U.S. Strikes Iran for Seventh Straight Night; Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Slips Into Bear Market

HuoXing Finance News — Key developments: 1) U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces launched another round of strikes against Iran at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, marking the seventh consecutive night of U.S. airstrikes. 2) Multiple U.S. and Israeli sources said Washington has "notified" Israel of plans to deploy dozens of additional aerial refueling aircraft, a move that could broaden operations against Iran. 3) Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early on the 18th local time that it struck and destroyed a U.S. unmanned vessel storage facility in Bahrain, with numerous unmanned vessels burned in the fire. 4) President Trump wrote online that poor forest management in Canada has caused "billions of dollars" in losses to the United States. He said he would call Canada's prime minister today and warned the U.S. losses could be added to Canada's tariff payments. 5) U.S. bank deposits fell to $19.361 trillion from $19.435 trillion the prior week. 6) Meta is in early talks with Anthropic to lease data-center computing capacity. The arrangement could run for two years and be worth up to $10 billion. 7) Apple raised subscription prices for Apple Music and Apple One. Apple Music increased to $11.99 from $10.99. 8) Barclays reiterated its Brent crude forecasts of $96 per barrel in 2026 and $85 per barrel in 2027. 9) Apple is in early-stage settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice over a 2024 antitrust lawsuit targeting the iPhone maker. 10) The judge said a ruling in the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery case will be issued no later than July 22. 11) SpaceX is in talks with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply data-center computing power for running AI models, a deal that could be worth billions of dollars. 12) ASML plans to give employees a one-time bonus of €20,000, joining a growing list of chip companies sharing performance gains as AI-driven demand pushes sales to record highs. 13) The EU's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service said on the 17th that persistent Canadian wildfires have produced vast smoke plumes, worsening air quality across large parts of Canada and the U.S. Northeast. The FIFA World Cup final on the 19th in New Jersey may also be affected. 14) U.S. equities closed lower: the Dow fell 0.77% (down 0.93% for the week), the Nasdaq slid 1.4% (down 2.9% for the week), and the S&P 500 lost 1.01% (down 1.55% for the week). The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 1.63% and is down 20.2% from its June 22 all-time closing high, meeting the technical definition of a bear market. 15) WTI crude futures settled at $82.49 a barrel, up 4.48%, posting a weekly gain of 14.35%. Brent settled at $88.10, up 4.59%, with a weekly gain of 15.91%. 16) COMEX gold futures rose 0.77% to $4,023 per ounce, down 2.56% on the week. COMEX silver futures gained 0.06% to $56.22 per ounce, down 6.77% on the week. (Cailian News)