Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving the needle right now.
Office commercial mortgage-backed securities are flashing a serious warning sign, with the delinquency rate spiking to twelve point two percent — well beyond the peak we saw during the financial crisis. The old playbook of extend-and-pretend is running out of road, and lenders are now forcing distressed owners to sell at today's deeply discounted prices or face foreclosure.
Shifting to commodities, cotton futures posted a broad rally to open the week, with contracts closing between one hundred three and two hundred twenty-two points higher across the board. Crude oil moved in the opposite direction, shedding one dollar and eighty-one cents per barrel, while the dollar index edged modestly higher, adding nearly eighteen cents on the session.
On the crypto crime front, blockchain investigator ZachXBT says he traced over one billion dollars in laundered funds tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group, moving through a Chinese criminal network. ZachXBT reportedly infiltrated the operation posing as a customer, ultimately linking the flow back to the massive one point five billion dollar Bybit hack earlier this year.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
