CNBC

Lead Story

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to announce a historical “economic D-Day” campaign of coordinated sanctions against Iran, a major geopolitical escalation that has sent U.S. stock futures slipping as investors brace for prolonged economic warfare. In an exclusive interview, Bessent warned global allies that they must choose to stand with or against the U.S. as it deploys its “full might” to completely collapse the Iranian economy.

Markets & Economics

U.S. stock index futures are posting modest declines following a challenging week that saw the S&P 500 drop 1.4% and the Nasdaq lose 2% due to skyrocketing global bond yields, with the 30-year Treasury yield scaling to a near 20-year high above 5.3%. Investors are heavily focused on newly appointed Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh’s upcoming maiden address at the Jackson Hole symposium this Friday, which takes on added weight ahead of Wednesday’s July PCE inflation print, expected to show a 3.2% year-over-year increase. In a dramatic shift in market leadership, the equal-weighted S&P 500 is currently outperforming the market-weighted index by roughly 3% year-to-date, pushing the popular Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) above $100 billion in assets for the first time as mega-cap tech momentum cools. Although David Zervos of Jefferies argues that the Treasury’s tactical long-end buyback program delivers QE-like reflationary support, the persistent threat of an extended Middle Eastern conflict continues to keep market participants on edge.

Business & Earnings

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby outlined aggressive JFK expansion plans and AI integration, even as ongoing Boeing 737 Max 10 delays leave hundreds of lie-flat premium seats in storage and force a temporary fleet pivot to Airbus A321neos. In financial services, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf has signaled an appetite for a transformative merger while Citi’s Jane Fraser remains focused on organic growth, with regional players like Fifth Third and Huntington emerging as primary consolidation targets. Micron Technology is charging ahead with a massive $100 billion DRAM manufacturing expansion in Idaho and New York, though CEO Sanjay Mehrotra is facing an escalating political and regulatory backlash against local data centers. Adding to software earnings anxiety, chipmaker Nvidia has reportedly notified its largest clients of price hikes exceeding 15% on servers containing its highly anticipated Blackwell and Vera Rubin AI processors.

Investing & Commentary

Top Wall Street analysts are aggressively raising targets on high-conviction tech names, with Truist raising CrowdStrike (CRWD) to $245, J.P. Morgan resuming coverage of SanDisk (SNDK) with a $2,250 target, and Evercore lifting Dell Technologies (DELL) to $550 on strong, high-margin storage demand. For momentum traders, options analysts highlight that Palantir’s PutDex is at a 52-week low, making it incredibly cheap to purchase protective downside puts on the extended stock. Defensive strategies include screening S&P 500 down-days, which spotlights Kroger (KR) and Southern Company (SO) as historical outperformance vehicles, as well as diversifying out of top-heavy indices via equal-weight sector products.

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📋 With a busy tech earnings week ahead featuring Nvidia, Salesforce, and CrowdStrike, I can compile a structured PDF earnings cheat sheet to track consensus estimates, key margin targets, and post-report price levels. Let me know if you’d like me to build that for your workspace!