Space Defense & Missile Warning

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, faced two air-raid warnings in the early hours of today, September 19, marking the first time the country's capital has seen such alerts since the period when war between the United States and Iran intensified in March and April. Saudi Arabia's early-warning system issued an emergency alert in Riyadh at 4:00 a.m. and again at 6:00 a.m., without disclosing further details. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said the danger had ended shortly after both alerts. Other areas across the country received similar warnings throughout the past night, including Jeddah and Yanbu on the Red Sea, as well as Farasan Island in the Red Sea. The warnings came amid a new wave of attacks Saudi Arabia has faced in September, with the Iran-backed Houthis based in Yemen striking cities in western Saudi Arabia, including energy infrastructure, over the past week. The Saudi government said a drone attack from Iraq, home to several Iran-backed armed groups, forced the East-West oil pipeline to halt operations. In addition, attacks on the pipeline and Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz have sharply reduced Saudi Arabia's oil exports and created further problems for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's leader. The renewed conflict also risks affecting Saudi Arabia's efforts to attract investment and tourists, part of its push to diversify the country's economic structure. In October, Riyadh is scheduled to host Saudi Arabia's flagship investment conference, the Future Investment Initiative, with the 2026 annual gathering set to welcome several senior Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs Group.

The United States has reached an agreement with Greenland and Denmark that will open the way for the US to permanently expand its military and security role on the island of Greenland, while blocking the influence of adversary nations. The three parties are expected to sign jointly during the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, and the new agreement will replace the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement. The US State Department stated that the agreement will prohibit countries that are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, from establishing bases or stationing troops in Greenland, and will also bar non-allied countries from investing in mining and critical minerals. These conditions appear aimed at blocking China or Russia from accessing resources or establishing military footholds in Greenland. President Donald Trump posted a message stressing that the United States will be able to do everything necessary to ensure stability and protect the security of Greenland, as well as that of the United States, and confirmed that this is not a transfer of sovereignty or a cession of territory to the US. Meanwhile, Mette Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the Prime Minister of Greenland, confirmed the agreement through a joint statement, with Frederiksen stating that the agreement will help strengthen security in the Arctic and North Atlantic region, while affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, as well as the right of Greenlanders to determine their own future.

CACI International announced a one-year plus four option periods US$1.50 billion-ceiling Apollo award to support U.S. Central Command, alongside being selected by Vantor to provide optical imaging payloads for its planned Vantor Pulse satellite fleet. The Apollo award strengthens near-term revenue visibility and fits a pattern of federal customers consolidating critical work with fewer providers on large, multi-year frameworks, though it does not remove risks around federal budget volatility and contract timing. CACI's narrative projects $12.2 billion revenue and $727.8 million earnings by 2029, requiring 8.3% yearly revenue growth and a roughly $192 million earnings increase from $535.8 million today. Some of the most optimistic analysts already expected CACI to reach about US$12.7 billion of revenue and US$862 million of earnings before this news. The company's forecasts yield a $724.50 fair value, a 16% upside to its current price.

The United States, Denmark and Greenland have reached a landmark agreement that opens the way for the US to have a long-term security role in Greenland. Kobsak Pootrakool, Senior Executive Vice President of Bangkok Bank, or BBL, posted on Facebook under the name Kobsak Pootrakool, stating that Denmark and Greenland have granted the US the rights to use Greenland as the US wants, to serve as a key strategic point for building the Golden Dome and for controlling shipping through the emerging Arctic route. President Trump announced that this agreement gives the US permanent control over security and all other necessary matters in Greenland, at no cost to the US, and that countries hostile to the US will not be able to establish military bases, station troops, or invest in sensitive businesses in Greenland without explicit written approval from the US. Kobsak stated that this agreement is eternal, with no end date, and that the US will immediately begin the process of establishing a large military force in suitable areas of Greenland. He also viewed this as significant progress within the framework of the Donroe Doctrine, under which the US seeks to control key points around its neighborhood in North and South America, following Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Greenland, with Cuba and Brazil remaining, awaiting the October 4 election.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on the evening of Wednesday, September 16, that he hopes the war with Iran, now dragging into its seventh month, is nearing an end, saying Iran wants a deal and that he had been contacted directly by Iran, though he did not disclose further details. The remarks came amid escalating tensions after the Saudi Arabian air force launched strikes in Yemen and Houthi rebels retaliated by firing missiles and sending drones to attack various Saudi cities, including the Red Sea oil port of Yanbu and the Khamis Mushait air base in the south, according to a statement by Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Houthi military. The war erupted on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, before Tehran fired back at Israel and US bases in the Persian Gulf countries. The attack on Saudi Arabia that damaged the East-West oil pipeline has prompted oil traders to warn that if the pipeline is forced to halt shipments for an extended period, as much as 4% of global oil supply could be lost. Saudi authorities have not yet specified when the pipeline will be able to resume operation. The spread of the war into Yemen is also compounding the global energy shortage, after the earlier conflict cut off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which once carried one-fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas. As a result, Brent crude traded at around 108 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, near its highest level since May, while US retail diesel prices surged to a record high of more than 6.30 dollars a gallon, which is becoming major political pressure on the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections in November. Axios reported, citing sources, that President Trump is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next Tuesday, September 22, to discuss the next steps in the war with Iran. The conflict between the Saudi-led alliance and the Houthis, which has been underway since 2015 and had once calmed under a ceasefire agreement, flared up violently again after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia last July.

SpaceX shares rose 5.1% to $151 in mid-morning trading Wednesday, pushing the stock back above the $150 level it first reached when it began trading June 12 following an IPO priced at $135. The catalyst was fresh policy news: U.S. defense officials confirmed on-orbit space-control weapons and highlighted progress on the Golden Dome interceptor program, tied to multibillion-dollar SpaceX contracts awarded earlier this year, pointing investors toward Starshield, SpaceX's national security satellite business, which already holds more than $6 billion in multi-year Space Force contracts for LEO-based communications and sensing. The Pentagon's FY 2027 budget request carries a $17.9 billion Golden Dome line item covering advanced space-based and terrestrial sensors, command and control, kinetic interceptors, and next-generation non-kinetic programs, and SpaceX is the only operator with a proliferated LEO constellation at production scale. The fundamental backdrop supports the move: the August 4 8-K showed Q2 revenue of $7.81 billion, beating the $6.82 billion consensus by 15%, with EPS of -$0.09 versus the -$0.29 estimate, Starlink subscribers doubling to 12.0 million, connectivity revenue up 66% year over year, and enterprise and government revenue climbing 108% on airline partnerships and Starshield contracts. Traditional missile-defense primes Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman all sit inside the Golden Dome supply chain for interceptors, sensors, and integration, while pure-play space names like Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile tend to move with SpaceX headlines; SpaceX carries a $47.50 billion backlog and $93.52 billion in cash, alongside $18.37 billion in quarterly capex, $15.83 billion of which went into AI compute, with a market cap of roughly $1.16 trillion. Even after Wednesday's rally, SPCX trades 33% below its intraday high of $226 on June 16, and the tell into the close is whether it can hold above $151 and turn the IPO open price into support rather than a ceiling, with the next Starship V3 test flight, any Pentagon follow-on Starshield task orders, and updates on the pending $60 billion Cursor acquisition expected to close in Q3 as near-term catalysts.

One Stop Systems has received an approximately $400,000 award from a leading U.S. defense prime contractor for advanced modeling and simulation of U.S. missile defense systems in support of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The award covers the company's latest generation 4UP Max PCIe expansion platform configured with eight NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs, marking the first deployment of this configuration with the customer. OSS said the system is intended to provide a significant compute technology upgrade for advanced missile defense modeling and simulation workloads. President and CEO Mike Knowles said the award demonstrates the value of the company's latest-generation computing platforms for some of the defense industry's most demanding simulation workloads and validates its ability to support critical national defense applications. OSS said it is seeing increased demand for high-end simulation environments and believes these trends are creating additional opportunities across missile defense and other advanced defense applications, including next-generation homeland missile defense architectures and fifth- and sixth-generation platform performance modeling.

A United Nations survey found that people around the world are increasingly worried that a large-scale war is a global risk that could materialize in the near future. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia declared a security alert covering multiple areas on Tuesday, September 15, including the city of Mecca and the city of Jeddah, after being repeatedly attacked over the past week by Iran-aligned armed groups. A South Korean court ordered North Korea to pay 44.6 billion won, or 32.5 million US dollars, in damages to the South Korean government over the destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office building in 2020, marking the first time in history that the South Korean government has sued North Korea and won. Meanwhile, the US Congressional Budget Office disclosed that the war between the United States and Iran over the past six months has already consumed more than 38 billion US dollars in budget spending, with that figure expected to rise by another 3 billion US dollars per month, and it could push inflation up by 0.5% during the first three months of 2027. Separately, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday that Thailand may impose an excise tax of around 30% on fully imported electric vehicles, the first disclosure of the rate that could be used to encourage automakers to produce in the country.

The war with Iran has cost the U.S. Department of Defense a total of $38.1 billion through August 1, and could add another $2 billion to $3 billion per month if the fighting drags on. The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, estimates that more than half of the cost came from procuring missiles and munitions to replace those expended, while costs from increased flying hours came to $10.4 billion and higher oil prices added another $2.7 billion. The war has also reduced the U.S. stockpile of missile interceptors by as much as two-thirds of the level that existed as of June 2025, largely because the United States helped Israel intercept Iranian attacks, and the CBO says replenishing the stockpile could take at least five years even with expanded production capacity. On the inflation impact, the CBO estimates that the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, the inflation gauge the Fed watches most closely, will rise 0.5 point by the first quarter of 2027, while core PCE is expected to be 0.3 point higher, with gasoline and other fuel prices accounting for roughly 40% of the increase in goods prices caused by the war. The release of the new projections may intensify debate over whether the cost of this war was worthwhile, after Trump initially said the war would last only a few weeks, while Democrats campaign on an anti-war platform ahead of the U.S. midterm elections on November 3.

HawkEye 360, Inc. and Leonardo S.p.A. announced a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a structured collaboration to integrate HawkEye 360's radio-frequency sensing capabilities into Leonardo's Telespazio and e-Geos space service solutions for European customers. Under the MoU, Leonardo will lead overall data integration and manage institutional engagement across Europe through its geospatial solutions, while HawkEye 360 will provide dedicated RF data capacity tailored to European operational needs. The first phase focuses on integrating a customized RF layer into Leonardo's global Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance service offering, including exclusive reserved capacity for defined European areas of interest, with data delivered through Italian ground stations and EU-based cloud infrastructure to reduce latency and enhance European data sovereignty. The MoU also outlines a phased pathway for deeper collaboration, including cooperation on payload technologies such as RF localization, E/O and hyperspectral, manufacturing and hosting on respective systems, and expanded interoperability between HawkEye 360's RF analytics and Leonardo's sensing solutions. HawkEye 360 Chief Executive Officer John Serafini said the collaboration represents an important step in supporting European nations with reliable, integrated RF insights embedded within their own architectures, while Massimo Claudio Comparini, Managing Director of Leonardo's Space Division, said it strengthens Leonardo's role as a trusted European integrator of sovereign space-based intelligence.

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force assembled a fully integrated inert Sentinel missile at Vandenberg Space Force Base, clearing a key technical milestone ahead of flight testing planned for 2027. The missile was stacked vertically in its operational orientation during a four-month exercise known as Pathfinder, which tested whether the program team could transport, handle, stack and integrate the missile safely at a launch site. The exercise included all missile stages, propulsion elements, the protective shroud and related components, along with specialized transportation vehicles, mobile crane operations and launch pad interfaces; the inert missile was taken apart after the exercise. Separately, Northrop Grumman and the Air Force's 719th Test Squadron completed the first flight-test Critical Design Review, which determined that the missile's design maturity and hardware testing met Air Force requirements for performance, safety and scheduling. Amanda Davis, vice president and general manager of strategic deterrent systems at Northrop Grumman, said the vertical assembly demonstrates momentum toward test launching Sentinel in 2027 and having missiles on alert by the early 2030s. Northrop leads a nationwide Sentinel team of more than 500 suppliers and over 10,000 workers, and the planned system is intended to remain operational through 2075 as the Air Force replaces the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system.

AeroVironment's BlueHalo unit received a U.S. Air Force contract valued at up to $99.8 million for research and development supporting military space systems, the Pentagon announced Friday. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract covers the Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization program, with work to take place in Huntsville, Alabama and at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico through Aug. 29, 2031. The $99.8 million figure represents the contract's maximum potential value rather than guaranteed revenue; at the time of the award, the Air Force obligated about $1.7 million in fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funding to support two initial task orders with a combined ceiling of approximately $20.2 million. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland is managing the contract, which the Air Force described as competitive although only one offer was received. Shares of AeroVironment rose 4.8% by 11:16 a.m. ET on Monday following the announcement.

The United Arab Emirates is quietly reviewing plans for a 5-gigawatt artificial intelligence data center, one of the largest outside the United States, according to six people familiar with the matter. The original concept called for building a giant 10-square-mile data center campus in Abu Dhabi, but after reconsideration it is likely to be changed to a plan to distribute multiple data centers across the UAE. Authorities are also considering air defense systems and building some facilities underground to protect them from drone and missile attacks, and this is the first time a possible change to the plan's basic design has been reported. The plan was announced during U.S. President Trump's visit to the UAE last year and is central to a strategy led by state-linked company G42 aimed at moving away from oil dependence and becoming an AI power. In exchange for access to advanced technology such as AI semiconductors from U.S. firm Nvidia, the UAE has agreed to scale back its AI ties with China and to invest in the data center business of the U.S. Stargate initiative. The review began shortly after Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Gulf states hosting U.S. forces in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, and in March two Amazon Web Services data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain were attacked. According to two of the people, the planned construction site is near Al Dhafra Air Base on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, a location that had not previously been disclosed.

Frequency Electronics reported record revenue of $23.5 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 70% year-over-year and 52% sequentially, sending the stock more than 24% higher in after-hours trading. The company said the results raised its confidence in meeting or beating its previously stated target of at least $150 million in annual revenue by fiscal 2029, which ends April 30, 2029. Frequency Electronics also ended the quarter with a record funded backlog of $129 million, up 82% year-over-year and 16% sequentially. Gross margin expanded to approximately 46% and operating margin surpassed 22%, and the company said it expects to remain cash-generative on an annual basis. Management said internal research and development expenses are expected to remain below 10% of revenue, though production ramp-up remains a challenge and the company has seen limited traction with new defense technology companies, with most of its success coming from the space market.

North Korea fired multiple missiles into the Sea of Japan today, after South Korea, Japan and the United States wrapped up their trilateral joint drills. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were launched from the Wonsan area in eastern North Korea at about 05:20 and flew roughly 250 kilometres. The Freedom Edge exercise ran from Monday to Friday and covered real-time information sharing as well as coordination of air, maritime, missile defence, cyber and medical capabilities. Earlier, North Korean Defence Minister Kim Song Gi criticised the drills as a major security threat, pledging to take strong and appropriate countermeasures. The latest launch came three weeks after North Korea fired about 12 short-range ballistic missiles eastward from an area near Pyongyang on 20 August.

Britain's Ministry of Defence became the first government outside the United States to publicly confirm it uses Starshield, the military variant of Starlink built by SpaceX, a disclosure Reuters reported on September 10 that included UK spending of nearly $40 million on the company's satellite services. The UK deployment is small in dollar terms but operational, with the capped Starshield service tier in Britain including five terabytes of monthly data and per-terminal hardware starting at £4,000. SpaceX has already booked over $6 billion in multi-year U.S. government Starshield contracts from Space Force for LEO-based communications and sensing, and Gwynne Shotwell told analysts on the second-quarter call that the company won more than $6 billion in U.S. contracts in Q2 supporting major Space Force programs. Enterprise & Government revenue reached $1.806 billion in the quarter, up 108% year over year, driven by airline partnerships and Starshield, while Starlink ended the quarter with 12.0 million subscribers and Connectivity revenue of $4.29 billion, up 66% year over year. SpaceX spent $18.37 billion in capex in the quarter, with $15.83 billion directed to AI compute infrastructure, while posting a $541 million net loss, and the FY 2027 Space Force request includes $9.8 billion in Satellite Communication and $10.8 billion in Space-Based Sensing and Targeting.

Iran has been found to have resumed production of ballistic missiles at an underground facility using stockpiled components. US and Middle Eastern officials were reported to have revealed this. Despite heavy attacks on missile-related facilities in the early stages of the war, Iran is now proceeding with the assembly of liquid-fuel missiles, which require fueling immediately before launch, and solid-fuel missiles, which can be stored in a launch-ready state.

Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose for an eighth consecutive session on the 10th, as buying accelerated amid escalating Middle East tensions. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate broke through $100 a barrel in morning trading and settled at $102.48 a barrel, up $6.43, or 6.69%, from the previous day, marking its highest level in roughly four months since mid-May. Market pessimism over an early return to normal in the Middle East has deepened after U.S. President Trump suggested on the 9th that a military campaign against Iran would conclude only after the U.S. midterm elections in November. On the 10th, reports that Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militant group is strengthening its control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait along the Red Sea coast, along with reports that Saudi Arabia's crude output fell sharply last month, raised concerns that energy shipments through the Red Sea, in addition to the Strait of Hormuz, could also be threatened. Amid the surge in crude prices, stocks fell for a fourth straight session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 316.56 points at 52,064.10 and the Nasdaq Composite closing 171.62 points lower at 26,081.72.

SpaceX is overhauling how it builds its data centers, a shift that could slow the pace of new construction, according to a report from The Information. A new management team drawn from the company's rocket division is prioritizing reliability over speed, installing more backup power and cooling systems and testing them more thoroughly before data centers go live, a departure from the rapid buildout of the Colossus campus in Tennessee, where xAI brought its first data center online in just 122 days. That speed brought trade-offs including frequent outages, and a construction-related outage at the Memphis facility last week knocked some Grok models offline and affected compute customers including Anthropic and Google. More than a dozen data-center leaders have left in recent weeks and been replaced by SpaceX engineers, and CEO Elon Musk wrote on X after the outage that the company was taking corrective action to ensure it does not happen again. Separately, Reuters reported that the UK has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX satellite services, including around $17.6 million on Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink with enhanced encryption, and $22.3 million on standard Starlink, deploying about 1,000 Starshield and 500 Starlink terminals, making the UK the first country outside the US to publicly acknowledge using Starshield. The gains came as SpaceX absorbed new share supply, with about 319 million insider shares, around 7% of insider stock, becoming eligible for sale on Wednesday, the 90-day mark since SpaceX's June 12th IPO. SpaceX went public at $135 a share in June, raising a record $85.7 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation while floating less than 5% of its stock.

AeroVironment reported record first quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $480 million, with funded backlog of $1.5 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $53 million and bookings of $683 million, and reaffirmed its full-year guidance. The company reiterated fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of between $2.125 billion and $2.225 billion, adjusted EBITDA of between $305 million and $325 million, and non-GAAP adjusted EPS between $3.02 and $3.34. Funded backlog rose 37% from the same period last year, and total funded and unfunded backlog stood at approximately $2.8 billion, with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.4x for the quarter. The Autonomous Systems segment contributed $346 million, or 72% of total company revenue, while the Space, Cyber and Directed Energy segment contributed $134.5 million, or 28%. Among the quarter's awards, AeroVironment won a nearly $465 million contract for the U.S. Army's Enduring High-Energy Laser program, described as the first ever production contract for directed energy systems in U.S. military history, and a sole-source $500 million IDIQ for its Titan RF platform under the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 Domestic Shield program, which included an initial $80 million contract tied to the Golden Dome initiative.

US President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iran over activity at Pickaxe Mountain, which is suspected of being linked to a nuclear programme, threatening that if Iran proceeds with reviving its nuclear programme, the United States may have to respond with heavy strikes. Speaking on Wednesday at a Republican Party convention ahead of the midterm elections, Trump said the United States had observed certain activity at Pickaxe Mountain and warned Iran against actions that could be considered provocative. An analysis of satellite imagery by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published on Wednesday, found that in 2026 there was more movement on roads around Pickaxe Mountain than at any time since monitoring of the area began, along with a clear increase in construction activity. The latest data suggests activity in the area may be shifting from excavation to internal construction and reinforcement of external structures. However, CSIS said it could neither confirm nor refute reports that Iran has moved uranium enrichment centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain. Still, the rapid increase in activity in the area, located only about 2 kilometres from the former nuclear facility at Natanz, is suspicious and warrants close attention. Tensions rose further when Iran disclosed on Wednesday that it had fired long-range missiles at a US base in Jordan and attacked 10 vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping channel that normally carries about 20% of the world's oil. Earlier, US Central Command, or CENTCOM, said US forces had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which used missiles to attack US Navy warships twice within two days. As a result, the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged past 100 dollars a barrel for the first time since July before trading on Thursday morning at around 100.40 dollars a barrel, down 0.8%. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6% to 95.51 dollars a barrel.

Key advisers to President Donald Trump are warning that the war between the United States and Iran could drag on for the remainder of Trump's term. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have discussed the possibility that the conflict with Iran will extend beyond the presidential inauguration in January 2029. Those internal discussions differ sharply from many of Trump's and his advisers' public statements, which indicated the war was nearing an end. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the war would end immediately after the midterm elections in November. The war is set to enter its seventh month in September, far longer than Trump's original target of a four-to-six-week operation. Oil prices surged past 100 US dollars a barrel this week amid a renewed outbreak of military operations between the two sides, and Trump and Republicans are facing growing public discontent over the Iran war, including its impact on the cost of living, a trend analysts say could affect the party's chances in the midterm elections.

West Texas and Brent crude prices closed at their highest levels since May 22 after Iran and the United States traded attacks on oil tankers, the largest such strikes since the war began. The October contract for West Texas crude closed at 96.05 dollars per barrel, up 3.02 dollars, or 3.25%. The November contract for North Sea Brent closed at 101.21 dollars per barrel, up 3.29 dollars, or 3.4%, after touching an intraday high of 101.58 dollars per barrel. A senior Iranian official said Tehran is ready for an intensified war and will escalate retaliatory strikes if the United States continues to attack Iranian territory and infrastructure. The United States succeeded in pushing through a resolution condemning Iran, opening the way to refer Iran's nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council and paving the way for new military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. President Donald Trump said the United States is considering new strikes on Iran's suspected nuclear activities.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched missile strikes on a base in Jordan used by the US military, and attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, following the US destruction of five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday, marking a sharp escalation in the six-month-old conflict. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the retaliatory strikes on Iranian vessels were in response to two previous IRGC attempts to attack US warships with ballistic missiles. Meanwhile, the Jordanian government stated that its air defense systems intercepted 18 of 20 Iranian missiles, with no reports of casualties. Iran's attacks covered two US vessels and eight oil tankers in an area Iran has declared a no-go zone, pushing Brent crude oil prices close to $100 per barrel amid concerns that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz could face further disruption. Tensions also rose after Yemen's Houthi group attacked several cities in Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 people and causing fires at multiple oil facilities.

The United States has retaliated against Iran by destroying five oil tankers and imposing sanctions on Iran's aviation sector, amid escalating clashes in the Middle East. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that US warships successfully evaded attacks with no injuries. Four ships were attacked in the Gulf of Oman: M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco. Another, the M/T Derya, was attacked near Iran's Kharg Island. On Saturday, US forces destroyed three Iranian oil tankers in response to IRGC missile attacks on US aircraft carriers and destroyers. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran will lose an oil tanker every time it attempts to attack US warships. Additionally, the US announced sanctions on Iranian airlines and dozens of companies supporting the aviation sector, including in Turkey and the UAE. The US Treasury stated it has sanctioned 36 targets supporting Iran's transport of weapons and personnel, and found at least three Boeing 777 aircraft that were diverted through the UAE and Oman. Meanwhile, Houthi attacks on four cities in southern Saudi Arabia injured 73 people, and Iran launched missile attacks on US bases in Jordan, but Jordan's air defense intercepted 18 of 20 missiles, with no fatalities.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for October delivery closed at $93.03 per barrel, up $1.55, or 1.7%, while Brent crude closed at $97.92 per barrel, up 92 cents, or 0.9%, hitting a six-week high. This follows a Houthi attack on four cities in southern Saudi Arabia, injuring more than 70 people and causing fires at oil infrastructure, raising the risk of a wider Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. struck an Iranian oil tanker linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in retaliation for attacks on U.S. warships. The UK is preparing to sanction Israeli settlements in the West Bank by banning imports of goods from the area, expected to take effect in 6-9 months. The EU and Canada are moving forward with a new relationship covering trade and security to counterbalance the U.S. and China. Chevron plans to more than double its drilling rigs in Venezuela under a five-year plan, as its joint venture will invest over $7 billion to boost production to 600,000 barrels per day by 2031. The U.S. Treasury Secretary said the expansion of the bond buyback program aims to cool the market, while pushing for a plan to reduce the budget deficit through Congress by year-end. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iran's airline and supporting companies, including Mahan Air, totaling 36 entities. China issued guidelines for managing AI disputes and accelerated patent approvals, while Chinese banks increased their holdings of government bonds to 16.4% of total assets in July, up from 11.5% five years ago. SoftBank is preparing to raise $10-20 billion through high-yield bonds to invest in AI, and Qualcomm revealed that Amazon will order AI chips worth up to $60 billion.

U.S. stock futures were mixed on Tuesday as investors returned from the Labor Day holiday and assessed higher oil prices, rising bond yields, upcoming economic data, and expectations for the Federal Reserve's September policy meeting. Dow Jones Futures fell 0.8% to 53,013 points, S&P 500 Futures declined 0.3% to 7,691.3 points, and Nasdaq 100 Futures were unchanged at 29,593 points. Investors are awaiting the weekly ADP Employment Change report and a Treasury auction of three-year notes, which will provide indications of labor-market conditions and investor appetite for U.S. debt. President Donald Trump called for an immediate end to Bombardier sales in the United States, a market that accounts for more than half of the Canadian aircraft manufacturer's revenue. Geopolitical tensions remained elevated after Iran threatened to establish a maritime exclusion zone across the Persian Gulf in response to U.S. economic warfare. Brent crude advanced 1.4% to a six-week high, trading near $99 a barrel, as markets assessed the potential for disruption to regional energy supplies.

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone Group, and Telefónica, four major European telecom operators, are in early discussions to establish a consortium to participate in the EU's satellite frequency auction and provide direct-to-mobile communications services. Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The four companies aim to jointly win the allocation of the 2 GHz band that the EU reserves for operators within the bloc, but a final decision has not yet been made. In May, the EU announced plans to allocate most satellite frequencies for mobile phones to European companies. The European Commission will allocate two-thirds of the frequencies for the multi-orbit satellite constellation "IRIS2," consisting of 290 satellites, to commercial use, and distribute them equally between EU and non-EU operators. The consortium is expected to bid for the EU operator quota. IRIS2 is Europe's initiative to counter SpaceX's Starlink.

Iran is set to announce a new maritime no-go zone in the Persian Gulf within the coming days, along with a map of international shipping corridors through the Strait of Hormuz. This has pushed Brent crude oil prices up 0.8%, holding above $97 per barrel, following a new wave of military clashes. Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, revealed that the no-go zone will extend from the U.S. naval blockade line deep into the Persian Gulf. He warned that all ships passing through will be blacklisted, and Iran will only allow normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. ceases its sabotage, threats, and attacks on Iran. The latest tensions follow a strike by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including off the coast of Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export hub, in response to attacks on U.S. warships. Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said Kharg Island has been hit about 550 times but remains operational. Shipping data indicates that over the past 10 days, an average of only 10 commercial vessels per day have passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the lowest level since May. However, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz and bypass pipelines remain at an average of over 9 million barrels per day, or at least two-thirds of pre-conflict levels, and that the U.S. Navy maintains control. The war between the U.S.-Israel and Iran has entered its sixth month after the initial ceasefire agreement in June collapsed, with diplomatic efforts stalled.

The European Union (EU) is set to announce a major investment plan in Greenland today (Sept. 7), covering critical minerals, satellite communications, and renewable energy, amid efforts by President Donald Trump to make Greenland part of the United States. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a visit to Nuuk, Greenland's capital, on Sunday (Sept. 6) that the investment package would be "substantial," but did not disclose details. The visit is seen as a show of support for the governments of Greenland and Denmark. Meanwhile, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Greenland wants to continue its close friendship and good partnership with the EU. Von der Leyen's trip comes amid the Arctic region's growing geopolitical importance to powers such as the U.S., Russia, China, and Europe, as melting ice opens new shipping routes and increases access to the region's mineral resources. Von der Leyen said on platform X that Greenland's stunning landscapes and beautiful nature made a strong impression, but the signs of climate change on the ice sheet were also clearly visible. The Greenland issue has become a point of tension between the U.S. and the EU after President Donald Trump pushed the idea of the U.S. taking control of Greenland, arguing that Denmark, a NATO member, cannot protect the territory. Reports indicate that tensions eased after Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed in Davos in January to have the U.S., Denmark, and Greenland begin negotiations to resolve the dispute, while NATO would increase its security role in the Arctic. However, no agreement has been reached among the three parties, and at the NATO summit in Turkey in July, Trump reiterated his stance that the U.S. should take control of Greenland. The EU has continuously provided financial support to Greenland, mainly for fishing rights payments and education system support, but officials said the new package to be announced by von der Leyen would not only significantly increase funding but also expand investment to other sectors.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the United States may not be able to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran and may instead turn to destroying Iran's potential to develop nuclear weapons. As the conflict drags into its seventh month, Wright said on ABC News' "This Week" that a deal may have to wait for Iran's next government, and that the US will continue strikes to reduce Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons, noting that this effort has been ongoing for 47 years and will work with regional partners. Meanwhile, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of Parliament and chief negotiator of Iran, warned that the next retaliation will be faster, more severe, and more painful, while acknowledging that Iran's economy faces pressure from inflation, unemployment, and exchange rate volatility. The statement came after US forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers, permanently disabling two and striking a third in the Gulf of Oman, in response to missile fire by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at US warships. Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said that if Iran fires at US ships, they will destroy their oil tankers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed the same stance on platform X. The conflict has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil, and the US continues to impose sanctions and economic pressure on Iran. The World Bank expects Iran's economy to contract by 2.7% and inflation to surge to 62.2% in February.

Crude oil futures extended gains in Asian trading on the 7th, with Brent crude up 52 cents to $96.80 per barrel and US WTI futures up 66 cents to $92.14. The US and Iran have continued tit-for-tat tanker attacks around the Strait of Hormuz, heightening concerns over supply disruptions from the Middle East. Last week, Brent rose 7.8% and WTI gained about 10%. The US Central Command attacked three Iranian crude tankers on the 5th, while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had targeted three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three US-linked vessels. Maritime intelligence firm Mariskus noted that commercial tankers are being deliberately used as a tool of economic pressure, undermining traditional norms. Kepler data shows that the average daily number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz over the past 10 days was 10, the lowest since May. Iran has declared a restricted zone outside the strait, while OPEC+ has kept its October production policy unchanged. ANZ expects prolonged confrontation as the most likely scenario, with export constraints lasting until the end of 2026 and a recovery in pre-war shipping volumes not expected until the latter half of the first quarter of 2027.

Planet Labs PBC raised its full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to between $430 million and $441 million after reporting record second-quarter revenue of $116 million, up about 58% year over year. The company also increased its capital expenditure plan to $100 million to $115 million for the year, up from a prior range of $80 million to $95 million, as it accelerates investment in its Owl satellite program, which will upgrade imagery resolution from 3-meter to 1-meter class and cut latency to as little as an hour. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $13.9 million, beating expectations, while non-GAAP gross margin was 59%. Management cited strength in Defense and Intelligence, which grew over 90% year over year, and noted a $4 billion pipeline of identified satellite services opportunities, with over 25% qualified as near-term. The company raised approximately $120 million through stock sales under its ATM program at an average net price of $31.96 per share.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US military is ready to launch further strikes on Iran "whenever they want," and denied reports that he intends to rename the Strait of Hormuz to the "Trump Strait," stating it was merely a suggestion that had been raised. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that Ukraine's attacks over the past 40 days have caused damage to the Russian economy equivalent to about 1% of GDP, but it has not reached a critical level. Russia also announced the suspension of its floating export duties on grain until the end of 2026, keeping the export duty rate at 0% to cope with the crisis of halted exports through the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov due to Ukrainian attacks, which have affected routes accounting for over 70% of all exports. In other news, New York City Mayor Soheran Mamdani announced a temporary ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary and middle school students for the upcoming school year. Uber Technologies announced it would lay off about 3,300 employees, or 10% of its workforce, to adapt to the wave of driverless taxis. The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced 11 defendants to death in a major drug trafficking case involving 227 accused individuals. The Dutch central bank moved about 86 tons of gold reserves, worth approximately 12 billion dollars, from the US and Canada to England amid geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile, Anthropic, the AI giant, has reconciled with the Trump administration after a court ruling in its favor in a dispute with the US Department of Defense. Malaysia's central bank kept its policy rate at 2.75% as expected, and Belgium reported 2,935 excess deaths from three heatwaves, representing a rate of 22.6%.