat. China\u2019s CSI 300 was down 1.11%.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Brent crude<\/b> was $91 per barrel this morning.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Bitcoin<\/b> was $60.9K.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    A massive amount of new stock is about to hit the markets,<\/b> thanks to the SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI IPOs. It sets up a potential supply and demand issue: investors are being asked to pay for a gargantuan volume of new assets this year.\u00a0 If you add in all the new debt coming to the market it brings \u201ctotal issuance to around $1.53 trillion. Against a $32.9 trillion U.S. nominal GDP baseline, that equates to 4.7% of GDP,\u201d KKR\u2019s Henry McVey said in his latest global macro outlook:<\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

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

    Heads up: New CPI number coming today.<\/b> The expectation is that inflation will have risen again, piling pressure on the Fed to raise rates. Those expectations are probably one reason traders are selling stocks today.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AI<\/h3>\n

    The AI trade’s biggest threat? Customers reading the bill<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

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

    There\u2019s a conflict building in the AI business between model providers\u2019 need to generate profits and the increasing cost to clients of using those services. Until recently, labs like OpenAI and Anthropic subsidized their customers\u2019 use of AI in order to hook them on the service. But with both AI companies about to go public, they will need to start maximizing revenue and, eventually, showing they can do that profitably.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The problem is that corporate clients currently think AI is cheap, according to Ohsung Kwon and his team at Wells Fargo. It\u2019s not. Companies have started to complain about increasing costs for AI tokens\u2014the basic units they are charged for when using AI\u2014and their lack of ROI. At <\/span>an OpenAI event recently<\/span>, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman said, \u201cPeople are really saying \u2026\u2018My company spent my entire 2026 budget in Q1. Can you make this more efficient?’ … But that went from, at the beginning of this year, an issue that never came up to \u2026 a huge issue.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    Earlier this year, Uber COO Andrew Macdonald <\/span>said it\u2019s hard to connect the company\u2019s use of Claude Code<\/span> to actual results. \u201cThat link is not there yet,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe implicitly there\u2019s more that is getting shipped, but it\u2019s very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and \u2018Okay now we\u2019re actually producing like 25% more useful consumer features.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cWe believe the biggest near-term risk to AI is companies tightening token consumption,\u201d Kwon advised clients. \u201cA new Bain & Co. global survey of large companies suggests cost savings from automation are broadly falling short of projections.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the meantime, AI is doing very well indeed. Maybe too well!<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Kwon admits that \u201cthe same [Bain] survey shows that 90% of companies are increasing their AI budgets,\u201d so it looks like AI company revenues will continue to rise for a while. <\/span><\/p>\n

    In fact, AI is so hot that it\u2019s driving a huge chunk of U.S. GDP growth. \u201cTech capex accounted for more than 100% of GDP growth in the first quarter,\u201d KKR\u2019s Henry McVey says. \u201cBy comparison, the \u2018old economy\u2019 of goods capex and trade contracted\u201d (which is why it is possible for tech capex to be more than 100% of growth).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Negative GDP without AI?<\/b> In other words, without AI capital investment in the U.S. would be negative, and\u2014on KKR\u2019s numbers\u2014GDP growth would be close to zero:<\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

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

    AI-related stocks drove 60% of earnings growth in Q1 2026<\/b><\/h2>\n

    All the other stocks\u2014hundreds of them\u2014only made up 40% of that growth, per KKR:<\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

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

    Clearly, both the U.S. economy and the stock market have a lot of eggs in a single basket. But don\u2019t panic yet! \u201cThus far, the evidence for continued growth is still supportive as 1Q26 earnings were very strong, margins have expanded, productivity is improving, and the AI capex cycle is increasingly backed by usage and enterprise ROI,\u201d McVey says.<\/span><\/p>\n

    IRAN<\/h3>\n

    U.S., Iran trade strikes<\/b><\/h2>\n

    The U.S. carried out a series of strikes<\/b> on Iranian military positions in response to Iran downing a U.S. Apache helicopter. Iran struck back by launching missiles at 21 targets including U.S. bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, <\/span>according to the BBC<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What Trump said:<\/b> \u201cI have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. <\/span>Thank you for your attention to this matter!<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    MORE FROM FORTUNE<\/h3>\n

    Health care\u2019s AI dividend is real. The fight now is over who reaps the gains<\/span> – Diane Brady<\/span><\/p>\n

    A $7 billion horse race: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley battle for \u2018lead left\u2019 position ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs<\/span> – Shawn Tully<\/span><\/p>\n

    Visa\u2019s CFO downplays the importance of stablecoin and agentic commerce to the U.S. payments giant\u2014at least in the short term<\/span> – Angelica Ang<\/span><\/p>\n

    Marc Lore\u2019s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45<\/span> – Amanda Gerut<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sam Bankman-Fried formally files for pardon\u2014but White House reiterates that FTX cofounder\u2019s odds are slim<\/span> – Camila Grigera Naon<\/span><\/p>\n

    AI isn\u2019t replacing Hyatt\u2019s salespeople\u2014it\u2019s freeing up a full day of work every week, according to the CEO<\/span> – Sharon Goldman<\/span><\/p>\n

    CHART OF THE DAY<\/h3>\n

    The numbers OpenAI and Anthropic haven’t shown us yet<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

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

    Both companies have occasionally released revenue figures to the media for various periods. But we won\u2019t really know their actual annual and quarterly results until their S-1 filings are published by the SEC. Ben Carlson, a portfolio manager at Ritholtz Wealth Management, has charted what we know so far. <\/span>\u201cAnthropic has gone from an annual revenue run rate of $9 billion just a year ago to $47 billion and counting. The growth is unreal,\u201d <\/span>he said in his very good blog<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    NUMBER OF THE DAY<\/h3>\n

    5x<\/h2>\n

    The multiple by which China files patents on humanoid robot technology over the U.S., as noted by Henry McVey, Head of Global Macro and Asset Allocation at KKR, in his latest mid-year global macro outlook.<\/span><\/p>\n

    THE FRONT PAGES TODAY<\/h3>\n

    SpaceX IPO explained: The price is set, but retail allocation still up in the air<\/span> – CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

    Musk Looks to an Army of Loyalists to Help Make Him a Trillionaire<\/span> – WSJ<\/span><\/p>\n

    Bitcoin\u2019s Worst Week Since FTX Crash Signals More Pain Ahead<\/span> – Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

    Trump\u2019s Sharp Turn on China: Embracing It as a Peer Power<\/span> – NYT<\/span><\/p>\n

    CBS News boss Bari Weiss poised to oversee CNN editorial operations: report<\/span> – NY Post<\/span><\/p>\n

    ONE MORE THING<\/h3>\n

    CEO keeps thirst-trapping journalists with $200,000 \u201chead of content\u201d jobs<\/b><\/h2>\n
    \n
    \"Noah<\/div>
    Noah Greenberg’s posts, by his own admission, are a marketing ploy.<\/figcaption>

    courtesy of Stacker<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

    Every few weeks, a job listing on LinkedIn stops journalists mid-scroll. A fintech company hunting for an editor-in-chief. A tech giant poaching a senior Wall Street Journal editor to run its content operation. A healthcare startup advertising a head of content role at double what most editors make. Noah Greenberg is posting them all\u2014and the engagement is, by his own admission, a marketing ploy.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Greenberg is the CEO of content syndication company Stacker. \u201cThe reason I started posting on LinkedIn two years ago was because no one had heard of us,\u201d <\/span>he told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Nick Lichtenberg<\/span>. \u201cAnd I found that one cheap trick was posting a list of jobs for those types of people once a week.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Finding people who are actually good at content syndication is a real thing. Greenberg\u2019s business has grown from a $3 million run rate to north of $10 million in under two years, all without raising a dollar of venture capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cThe tech editor at The Wall Street Journal is now the managing editor at NVIDIA,\u201d he said, by way of an example of how his cottage industry is now bending media career paths.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    #U.S #strategic #petroleum #reserve #heading #panic #levels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The nation\u2019s emergency reserve for oil and fuel supplies is slipping below Biden-era lows to its most exhausted level since the Reagan era\u2014when the nearly 50-year-old U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[816,6122,445,7341,166,1222,107,3104,4629,1185,599],"class_list":["post-6581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-economics","tag-heading","tag-iran","tag-levels","tag-markets","tag-news","tag-panic","tag-petroleum","tag-reserve","tag-strategic","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}