Last week, America’s collective attention was divided between two major events: the country’s 250th birthday and the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Both got wall-to-wall media coverage, while the June jobs report—which actually moved markets—settled for a press release and a shrug.

Last week, America’s collective attention was divided between two major events: the country’s 250th birthday and the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Both got wall-to-wall media coverage, while the June jobs report—which actually moved markets—settled for a press release and a shrug.

Jim Lydotes flips the timer on a retail energy deal, thinner consumer cushions, and how index rebalancing shows why investors should look beneath the market surface.

Highlights from the week of June 19 – June 25, 2026.

Last week, America's pre-birthday physical came back mixed. The labor market remains robust and spending is up. The number nobody wants elevated is inflation, which reached a three-year high. Factory orders are the bruise that looks worse than it is; blame aircraft.

As the stock market rally faces fresh uncertainty, another trend is emerging: margin debt is on the rise.

The back half of 2026 may hinge on six themes: AI spending, uneven growth, labor supply, sticky inflation, uneasy central banks, and volatile bond markets.

The Strait of Hormuz spent the spring operating as the most expensive parking lot in human history, a few hundred oil tankers idling in the Gulf and running up a tab the entire planet was somehow on the hook for. This week, the U.S.–Iran interim deal to reopen it stripped the risk premium that had been welded onto every barrel. Crude that had surged on the disruption reversed hard the moment the market decided the oil was no longer stuck.

​​Recent liquidity events related to portfolio companies in which PIF invests through its private equity holdings​.

Jim Lydotes flips the timer on our Grassroots Research on data centers, healthcare companies reinvesting AI dividends, and the breakdown in common value metrics.