Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers on Tuesday said they discussed a framework for a temporary corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and a mine-clearing project in the waterway which both border.

The two countries have sought to regulate transit through the Strait of Hormuz, as written in the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, after the waterway became a flashpoint in the Middle East war.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “discussed a phased framework that could provide a practical and implementable basis for moving forward” in talks in Tehran, a joint statement shared by Oman said.

(Continue Reading – Arab News)

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs as high as 50 percent on hundreds of American products on Tuesday, just days after the collapse of trade talks triggered punishing tariffs from the Trump administration.

As a trade war between the countries intensifies, Canada will start collecting tariffs of 50, 25 and 15 percent on about 700 products beginning on Sept. 8. The most significant measure is a doubling of tariffs on American steel and aluminum to 50 percent. But the list of products affected ranges from household rolls of aluminum foil to railway locomotives and steel bridges.

Many of the American products Canada will now tax mirror the Canadian exports hit by the new U.S. tariffs, particularly in clothing, forestry products, tools and electronics including smartphones. But Canada is also targeting costly consumer products like dishwashers, washing machines and stoves.

(Continue Reading – NY Times)

Macro strategists and global portfolio managers have their hands full on this final week of August. As we said recently, this is no time to mail it in before Labor Day in the U.S. And for equity traders and bottom-up analysts, NVIDIA (NVDA) writes the storyline in the sessions ahead. The world's most valuable company reports Q2 results after the bell on Wednesday.

As usual, the top- and bottom-line numbers shouldn't shock Wall Street. For the macro crowd, think of it like the PCE Price Index. With July CPI and PPI reports in hand, we have a good bead on what the Fed's preferred inflation gauge will show Wednesday morning. Likewise For NVIDIA, given AI hyperscalers' capex figures laid out earlier in the reporting season, basic spreadsheet math can yield a good ballpark revenue gauge. Margins matter, though, and the company should post another impressive percentage there.

(Continue Reading - Wall Street Horizon)

According to TrendForce’s latest memory industry research, major global cloud service providers (CSPs) are accelerating AI infrastructure investment, with total CapEx projected to surge 98% YoY in 2026 and rise another 50% in 2027. The rapid increase will be driven in part by soaring memory contract prices and robust procurement demand. TrendForce estimates that DRAM and NAND Flash combined will account for 47% of CSPs’ total CapEx in 2026, with their share rising further to 68% in 2027.

TrendForce observes that the sharp rise in memory contract prices since the second half of 2025 has significantly increased memory’s share of CSP spending. Server DRAM—a key procurement category for CSPs—saw contract prices rise by a cumulative 64% in 2H25, with a further jump of approximately 270% expected in 2026. Meanwhile, a similar trend is unfolding in NAND Flash, with enterprise SSD prices rising by around 35% in 2H25 and projected to surge by a cumulative 235% in 2026.

(Continue Reading – TrendForce)