WS #6787

The dominant signal in this window is the escalation of US-Iran military confrontation, with multiple sources reporting US airstrikes on Iranian oil tankers attempting to breach the Strait of Hormuz blockade, and a naval clash where Iran fired on US destroyers. This represents an ESCALATION of the Middle East conflict narrative from the previous 'stable but high tension' assessment. The US military struck empty VLCCs trying to return to Iran, and an explosion was reported near Iran's Sirik coast. Separately, the April US jobs report showed 115,000 new jobs (beating 62,000 consensus) with unemployment at 4.3%, but Canada's jobs data missed badly (-17,700 vs +10,000 expected). On the corporate front, IREN surged on a $3.4B AI cloud contract with NVDA, while CoreWeave fell 7% premarket on weak guidance. DeepSeek is nearing a $50B valuation fundraising round. The UK local elections show Labour losing over 1,000 councillors, with Reform UK making gains. The narrative arc for US-Iran is now ESCALATING, which has direct implications for oil prices, energy stocks, and risk assets.