Wall Street closed out a volatile week marked by the escalation of the conflict between the United States and Iran. The Dow Jones hit a record high of 53,055 points on Monday following a bell-ringing ceremony at the White House, but optimism faded when U.S. forces struck more than 80 Iranian targets on Tuesday, the 7th, following attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil jumped more than 6% during the session, and Brent crude returned to trading above $79. Trump went so far as to say that the ceasefire with Iran was over, though he later clarified that talks are continuing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Iran is struggling to sell oil outside of China, with more than 20 million barrels of Iranian oil stranded in Asian waters due to buyers’ fears of sanctions. The semiconductor sector was the other major player in the markets. Micron, AMD, and Intel fell sharply amid debate over whether the AI bubble has peaked, while SK Hynix debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday with its ADRs trading 14% above the initial public offering price of USD 149. We also note that SpaceX was added to the Nasdaq-100 on Tuesday.

On the monetary policy front, the Fed released the minutes from its June 16–17 meeting on Wednesday—the first under Kevin Warsh: the committee kept the rate at 3.50%–3.75% but was divided regarding December, with nine of 19 participants projecting at least one rate hike. In Sintra, Warsh had already anticipated a “good family fight” for the July meeting and confirmed that he will appoint former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King to lead the central bank’s communications working group.