The Strait of Hormuz Is Closed, Gold Crashed 28%, and Markets Are Flying Blind — Welcome to Summer 2026

Let's be honest about where we are right now: every single market indicator — S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq, VIX, 10-year Treasuries — is reporting zero or N/A. That's not calm. That's a data blackout. And when the numbers go dark, you read the headlines, and the headlines are unhinged.

Ayatollah Khamenei is dead, killed in what Reuters is calling the US-Israel war. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for nearly three weeks since a US-Iran MOU was signed — with shipping companies refusing passage due to uncleared mines. A CMA CGM vessel hit by a missile in the strait may be scrapped entirely. Meanwhile, Andrei Jikh's latest YouTube breakdown reveals that gold — after hitting an all-time high of $5,500/oz — has crashed roughly 28% to ~$4,000, with China's banks hiking margin requirements to a jaw-dropping 140%. Kuwait quietly ramped crude production in June. NATO is meeting in Turkey. And somehow Taylor Swift got married in the same news cycle.

The market data may be asleep, but the world absolutely is not — and when the Hormuz dust settles, energy and shipping stocks will tell us exactly who got it right.