Jobs Data Holds Steady as U.S.-Iran Tensions Flare
Stocks are down more than -0.2% before the open after fresh U.S.-Iran strikes threatened to unravel a fragile ceasefire. U.S. airstrikes on Iran's Qeshm Island drew a retaliatory barrage of ballistic missiles and drones aimed at American bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. The geopolitical picture grew more complicated when Trump said, in a podcast, that Iran has agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons, adding that talks involve senior Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Intel Rises on AI Data Center Demand
Intel (INTC) is up +6% in premarket trading after CFO David Zinsner, speaking at the Bank of America Global Technology Conference, said INTC is ramping supply of its Intel 3 and 18A nodes to meet growing demand, with 18A on the notebook side the fastest-ramping product in at least five years. Zinsner projected explosive CPU demand growth as AI shifts from training toward inference and agentic workloads, saying INTC faces no issue growing data center revenue meaningfully. CEO Lip-Bu Tan has separately cut management layers from 12 to 6 and headcount from over 100,000 to under 80,000.
Trump Signs AI Security Order
Trump signed an executive order requiring AI companies to submit advanced models for government cybersecurity testing up to 30 days before release. The order establishes a voluntary AI cybersecurity clearinghouse across Treasury, Homeland Security, and Defense. An earlier draft sought a 90-day window, but companies lobbied for the shorter timeline. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet (GOOGL) all voiced support for the measure.
Alberta Sports Betting Market Launches July 13
Alberta will open its regulated sports betting and iGaming market on July 13, becoming the second Canadian province to do so on an Ontario-modeled open-market framework, serving roughly 5.1M residents. Around 35 operator applications are under review, with Flutter Entertainment's (FLUT) FanDuel, DraftKings (DKNG), Caesars Entertainment (CZR), and BetMGM (MGM) confirmed or expected at day-one launch. Licensed operators will pay 20% of gross gaming revenue to the province, with the market's only current platform recording over $275M in net sales last fiscal year.
Gold Surpasses Treasuries as Top Reserve Asset
Gold has overtaken U.S. Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, with bullion accounting for 27% of global central bank reserves at year-end 2025, up from 20%, while Treasuries slipped from 25% to 22%, per an ECB report published yesterday. The shift reflects years of central bank buying and a rally that sent prices to a record above $5,500/oz in January, with spot gold now near $4,489/oz. The ECB cautioned the trend may not hold, flagging price volatility, lack of yield, storage costs, and inelastic supply as structural limits.
