The third quarter opened by reversing two of June's strongest trades. The memory chipmakers that led the market's record first half sold off hard on Wednesday. Gold, which broke below $4,000 last week, climbed back above it. Both moves trace to the same speech: at the ECB's forum in Sintra, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said prices are too high, then added that inflation risks have come down in recent weeks. Yields rose on the first remark. The metals traded the second.
The war map pulled further apart overnight. Russia hit Kyiv with a massive missile and drone strike; Poland scrambled fighter jets and Finland briefly restricted airspace, the first NATO-periphery activation of this cycle. The Gulf kept cooling on the same day. Talks in Doha continued, and Oman's Strait of Hormuz proposal now has actual terms on the table.
The June jobs report landed at 8:30 this morning, moved up a day because Friday is a market holiday, and it came in soft: 57,000 jobs added against a consensus near 115,000, with April and May revised down a combined 74,000. Unemployment edged down to 4.2%, but on people leaving the labor force. This update went out before the opening bell. The reaction is the day's open question, and the frame for reading it is below.
For paying subscribers below: the full brief with data. The chip selloff by name and magnitude, the metals levels and the markers that would confirm or weaken them, the rate pricing into the jobs print, the two-theater war read, and full sources.
Independent editorial analysis for information and education. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell a security.