US-Israel war with Iran enters Day 8 — over 1,200 dead, Strait of Hormuz effectively closed
Coordinated US and Israeli strikes have killed 1,230+ in Iran, 200+ in Lebanon. Iran is retaliating with ballistic missiles against Israel and Gulf states. Trump approved a new $151M arms sale to Israel and said he won't negotiate without Iran's 'unconditional surrender.' The US claims 3,000+ targets struck in the first week. 'March for Peace' protests are scheduled across the US today.
Read more →Markets got hit hard Friday. The S&P dropped 1.33% and the Nasdaq fell 1.59% — the primary driver is the Middle East war. Oil is at $92/barrel (Brent) after surging ~30% in a week as the Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut down. That's ~20% of global oil and LNG supply choked off. Gas at the pump is already up to $3.32/gal nationally and analysts say $3.50 is coming fast. Rising energy costs are reigniting inflation fears and kicking rate-cut bets down the road. Safe-haven plays (gold, silver) caught a bid. Your energy-adjacent names (UUUU, NLR, XLU) are worth watching in this environment — this is exactly the macro scenario that moves them.
Tatum is back and looked real. 15/12/7 in 27 minutes — not a full-throttle effort, but the reads were clean, the movement looked fluid, and the Celtics won by 20. That's everything you needed to see. Watch the next 3-4 games to see how the burst develops as the minutes restriction comes off.
AI is eating the ad industry from the inside out — and the brands that don't adapt operationally are already behind.
Play-Doh Was a Wallpaper Cleaner (And Wrigley Started Selling Soap)
In the 1930s, a soap company called Kutol Products invented a pliable putty to clean soot off wallpaper. It worked well — until coal heating declined after WWII and nobody needed their wallpaper cleaned anymore. The company was heading toward bankruptcy when a nursery school teacher suggested repurposing the compound as a children's toy. They added colors, renamed it Play-Doh, and launched in 1956. It became one of the most iconic toys in American history. This is not a unique story. Wrigley's chewing gum was originally a free premium thrown in with baking powder — customers cared more about the gum than the actual product, so Wrigley pivoted the entire company. Nokia started as a Finnish paper mill in 1865. Samsung began as a trading company selling dried fish and noodles in 1938. The company you think of as a phone company or electronics giant started by shipping groceries. The pattern: the most valuable thing a company builds is often the byproduct of what they were actually trying to do. Play-Doh wasn't an invention — it was a pivot from failure. The skill isn't just building something; it's recognizing when the accidental output is worth more than the original plan. In a world where everyone is building AI tools and features, this is worth sitting with: what are you accidentally making?
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