🐷Pork-Filled: June 8, Issue 28

📈 A Crack in the Bond Market is Coming: According to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan “It’s going to happen”. With the US’ short term interest rates higher than most the cost of purchasing US government bonds is nullifying the advantages, resulting in domestic debt (such as Australian government bonds) becoming more attractive. If foreign investors don’t demand US bonds the cost to finance the $34 trillion national debt will increase massively - leaving the US in a perilous position.

📈 Amid Trade Tensions, Gold Soars: The 3 month future price of gold (an indication of what investors predict) recently rose to $3,346 USD/ounce. If this materialises it would represent a 34% year on year increase from last August. Stocks reliant on gold such as Hong Kong’s Lapou Gold have seen a 2,300% increase in the same period with investors seeking fundamental value increasing amid rising geopolitical tensions.

📈 Circle’s Mega-Debut Signals Stablecoin Enthusiasm: Circle Internet Financial (trading as Circle) is a fintech company founded in 2013, its core business is issuing and managing USD Coin ($USDC), the world’s second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin. The market’s excitement for crypto was seen in the 170% gain on the IPO price in the first day of trading, it was intially priced at $31 and closed at $83.23.

📈 May Jobs Report- Exciting Stuff: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the May jobs report. Main takeaways: 149,000 jobs were added in May, unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% and the participation rate dipped by 0.2%.

🌎 Trump/Musk Feud: In the biggest news this week, two of the world’s most powerful people have aired their dirty laundry in the limelight, sparked by the House-passed “Big, Beautiful Bill”. The bill, yet to be approved by the Senate, proposes $3,75 trillion in tax cuts but adds $2.4 trillion to the national debt. It is also estimated to strip 11 million Americans of health insurance due to deep Medicaid cuts. Musk slammed the bill as a “disgusting abomination” loaded with “pork”, while Trump viewed Musk’s attacks as a betrayal of a valued ally. The clash escalated with Trump threatening to cut off federal contracts to Musk’s companies, and Musk firing back with a threat to pull SpaceX from NASA. $TSLA ( ▼ 0.65% )’s stock price fell by 18% in 2 hours.

🌎 Following “Spiderweb” Russia Retaliates: After Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” operation crippled over a third of Russia’s strategic bombers deep inside Russian territory, Moscow struck back with one of the war’s largest air assaults, more than 400 drones, six ballistic missiles, 38 cruise missiles and an anti-radar missile launched across nine regions of Ukraine, from Kyiv to Lviv and Sumy. Although Ukrainian forces shot down 406 of the 452 projectiles, including 32 cruise missiles and four ballistic missiles.

🌎 Xi and Trump Make Up: Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone for the first time since February’s tariff fight, likely aiming to shore up the fragile “total reset” struck in Geneva weeks earlier. Both sides accused the other of breaching the 90-day, mutual tariff cuts. Yet, Trump announced Xi had invited him to visit China—and that he’d extended a White House invite in return—though only Beijing’s invitation was confirmed in its readout.

🌎 Harvard and Columbia on the Firing Line: The US Education Department claims that Columbia “no longer appears” to meet federal civil-rights standards and urged the accreditor to compel Columbia into compliance, potentially revoking their ability to be an accredited university. Harvard, which was banned from enrolling foreign students through a presidential proclamation has sought and gained an injunction from the US District Courts is questoning Trump’s claims of “anti-American, anti-Semitic” behaviour in court.

🌎 Trump Imposes Travel Ban On These Countries: President Trump signed a proclamation this week barring entry into the U.S. for nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Moreover, restrictions were also placed on entry from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. The move has drawn sharp criticism, with many speculating it’s a renewal of the so-called “Muslim Ban” during Trump’s first term.

💼 Tarmac ➡️ Ticker: Bain Capital, which scooped up Virgin Australia during its COVID-era collapse and took it private, is now relisting the airline on the ASX with an AUD 685 million IPO priced at AUD 2.90 per share. This values Virgin at AUD 2.3 billion and gives it a sweet price-to-earnings ratio of 7x. Shares are set to take off on June 24 under the ticker VGN.

💼 Jobless Claims Hit 8-Month High: Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to their highest level in eight months. New applications for jobless benefits rose by 8,000 to 247,000 for the week ending May 31st. Analysts had forecasted 237,000 new applications. Companies cited uncertainty from tariff announcements affecting sales and profit expectations for 2025.

💼 Trump Doubles Down on Steel : The Trump administration just doubled tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum imports to 50%, with the goal of giving U.S. producers a leg-up against cheap global oversupply. The UK dodges the hike—for now—under a temporary agreement. According to the Fed, the previous steel tariff drove up prices by 62%. Additionally, it is estimated that for every 1,000 steel jobs saved, 75,000 downstream jobs were lost in steel-dependent sectors.

💼 Big Tech, Bigger Reactors: Meta has signed a 20-year deal to purchase 1.1 gigawatts of nuclear power from Constellation Energy to meet surging AI energy demands. The agreement boosts output at Constellation’s Illinois plant by 30 megawatts and helps preserve 1,100 local jobs, saving the facility from imminent closure after its zero-emissions credit expired. Meta joined peers Amazon and Google in backing nuclear, following a March pledge to triple global nuclear energy by 2050.

🤪 Moon: 2, Japan: 0: Japanese space startup ispace has suffered its second failed attempt to land on the moon. Its uncrewed Resilience lander lost communication just moments before touchdown and likely crashed during descent on Friday. Ispace says it remains financially stable, though its stock took a hit (dropping the daily limit of 29%). The company’s third moonshot is slated for 2027.

🤪 Still a Billionaire: Rihanna lost nearly $400 million in 2025, a 29% drop from the previous year. Challenges in her Fenty Beauty venture and flat sales in the Chinese market are cited as the likely culprits, according to a Vibe report.

🤪 The Feud, and The Files: Elon Musk has accused Donald Trump of being named in the unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files (likely referring to the rumored client list), and claiming that’s why the documents haven’t been fully disclosed. So far, only a partial set of redacted files has been released, with no definitive “client list” confirmed to exist. The White House has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

🤪 Fire Forces Abandonment of EV Cargo Ship: A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 cars, many of which were EVs, was abandoned in the Pacific Ocean after catching fire roughly 300 miles south of Alaska. This accident is adding fuel to concerns over transporting EVs, whose lithium-ion batteries burn hotter and longer, making onboard fires much harder to contain.

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