Highlights
The Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, said the Fed may be ready to reduce interest in September as recent data added to their confidence that inflation is coming into line with their 2% target. Stock indexes screamed higher on that expectation and the dollar was sharply weaker.
The tough-talking face of the HAMAS’ international diplomacy crew, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed Wednesday morning in Iran. He had a major hand in building up Hamas' fighting capacity and worked to bring Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims together to combat their common enemies. During the decade in which Haniyeh was Hamas' top leader in Gaza, Israel accused him of diverting humanitarian aid to the HAMAS’ military forces.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, added to fears of a broader war by saying “It is our duty to take revenge and severely punish the Zionist Entity for the assassination in Iran, because the assassination was carried out on our soil.”