Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets.
Wall Street opened in the red this morning, with geopolitical tension driving the early selling pressure. Reports of a potential US-Iran war settlement briefly offered some relief, but Tehran has yet to confirm it will allow nuclear monitors back in, leaving oil markets and equity traders on edge as commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz continues.
Shifting to retail investors, the SpaceX trading frenzy is now colliding headfirst with a bear market. Everyday investors, some of whom placed six-figure retirement bets on the company's volatile private shares, are feeling the squeeze. What looked like a high-conviction trade in a rising market is now a stress test of nerve and portfolio resilience.
And on the political front, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Kelly are pressing the Trump administration for hard answers on what tariffs are actually doing to American manufacturing. The letter signals growing bipartisan unease on the factory floor, even as the White House holds the line on trade policy heading into an election cycle that will make economic credibility central.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
