FCC Chairman Brendan Carr cited license obligations against news distortion ahead of the midterms...

The judge had set the original fine at more than $219 billion. Meta has said it will appeal...

"3-Day War" Redux...

Breakevens are underestimating the inflationary impact of the oil shock...

"Despite $3B of content expense growth over the last 2 years, Netflix has lost its mojo. YouTube keeps gaining TV share." 

More oil is now leaving the Gulf than before the first bombs fell... But transit comes with a price: getting a barrel to a refinery now costs over $20, up from $3 a year ago...

...claims tell you a recession isn’t imminent, payrolls tell you momentum is fading, and sentiment tells you the median household is getting squeezed by prices rather than layoffs...

“Markets are basically telling us we are moving on from trading AI vibes and narrative to now requiring a pretty high bar for what an earnings beat looks like. That’s both in terms of capex forward guidance, but also for the path of monetization.”

Concord has filed two suits against the AI giant, alleging that it stole songwriters' work to train its AI model, Claude...

Could there be cross-border coordination? 

"Continued kinetic activity and the risk of renewed escalation following the ..." 

"The news flow has moved away from street protests and back to the roots of the budget. The government isn't finding any takers for its budget proposals..." 

Could be a tough winter for Europe. 

Bottom line: it's a bubble... but it's too important to stop inflating. We've seen this picture before. 

• Iran's IRGC Navy warned that US efforts to encourage passage could result in strikes on US bases.
• Iran's Major General Rezaei said Iran has presented seven new conditions through mediators and will neither reopen the Strait of Hormuz nor resume negotiations until they are met.
• NQ underperforms, as Tesla's cut in spending plans weighs on the Tech/AI space.
• DXY modestly lower; JPY and CHF supported by haven demand while NZD lags on cooler CPI.
• Fixed income benchmarks helped

...and are 15% of the population.