WS #14003

The dominant theme remains Middle East tensions, with the Houthi drone strike on the Aramco refinery in Jizan (first surfaced earlier) continuing to escalate supply-side risk, corroborated by multiple sources including Middle East Eye and Cryptobriefing. The US is sending the USS George Washington to the Middle East as a planned rotation, and the US military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones (25% of fleet) in the Iran war, per Washington Post. Oil prices are edging down despite the Hormuz stalemate, with Brent at ~$88 and WTI ~$82, as the IEA cut its demand forecast further (now -1.6 mb/d) and US crude builds weigh. This demand weakness counters the supply risk, keeping oil prices range-bound. Meanwhile, tech earnings dominate: Cisco shares tumble 8% on margin concerns despite Q4 beat; SanDisk surges 14% on $93.9B contracted revenue at Investor Day; Coherent shares tank despite Q4 beat; Super Micro jumps 11% on PPI relief and strong guidance; AMD plans up to $5B bond sale for AI capex. OpenAI's revenue chief Denise Dresser departs, second major exec exit in days, adding to MSFT/OpenAI narrative. Tariff refunds are rolling in: $100B returned to importers, with Apple receiving $2.2B, Nike $986M, FedEx $800M, Amazon $640M, GM $500M, boosting earnings. Databricks closes $5B round at $190B valuation, and Anthropic is reportedly in talks to acquire Decart for ~$6B, with IPO valuation talk at $2T. The UK economy grew 0.4% Q2, resilient despite Iran war. Overall, risk-on sentiment persists with cooling PPI, but energy and defense sectors remain elevated due to geopolitical risk.