The week handed you a doubled Treasury buyback, a Hormuz thaw and a retaliatory tariff clock ticking toward September 8.

Every one of them lands on your book before Friday's Jackson Hole keynote reprices the long end. Here is how the pieces fit together, and where the exits and entries sit.

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The Big Picture

Energy

Foreign-Made Grid Equipment Faces a Major U.S. Ban

The United States has banned the purchase and installation of certain foreign-made equipment across the bulk electricity system, putting new security requirements around some of the hardware that keeps power moving across the country.

The restrictions cover equipment considered vulnerable to foreign interference, including the software and digital systems connected to it.

Energy officials can also review equipment already operating inside the grid and impose additional conditions where security concerns are found.

Utilities Face a Hardware Review

Modern electricity networks depend on equipment that can remain in service for decades. Replacing vulnerable components is therefore very different from updating ordinary software.

Utilities must identify alternative suppliers, secure replacement equipment, complete engineering work, and install new systems without disrupting electricity service.

Security concerns have intensified as more grid equipment becomes digitally connected and can communicate remotely. Undocumented communication devices discovered inside some foreign-made solar equipment have added to those concerns.

Power Security Becomes Industrial Demand

The restrictions arrive as electricity infrastructure expands to support data centers, factories, and rising power consumption. Utilities now have another requirement to consider when selecting the equipment behind that expansion.

Domestic and trusted suppliers of electrical hardware could gain new demand as power companies reassess where critical components come from.

Grid expansion is no longer only about generating more electricity. The equipment controlling that electricity is now becoming part of the country’s infrastructure security strategy.

Imports

America’s AI Buildout Is Starting to Show Up at the Border

The U.S. goods trade deficit widened sharply in July as imports climbed and exports moved lower, producing the largest monthly gap in more than a year.

A major part of the increase came from capital goods, including equipment tied to the enormous AI investment cycle now spreading across data centers, computing facilities, and power infrastructure.

American businesses are buying heavily from overseas to keep that buildout moving.

AI Spending Reaches the Trade Account

The surge shows how physical the AI boom has become. Companies need servers, electrical equipment, semiconductor machinery, cooling systems, and other specialized hardware before new computing capacity can come online.

Much of that equipment is still produced outside the United States. Strong imports can therefore signal healthy business investment even as they widen the trade deficit and reduce trade's contribution to headline economic growth.

Growth Comes With an Import Bill

Domestic demand for technology equipment remains strong, and economists expect capital-goods imports to stay elevated as AI projects continue through 2027. Exports are moving in the opposite direction, adding another layer to the imbalance.

July’s trade figures capture an unusual feature of the current expansion. Billions are being invested in new American computing infrastructure, but a meaningful share of the machinery needed to build it is still arriving from abroad.

The AI boom is strengthening business investment while simultaneously making the country’s import bill larger.

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Healthcare

A New Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Just Cleared the FDA

The FDA has approved Rasonque, a once-daily pill from Revolution Medicines for adults with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already received treatment or cannot undergo combination chemotherapy.

The drug targets RAS, a protein that drives most pancreatic cancers and has historically been extremely difficult to treat directly.

Approval arrived months ahead of the original review schedule following a large clinical trial in which patients taking Rasonque lived a median of 13.2 months, compared with 6.7 months on standard chemotherapy.

Treatment Moves Beyond Chemotherapy

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most aggressive major cancers, partly because it is often discovered after the disease has already spread.

Patients have long depended heavily on chemotherapy, leaving few options once initial treatment stops working.

Rasonque introduces a targeted oral medicine into that treatment path, giving doctors another way to attack the disease rather than relying solely on traditional chemotherapy.

Cancer Care Gains a New Treatment Route

The approval opens a new commercial and clinical category in oncology while adding another high-demand treatment to the U.S. healthcare system.

Hospitals, cancer centers, pharmacies, insurers, and specialist practices will now begin incorporating the medicine into care for eligible patients.

More than 2,000 people had already received Rasonque through an expanded-access program before approval, showing how much demand had built around the treatment.

The milestone also strengthens the case for targeting RAS across other cancers where the same protein helps drive tumor growth.

Metrics to Watch

• 📊 Q2 GDP (Second Estimate)
  Unrevised at 1.5% annualized. That's a soft number by post-pandemic standards but not recession territory. It gives Warsh room to argue growth is fine, and inflation is the priority. Watch how he frames it Friday.
  

• 📈 Core PCE
  This week's print kept a September rate hike alive, per Kitco and the CNBC survey. If Warsh confirms that read Friday, your rate-sensitive names (REITs, utilities, homebuilders) get hit again. If he pushes back, they run.
  

• 💹 10-Year Treasury Yield
  Sitting at 4.67%, roughly where it started the week and still elevated. The 10Y-2Y spread is holding near +44 basis points.
  
  A steepener signals the market wants the Fed to move, one way or the other. You want to see this either break below 4.50% or above 4.80% for a real signal.
  

• 🏛️ Unemployment Rate
  4.1% in July, down a tenth from June. Still below what the Fed considers full employment. As long as this stays under 4.5%, the Fed has no cover to cut. That is the number that pins policy.
  

• 💰 Precious Metals
  Gold and silver are pricing in something bigger than a routine rate cycle. Whether that's the debt reckoning Barkin flagged or dollar rotation out of Asia, you should hold at least a small position here. This move is not over.

Market Movers

🏛️ Warsh Takes the Podium Friday
Eighty percent of CNBC's Fed Survey respondents want Warsh to lay out his economic framework at Jackson Hole. Silence would spook the long end.

Clarity, in either direction, gets priced in fast. This is the single biggest catalyst on your calendar this quarter.

🌍 Canada's 50% Counter-Tariffs Land September 8
Ottawa is matching Trump's auto and steel tariffs dollar-for-dollar on $20 billion in US goods. That's real damage to Detroit, agriculture and industrials.

If you own US automakers or parts suppliers with heavy Canadian exposure, trim before September 8.

🛢️ Iran-Oman Hormuz Deal Reshapes Oil
Reports of a revenue-sharing agreement on the Strait pulled both WTI and Brent lower this week. A full reopening could push crude into the $70s.

That's disinflationary and dovish for the Fed, but bad for your energy overweight. XLE has already given back some ground.

💵 Treasury Buyback Doubles to $4B
Bessent's move to double quarterly repurchases signals Treasury is willing to intervene at the long end. Bond option traders are piling into calls.

If you've been sitting on cash, TLT and IEF start looking interesting into any dovish surprise from Warsh.

Market Impacts

📈 Equities: The S&P 500 sits at 7,675.70, the Dow at 53,463.88 and the Nasdaq at 26,130.20. Tech led again with semis snapping back after a rough stretch.

But breadth was ugly under the surface, with staples down more than 1% and five of eleven S&P sectors red. You want to see broader participation before adding.

🏦 Bonds: The 10-year sits at 4.67% and the 2-year at 4.23%, with the curve still gently steepening. Yields ticked higher on the PCE print but were capped by Bessent's buyback announcement.

Options flow suggests a rally is being positioned for. If you own duration, hold. If you don't, look for an entry after Warsh speaks.

💱Currencies: The dollar caught a bid after this week's data as September hike bets nudged higher. The yen slipped to near 159.40 on the Treasury buyback news. The Canadian dollar is the one to watch: with retaliatory tariffs incoming, it has further to fall.

🛢️Commodities: WTI is at $81.70, down for a fourth straight session on the Hormuz talks. Copper near $6.67 held firm.

But the real story is precious metals: gold and silver are both up sharply on the year. That is your debt-and-dollar hedge, and the crowd is finally catching on.

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Key Indicators to Watch

• 📅 Friday, August 28. Warsh Jackson Hole Keynote: The most important central bank speech of the year, full stop. Sets the tone for the September FOMC and every rate-sensitive trade in your book. Do not be leveraged into this.
  

• 📅 Tuesday, September 2. ISM Manufacturing PMI: The manufacturing sector has been contracting for months. Any sub-48 print reinforces the case that industrial demand is rolling over. A bounce above 50 changes the reflation narrative.
  

• 📅 Wednesday, September 3. JOLTS Job Openings: The labor market's tell. If openings fall under 7 million, you're seeing real slack finally emerge, and that gives the Fed cover to ease.
  

• 📅 Monday, September 8. Canada's Retaliatory Tariffs Take Effect: 50% duties on autos, steel and $20 billion of US goods. Watch auto suppliers, agriculture and industrials for the immediate hit.

Everything Else

• 🏦 The Bank of Korea held rates steady as stronger growth and persistent inflation outweighed pressure to support the economy with easier policy.

• 🏭 China’s industrial profits improved in July, offering a tentative sign that factory conditions are stabilizing after months of weak demand.

• 💷 British households are seeing mortgage costs rise as higher bond yields feed through to borrowing costs and threaten to cool housing activity.

• 📊 Euro zone economic confidence strengthened in August as services and consumer sentiment improved despite continued weakness in manufacturing.

• 🏠 Australian housing credit growth accelerated again, keeping pressure on policymakers as strong borrowing and home prices complicate the inflation outlook.