Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk. Here are the stories moving the needle right now.
Bond markets are flashing a warning that mortgage borrowers cannot ignore. Analysts are now putting eight percent mortgage rates in play, driven by a sustained selloff in Treasuries that has pushed long-end yields sharply higher. The consequences ripple outward — cooling housing demand, pressuring bank balance sheets, and raising the cost of capital across the broader economy.
Turning to currencies, dollar weakness is doing real work in commodities today. The dollar index sliding has triggered a wave of short covering in coffee futures, with arabica climbing to a one-week high, up nearly two percent on the session. When the dollar softens, dollar-denominated commodities become cheaper for foreign buyers, and funds caught short move fast to cover.
And on the AI policy front, President Trump confirmed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will not serve as what the president is calling the super intelligence czar — a role the administration has been quietly floating as AI governance pressure builds in Washington. The vacancy matters because whoever fills it will shape how federal policy interacts with an industry Bill Gates this week warned could, in the wrong hands, drive events causing catastrophic loss of life on a global scale.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
