WS #11900

The dominant narrative remains the escalating US-Iran conflict with Strait of Hormuz closure, now entering a new phase of direct military exchanges. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz again after striking a commercial vessel, and launched missile/drone attacks on five Gulf nations (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan) in retaliation for US strikes that hit 140 Iranian targets. CENTCOM has countered by stating the Strait remains open and traffic is flowing, but the situation is highly volatile. This is an ESCALATION from the previous window, with direct attacks on US allies and a second closure of the strait. The Lindsey Graham death story is breaking across multiple sources but has limited direct market impact beyond potential short-term political uncertainty. The Apple lawsuit against OpenAI for hardware trade secret theft is a new development that could pressure OpenAI's hardware ambitions and affect AAPL sentiment positively. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang denied Rubin Ultra delay rumors, stating 2027 shipment remains on track, which is a positive signal for NVDA. Bitcoin is approaching a key support level around $58,000 per Fidelity's power law model, suggesting a potential accumulation zone but lacking a catalyst.