US equity futures were trading near session lows with bond yields at August highs of 4.74% and Brent rising above $90 for the first time in two weeks when - with just hours until the market open - we had the now standard double-whammy of well-timed "imminent deal optimism" thanks first to the Qatar foreign ministry, followed less than an hour later by comments from the Pakistan defense minister - a man repeatedly used by the Trump admin to spread market-moving propaganda - which sparked instant algo buying on hopes of, what else, an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Pakistani, the US and Iran "are close to some agreement" and "the situation is moving towards peace" which was sufficient to not only push futures immediately to session highs, and just shy of all time highs...
... but also dump oil more than $3 and send bond yields to session lows on what is the same song and dance the market has heard countless times before, even as strategic and commercial oil stocks and reserves are being rapidly depleted below operational minimum levels.
As of 8:00am, S&P futures climbed 0.2% and contracts on the Nasdaq advanced 0.4%. Ten-year Treasury yields were little changed at 4.71%, erasing an earlier move as high as 4.76%, as Brent crude erased gains to trade 0.4% lower at around $87 per barrel, rising above $90 earlier. Earlier in the morning, Intel announced a $20BN capital raise in an upsized share sale (orifinally $15BN) that drew more than $100 billion in demand. That deal followed hot o
