Aggregator

Pulisic came off at halftime in the USMNT’s opener against Paraguay.

“Modell’s website is closed down for maintenance??? Everybody is calling where to buy shirts. You blew it. I hope you choke on it,” Mitchell Modell wrote to the owner of his former sports brand.

We've got our popcorn ready! 

The rally, which briefly triggered a volatility halt, appeared to have little to do with the company’s fundamentals.

Google's Dual Nuclear Tech Strategy Takes Shape With Kairos & GE Vernova

Google is placing its nuclear bets through more than one channel. Elementl Power, the independent developer that received early-stage capital from Google in 2025 to prepare three US sites, has now made its first clear technology choice on at least one of them.

Elementl signed an Early Works Agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) to deploy BWRX-300 SMRs at a nearly 700-acre site in Meigs County, Ohio. 

The project targets up to 1.5 GW of power production. Elementl has already filed a PJM interconnection request for the initial 600 MW. Construction remains targeted for 2030 with commercial operation eyed around 2034.

Elementl positions itself as technology agnostic. Its selection of the BWRX-300 therefore stands out, as the design draws on decades of GE boiling water reactor experience rather than the novel fluoride salt-cooled, TRISO-fueled path Kairos Power is advancing. 

Google already holds a separate multi-plant agreement with Kairos targeting up to 500 MW of advanced reactor capacity by 2035, as we reported when that deal was first announced in October 2024.

Google now effectively supports two distinct reactor approaches through its capital and offtake commitments. One pushes the technological frontier with higher temperatures and new fuel forms via Kairos. The other, advanced through Elementl's new Ohio project, favors a more conventional SMR that could encounter fewer first-of-a-kind regulatory and construction risks. 

Both address the same core need: reliable, around-the-clock carbon-free power for AI data centers that intermittent sources and gas alone cannot satisfy.

Timelines remain distant. Even with hyperscaler development dollars flowing and policy momentum building, first steel in the ground is years away. 

GE Vernova remains one of the most well-funded reactor developers, alongside Westinghouse, as their turbine business continues to see no end in sight for their backlog of data center related orders. The company now has multiple advanced stage projects underway including locations in Canada, Tennessee, and Europe. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 14:20

The last time these two elite fighters met was way back in August 2013.

It is the latest public controversy involving Becker, who served eight months in an English prison for bankruptcy offenses.

All three women were charged with  tampering with a human drug product or food item.

A former California State Parks superintendent has been charged with secretly recording dozens of naked lifeguards and other employees inside a locker room in Huntington Beach.

Oil Tanker Earnings Soar To $470,000 A Day As Hormuz Hopes Drive Tanker Frenzy

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

Oil tanker rates have soared since the U.S. and Iran announced the memorandum of understanding as oil importers scramble to charter vessels to pick up Persian Gulf cargoes in the hope these can transit the tentatively reopening Strait of Hormuz. 

One tanker has been provisionally booked to ship crude from the Persian Gulf to India at a rate that’s nine times the benchmark for the route, shipbrokers told Bloomberg on Wednesday.  

South Korea’s Sinokor shipping group, which before the war went on a buying and chartering spree to control about 120 very large crude carriers (VLCCs), will provide one of these supertankers for the shipment of a cargo of up to 2 million barrels from the Persian Gulf to India. The rate at which the tanker has been provisionally booked is 897% of the MEG-India benchmark route, or nine times higher than the normal freight cost, shipbrokers told Bloomberg. 

Tanker rates have surged since last week as the industry is preparing for a return of supply from the Middle East. 

According to Reuters, the cost of hiring a tanker in the Gulf has nearly doubled in just a week, jumping from around $106,000 per day to more than $190,000 per day. For some VLCCs hauling cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz, daily earnings have surged to nearly $470,000—a level that would have seemed absurd before the war began. 

Eager to balance continued risks around Hormuz and market opportunities emerging after an interim deal was signed between Iran and the US, shipowners have been repositioning their vessels. Some have already begun to redirect their tankers to the gulf, with around 65 empty VLCCs now able to reach the Gulf of Oman within a week. Sinokor owns around 25 of those, according to brokers’ estimates.

Since the agreement last week, four empty Sinokor VLCCs have sailed into the Persian Gulf, based on transponder signals and shipping data reviewed by Bloomberg. Three other supertankers owned by mainstream companies have also entered, adding at least 14 million barrels worth of capacity to the region. An Iranian VLCC has separately sailed into the area.

At least seven very large crude carriers have sailed into the Persian Gulf since the US and Iran agreed to an interim ceasefire deal late last week.Source: Bloomberg

The spike in rates for the Middle East Gulf (MEG) routes have also pushed up spot freight rates in other regions as the competition for who will line up most of their tankers outside Hormuz first is intensifying. 

Some of the biggest state-owned refiners in China and India have failed to procure supertankers to load crude from the Persian Gulf later this month as tanker rates are too high and guarantees on safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz lacking. 

“There are tankers available, but the problem is it's too expensive and there is no guarantee you can exit the strait,” an executive at PetroChina told Reuters last week. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 13:40

Hawkish Warsh Hammers Barbarous Relic: Gold Crashes Back Below $4000 As Rate-Hike Odds Rise

Gold plunged back below $4,000 an ounce for the first time since November 2025 this morning, as a resurgent dollar and the prospect of higher interest rates bring bullion’s three-year bull market to a halt (now down 30% from its January highs).

The precious metal has posted double-digit gains for each of the last three years, more than doubling in price as central banks, money managers and retail investors all piled into the trade.

That rally ran out of steam in late January, shortly after the precious metal hit an all-time-high near $5,600 an ounce.

Chief among the factors that weighed on bullion’s performance was the outbreak of the US-Iran war.

Higher energy prices have fueled inflation and increased the likelihood of rate hikes, making bullion less attractive relative to yield-bearing assets like Treasuries.

Additionally, during the early period of the war, Gold reserves were used as a 'piggy bank' by Emerging Market nations to fund the huge increase in costs to procure energy (and manage currency runs).

Although oil prices are now falling as the US and Iran are negotiate a permanent peace deal, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh surprised markets with a hawkish tone at his first rate-setting meeting last week, putting more downward pressure on the metal.

“The primary driver behind gold’s recent decline has been a significant repricing of interest-rate expectations,” Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING Groep NV wrote in a note Wednesday.

Additionally, the debasement trade, a strategy favoring assets such as gold and Bitcoin over currencies vulnerable to inflationary, fiscal and monetary excess, has been losing momentum since President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to lead the Fed.

Warsh's statement that price stability is his overriding priority and his reputation as an inflation hawk have introduced doubts about the direction he would take, causing some investors to hedge their bets and leading to a decline in the debasement trade.

“Anyone who thinks that he is some kind of a stooge that’s been put in there to cut interest rates regardless of inflation is going to really, really be disappointed with Kevin Warsh,” said Gavyn Davies, co-founder and chairman of Fulcrum Asset Management and a former chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

“He’s not that kind of chair.”

The debasement trade - broadly defined as a strategy favoring assets such as gold and Bitcoin over currencies vulnerable to inflationary, fiscal and monetary excess like the dollar - had been one of the defining market narratives of the past two years.

“If the Fed has got the hiking bias, it’s really hard to play the debasement card,” Meera Chandan, JPMorgan’s co-head of global foreign-exchange strategy, said in an interview.

In the US, surging government borrowing and inflation running above target for more than half a decade fueled concerns that the greenback’s purchasing power would erode.

“What people were worried about was the inflation target, the Fed’s credibility and its independence,” said Jonathan Owen, a portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management.

“I think those concerns were largely put to rest.”

All of which has helped push the dollar up to its highest since May 2025 (around the Nov 2025 highs)

As Bloomberg's Jack Ryan and Yihui Xie report, several major banks have cut their gold forecasts in the last week.

Though revised targets imply prices will gain from current levels, Wall Street analysts are markedly less bullish than before.

Goldman Sachs axed $500 from a forecast that now sees bullion ending the year at $4,900 an ounce, while Deutsche Bank AG cut its fourth-quarter estimate by 17%.

It seems that Specs have thrown in the towel on the barbarous relic...

As the gold price has caught down to ETF holdings.

As Deutsche Bank wrote in a note, continued sales from gold-backed ETFs showed that the usual support for the metal is “notably absent,”

Meanwhile in China, the metal’s onshore discount to Comex prices in New York suggests imports will not be a support for the market, the bank’s analysts said.

But Goldman noted that gold ETF holdings that have undershot their federal funds rate-implied level

Still, one bright spot for bullion is the continued strength of central-bank demand.

“The one pillar which remains strong is central bank demand, and we expect this to be the case for some time to come,” Deutsche Bank wrote.

The monetary institutions added to their holdings at the fastest pace in more than a year in the first quarter, and survey data indicates they intend to buy more.
 

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 13:40

Cooke, who dubbed himself "DJ The Kissing Bandit," revealed his makeout streak has continued in France.

Cooke, who dubbed himself "DJ The Kissing Bandit," revealed his makeout streak has continued in France.

The couple coordinated their outfits for the premiere.

The couple coordinated their outfits for the premiere.

The MVP orange clutch is on display at the Guggenheim through June 28.

The MVP orange clutch is on display at the Guggenheim through June 28.

In July, the star will launch two very different releases: "Minions & Monsters" and a more racy comedy, "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass."

Deutch stars in two very different releases: "Minions & Monsters" and a more racy comedy, "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass."

"I thought you should know that I recently received a kidney transplant from a very kind and generous living donor," the vocalist, 79, wrote via Instagram Tuesday.