Bitcoin traded around $63,754 after slipping in late Asian trade as investors positioned ahead of Tuesday’s JOLTS job openings and factory orders data. Ethereum held near $1,864 with the broader digital asset market exhibiting caution. In Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi toured earthquake-damaged sites in Kumamoto prefecture nearly a week after the magnitude 7.1 quake that killed 38 people. Soaring temperatures reaching 40°C are complicating recovery efforts, with more than 46,000 households without water, fuel shortages and overcrowded emergency shelters lacking air conditioning. Many evacuees are sleeping in cars or outside their homes. One death was attributed to heatstroke while sheltering in a vehicle. The governor highlighted the abnormal heat and requested additional government support for clean water, medical care and improved shelter conditions. Takaichi’s helicopter tour of a well-equipped shelter drew sharp social media criticism for presenting a distorted picture of the hardship. Separately, a retail company faced scrutiny after two young employees died in a post-quake explosion at a collapsed Aeon mall while following orders to secure sales proceeds. Oil ticked higher following a selloff amid ongoing uncertainty in talks to end the US-Iran conflict. Markets are closely watching the macro calendar, including trade balance figures, JOLTS data and later remarks from FOMC member Schmid. In Australia, the Victorian cabinet saw a major reshuffle while Tabcorp and Sportsbet stated there is no evidence they provided drugs or escorts to customers.

This is the 10:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi toured quake-hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Monday, where recovery from last week's magnitude 7.1 earthquake is being crippled by extreme heat that has reached 40°C. The disaster killed 38 people and left more than 8,500 survivors in crowded emergency shelters with no air conditioning, while acute water shortages affect over 46,000 households and fuel remains scarce. One victim has already died of apparent heatstroke while sheltering in a vehicle, raising fresh fears of heat-related deaths as many sleep outdoors or in cars. In New Zealand, fresh legislation formally recognising English as an official language has been widely ridiculed as pathetic and unnecessary. The move, passed on 30 July, grants English the same statutory status as te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language despite it already being spoken by 95% of the population and used in all official business by longstanding custom. Critics say the bill is pure symbolic politics driven by coalition tensions.

This is the 9:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

President Trump has given Iran one last chance at direct talks before he will authorize fresh military strikes, driving a surge in safe-haven demand as tensions climb across the Middle East. Gold has smashed through $4,100 an ounce and now trades near $4,113. Oil has plunged more than 4 percent to around $80.73 a barrel on hopes that diplomacy can still head off a wider conflict. The moves are sending ripples through currency, volatility, and defense stocks as traders weigh the human cost of any escalation against the narrow window for negotiation. One Nation's push into Liberal MP Andrew Hastie's seat in Western Australia adds a separate layer of political fragmentation on the centre-right, though preference deals could still blunt the challenge. In Canberra, Environment Minister Murray Watt has branded alleged cocaine-and-alcohol supply by gambling promoters to players as outright criminal behaviour that demands consequences.

This is the 8:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Big Oil executives from Exxon, Shell and Chevron are warning that global fuel inventories — especially diesel and gasoline — are running critically low, raising the risk of supply disruptions across shipping, freight and aviation networks. Geopolitical shocks have slashed effective refining capacity by up to 10 percent, with ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, China’s fuel export caps and Russia’s diesel export ban tightening physical supply. Persian Gulf refiners are struggling to move product while U.S. facilities run at 95-102 percent utilization ahead of seasonal maintenance. Exxon’s CEO described current spare capacity relative to demand as the lowest he has ever seen, with crack spreads at record highs. Analysts and freight operators now fear a “perfect storm” this fall as harvest season, early heating demand and diesel shortages collide. Because diesel powers agriculture, construction, mining and distribution, the shortages are functioning as a direct tax on global supply chains and lifting input costs across the real economy. The warning comes as tanker turnaround times slow and storage tightens at major logistics arteries, even as some crude futures soften on demand signals from China. The developments are keeping energy equities and transport shares in focus heading into European and U.S. sessions.

This is the 7:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Harold Hamm is betting even bigger on Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale boom. Continental Resources, the company he founded, is preparing to bid on new acreage in the South American play, drawn by its proven reserves as international drillers race to develop the formation. That marks a fresh expansion push even as easing geopolitical tensions elsewhere weigh on global crude.

Ukrainian drone attacks on a Black Sea resort and the annexed Crimea peninsula killed 11 people, Russian officials claimed, including seven dead at a beach after debris struck, among them three children. The EU is calling for stronger borders after a surge of migrant crossings at Ceuta, with Ursula von der Leyen urging action ahead of an emergency interior ministers meeting.

Analysts say Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's push to defend the weakening yen without selling Treasuries could pull the Federal Reserve into the effort. Big Tech investment gains in private AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI distorted the latest corporate earnings picture, inflating S&P 500 growth to 48% before adjustments brought it closer to forecasts. Jim Cramer says the market has warmed up to Big Tech's AI spending after Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy laid out the long-term return path.

Palantir shares climbed after its earnings showed turbocharged growth as companies seek greater control over their own AI models and data. Snap jumped 8% after beating estimates and issuing a strong sales forecast boosted by advertiser momentum and World Cup spending.

This is the 6:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

The House Ethics Committee has formally recommended that North Carolina Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards be censured after a months-long probe found he engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female staffers. The bipartisan panel stopped short of expulsion but the full House must now vote on whether to formally condemn him.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is facing renewed grilling on Capitol Hill over the central bank's rate path and balance-sheet decisions, with lawmakers pressing for clarity on how policy will respond if inflation proves stickier than expected.

In European news, the European Union is calling for stronger external borders after thousands of migrants surged from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, overwhelming local authorities and prompting Madrid to demand mandatory burden-sharing from Brussels.

Analysts say expanded American geothermal and nuclear capacity could help the United States close the gap with China's dominance of global clean-energy supply chains as Beijing continues to outspend every rival.

In human interest, a longtime postal worker panicked when the USPS unexpectedly suspended his pension payments, leaving only his separate Social Security check to keep him afloat.

This is the 5:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Gold climbed above $4,113 an ounce as President Trump described fresh U.S.-Iran talks as Tehran’s “last chance” to avoid further escalation toward war. The comments come amid heightened tensions, with the first phase of negotiations focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a second phase on Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump postponed what would have been the largest US strike on any country since World War II after a personal call from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urging diplomacy, but warned his patience is running out. The uncertainty has driven fresh safe-haven flows into gold and metals miners as investors price in the risk of renewed brinkmanship. Oil fell sharply to around $80 a barrel after dropping more than 5 percent on de-escalation expectations. Bitcoin held near $63,741 while Ethereum traded around $1,867. Twenty-five states have filed suit against the Trump administration over its latest round of worldwide tariffs, claiming they unlawfully replace duties already struck down by courts. Palantir Technologies shares rose on reports of AI-fueled turbocharged growth, with clients turning to the firm for greater autonomy over their models and data.

This is the 4:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Good afternoon from Nashville, I'm Russell Clark with your Monday post-market recap here on VixShield. Picture this: the S&P 500 closed right at seven thousand six hundred point five while gold sat at four thousand one hundred seven dollars an ounce and oil drifted down to eighty dollars nineteen cents a barrel. The tape told a clear story today. If you've been listening, we said last week that as long as oil stayed under eighty-five and the VIX held below eighteen point five, institutions would keep buying the dips and the index would respect its range. Well, the VIX finished at fifteen point seventy-seven and oil never threatened that line, so the market did exactly what we expected. That's the setup. The premise for today's show is straightforward. Heavy federal spending and the Fed's cautious hold-and-watch stance are still pinning the cost of capital higher for longer, yet contained energy prices and low volatility are giving equities room to grind higher without forcing a policy pivot. That combination shaped every move we saw after the open. Let's walk through how Monday actually played. Pre-market chatter focused on the latest round of US-Iran talks, and Ms Vixxy flagged those developments earlier. The market took the de-escalation hopes at face value, oil eased, and safe-haven buying in gold moderated even though the metal still closed above four thousand one hundred. That left room for risk assets to work. The S&P never looked back after the first hour and finished comfortably above the seven thousand five hundred level we had been watching. What we got right was the institutional behavior under those thresholds. Dip-buying stayed steady because neither oil nor volatility broke the levels that would have thinned participation. What I had right on the macro side was the continued link between federal spending, sticky energy costs, and the Fed staying on hold. That policy lane kept the cost of capital elevated, which is exactly why we are not seeing broad rate-relief rallies. The tape confirmed it again today. Now, one quick note on the continuity book. Back on Sunday we laid out that if oil remained below eighty-five and the VIX below eighteen point five, the S&P would close above seven thousand five hundred. It did. Been there, done that. The lesson is simple: when the conditions we flagged stay in place, the market respects the range and grinds higher. No mystery there. Looking ahead to Tuesday, the same thresholds still matter. If oil stays under eighty-five and the VIX holds its current level, expect another session of contained accumulation with the S&P testing higher within the same policy backdrop. A break of either marker would change the tone quickly because dip-buying would thin and the higher cost of capital would start to bite harder. For your portfolio, that means watching energy and volatility first. Retirees and small-business owners feel this every month in borrowing costs and grocery prices, and the Fed's caution keeps those pressures in place. Bitcoin finished at sixty-four thousand nine hundred two, following the risk-on tone but not leading it, which lines up with what we have said all along about its role. Gold at four thousand one hundred seven remains the cleaner hedge against the spending and energy uncertainty that still anchors policy. That's the full picture from today's session. The scoreboard confirmed the conditions we outlined earlier, and the carry into Tuesday is more of the same unless those thresholds give way. Thanks for listening. I'm Russell Clark from Nashville. Good evening.

The macro calendar took center stage with softer-than-expected ISM Manufacturing PMI numbers and a lower final manufacturing PMI reading, while ISM manufacturing prices also eased. Traders are now watching for any further signs of cooling cost pressures ahead of Tuesday's trade balance, JOLTS job openings and factory orders data.

Microsoft's stock posted its strongest run in 26 years, fully erasing its year-to-date losses. Boeing shares surged on a trio of positive developments tied to its turnaround efforts.

Apple is challenging the U.K. government's latest demand for an iCloud backdoor, a move critics say could threaten user privacy rights worldwide.

With U.S. entry becoming more difficult, growing numbers of Cubans are seeking asylum in Brazil. A cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated produce has caused two deaths in Michigan as cases continue to rise.

This is the 3:00 PM Central VixShield flash.

Boeing cleared a key regulatory hurdle, sending its shares sharply higher and leading gains in the Dow as corporate deal momentum builds with traders eyeing fresh mergers and acquisitions across aerospace suppliers and defense contractors.

The breakthrough adds to signs that Boeing's long turnaround is gaining real momentum. Micron shares saw volatile trading amid renewed concerns over China-related risks to its semiconductor business. Apple filed a legal challenge against a UK government demand to access encrypted iCloud data belonging to British users. Dividend-paying stocks that beat the broader market in July remain in focus, with analysts naming several names poised for further gains.

Russia's largest online retailer is scrambling to lease warehouse space in Kazakhstan after repeated Ukrainian drone strikes forced the operator of Wildberries to look abroad for safer logistics.

This is the 2:00 PM Central VixShield flash.