Trump threatened "tremendous economic consequences" for any country or institution providing Iran a financial or commercial lifeline

Brent crude traded at $91.53 a barrel Thursday, gaining more than 4% on the week, with Hormuz flows at 40% of 2025 daily averages.

Bitcoin broke above $69,000 on August 20, reaching $79,241 by August 21, its highest level since June 1 after an 11% two, day gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 703.84 points, or 1.32%, to 52,759.21 on August 20; the S&P 500 lost 0.87% to 7,641.16 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1% to 26,067.17.

WMT fell ~9% to ~$104 after U.S. same, store sales of 2.6% missed the 3.7% estimate, the slowest pace since Q4 2020.

The Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.50%, 3.75% at the July 29 FOMC meeting, with three officials dissenting in favor of an immediate 25, basis, point hike.

Walmart Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.81 beat consensus by 9.3%; net sales of $187.9 billion rose 5.9% and full, year guidance was raised.

Core machinery orders rose 16.9% year, over, year in June, far exceeding the 4.0% consensus forecast

MU slid 7% and WDC dropped 5% on August 18; the Roundhill Memory ETF is now more than 20% below its recent closing high.

The DXY fell to 98.83, a 2.5, month low, after Treasury doubled long, end buybacks to at least $4 billion per session from $2 billion.

Nuclear microreactor startup **Valar Atomics** raises $1B Series B at a $6B valuation led by Sequoia, to manufacture fleets of small reactors for AI data centers and heavy industry after becoming the first VC-backed company to achieve nuclear criticality.

AI speech startup **Wispr** raises $280M Series B at a $2B valuation led by Menlo Ventures, expanding beyond dictation into AI meeting notes with a new model that cuts transcription error rates from 30% to under 10%.

Swiss biotech **Vaderis Therapeutics** closes an oversubscribed $152M Series B led by Goldman Sachs Life Sciences to fund a global Phase 3 trial of engasertib, a potential first-ever approved treatment for rare vascular disorder HHT.