WS #11739

The US-Iran conflict is escalating sharply, with new airstrikes and ballistic missile attacks reported. Iran launched ballistic missiles against US bases, and the US launched a new wave of airstrikes. Strait of Hormuz traffic has collapsed to just 6 ships today vs 21 yesterday, per Kepler data. Oil prices are falling despite the escalation, with Brent crude slipping 0.1% to $77.94, as traders bet the strikes will be short-lived. The White House is promoting $3.47 gas at 25 private stations to offset pump anxiety. Silver jumped 3.71% to $60.33/oz. Poland's central bank purchased 82 tons of gold this year. The AI/semiconductor sector continues to rally strongly: Meta announced its first paid AI developer tier, OpenAI moved GPT-5.6 to general availability, Arm stock surged 11% ahead of July 23 earnings, and Micron's $250B US investment plan is supportive. However, Palo Alto Networks CEO called for 90% AI pricing cuts. A $217.13M dark pool QQQ order and a $236.16M AAPL dark pool order were detected. The dominant theme is ESCALATING US-Iran conflict, with counter-signals from oil price pullback and White House gas price intervention.