The Open Bell — Ep. 074 — 2 Oct 2026
The US now has three aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf for the first time since 2012, and oil just crossed $102 a barrel, which means this weekend's petrol price is already …
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The Open Bell — Ep. 073 — 1 Oct 2026
The Fed's favorite inflation gauge, PCE, came in cooler than Wall Street expected for August, and the odds of another rate hike this month just collapsed, but mortgage rates are…
The Open Bell — Ep. 072 — 30 Sept 2026
The 30-year Treasury yield, which is what the US government pays to borrow money for three decades and the invisible hand behind your mortgage rate, just hit 5.62 percent, a lev…
The Open Bell — Ep. 071 — 29 Sept 2026
Trump rejected Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that carries a fifth of the world's oil, and Brent crude responded by surging past $107 a barrel, …
The Open Bell — Ep. 070 — 28 Sept 2026
Trump turned down Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil, and the market's response was instant: if t…
The Open Bell — Ep. 069 — 25 Sept 2026
Oil hit $108 a barrel this week before pulling back, and the real story isn't the number itself but what's underneath it: diesel is now $6.51 a gallon in the US, up 73% since th…
The Open Bell — Ep. 068 — 24 Sept 2026
The US and China extended their trade truce by two months instead of the six months markets were expecting, and that gap between what everyone assumed and what actually happened…
The Open Bell — Ep. 067 — 23 Sept 2026
Oil is sitting just under $100 a barrel and the reason your petrol bill, your mortgage rate, and your grocery prices are all still climbing at the same time traces back to one t…
The Open Bell — Ep. 066 — 22 Sept 2026
Oil briefly cracked below $100 a barrel on Monday, and the reason is almost too absurd to say out loud: Trump told a TV interviewer he'd "probably" be open to a meeting with Ira…
The Open Bell — Ep. 065 — 21 Sept 2026
Houthi forces struck Riyadh over the weekend, oil gapped higher on Sunday night, and even after pulling back this morning, we're close enough to $100 a barrel that your petrol p…
The Open Bell — Ep. 064 — 18 Sept 2026
The Fed raised interest rates for the first time in over three years this week, and Chair Kevin Warsh is already signaling another hike before the end of the year, which means t…
The Open Bell — Ep. 063 — 17 Sept 2026
The Fed raised interest rates for the first time in three years, and the unanimous 12-0 vote is the part they're not really talking about: there is no dissent, no daylight, and …
The Open Bell — Ep. 062 — 16 Sept 2026
The interest rate your mortgage tracks just cracked 5% for the first time since 2007, and the Fed meets today with traders almost certain they're about to push it higher still.
The Open Bell — Ep. 061 — 15 Sept 2026
Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, the only route that lets the country move seven million barrels a day without sailing past Iran, is confirmed gone end-to-end, Brent crude is …
The Open Bell — Ep. 060 — 14 Sept 2026
Core inflation came in hotter than forecast on Friday and there's now an 85% chance the Fed raises your borrowing costs again this week, which means the people who were hoping f…
The Open Bell — Ep. 059 — 11 Sept 2026
Oil cracked $107 a barrel overnight after fresh US-Iran clashes near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that roughly a fifth of the world's oil flows through, and if you t…
The Open Bell — Ep. 058 — 10 Sept 2026
The ECB just raised interest rates again, and the reason is a war the eurozone isn't even fighting: oil above $100 a barrel means European inflation is climbing back up, which m…
The Open Bell — Ep. 057 — 9 Sept 2026
Houthi drones hit Saudi oil infrastructure overnight and Brent crude, the global oil price benchmark, is pushing right up against $100 a barrel, which sounds like a geopolitics …
The Open Bell — Ep. 056 — 8 Sept 2026
Iran just declared a second restricted zone on top of the already-strangled Strait of Hormuz, Brent crude is closing in on $97 a barrel, and the question now isn't whether this …
The Open Bell — Ep. 055 — 7 Sept 2026
The US military sank three Iranian oil tankers over the weekend, and Brent crude is now pushing toward $97 a barrel, which means the geopolitical bill is already landing at the …
The Open Bell — Ep. 054 — 4 Sept 2026
Iran hit Kuwait with missiles and drones overnight, oil surged, and then gave back roughly half the gain in the same session once it became clear the White House is quietly movi…
The Open Bell — Ep. 053 — 3 Sept 2026
US forces have struck Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is hitting back, and Brent crude is up more than 5% in a single session to nearly $95 a barrel, because r…
The Open Bell — Ep. 052 — 2 Sept 2026
The US struck Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions across the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, oil jumped 5.2% in a single session, and if you're wondering what that means for the p…
The Open Bell — Ep. 051 — 1 Sept 2026
US forces have now struck Iranian positions in the Strait of Hormuz twice since July, Iran has fired back at American bases in Jordan, and oil is above $86 a barrel, which means…
The Open Bell — Ep. 050 — 31 Aug 2026
The new Fed Chair used his first Jackson Hole speech to tell the world that another rate hike is back on the table, and the September odds just jumped to 60%, which is a long wa…
The Open Bell — Ep. 049 — 28 Aug 2026
The Fed is openly split heading into Jackson Hole, with at least one regional president pushing for rate hikes while the rest of the world waits for Friday morning's speech from…
The Open Bell — Ep. 048 — 27 Aug 2026
The Fed's preferred inflation measure just came in hotter than expected, 3.7% year-over-year, and suddenly the question of whether the Fed raises interest rates again isn't as s…
The Open Bell — Ep. 047 — 26 Aug 2026
Nvidia just reported $93 billion in a single quarter, roughly 95% more than a year ago, and then told investors to expect even more, which raises a genuine question: at what poi…
The Open Bell — Ep. 046 — 25 Aug 2026
The US just threatened to cut off from the global dollar system any bank, anywhere on earth, that keeps doing business with Iran, and gave them a countdown clock to comply befor…
The Open Bell — Ep. 045 — 24 Aug 2026
The US government is now paying more to borrow money for 30 years than it has since before the first iPhone shipped, and the Treasury's attempt to calm the bond market lasted ab…
The Open Bell — Ep. 044 — 21 Aug 2026
Walmart just posted its weakest US sales growth in six years, low-income shoppers are pulling back hard under the weight of fuel costs, and the company's own leadership won't pr…
The Open Bell — Ep. 043 — 20 Aug 2026
The US Treasury just doubled its long-bond buyback cap to $4 billion a quarter, and whether you call it market management or something closer to the government quietly buying it…
The Open Bell — Ep. 042 — 19 Aug 2026
The US-Iran ceasefire expired yesterday with nothing to show for it, and Iran is now threatening to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries roughly one barrel …
The Open Bell — Ep. 041 — 18 Aug 2026
Iran's latest threats to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that carries roughly one in five barrels of oil shipped globally, are keeping crude above $84 a barrel, and tha…
The Open Bell — Ep. 040 — 17 Aug 2026
The US and Canada have 48 hours to cut a deal before a 50% tariff lands on roughly 20 billion dollars' worth of Canadian exports, and if they don't, the price of things like che…
The Open Bell — Ep. 039 — 14 Aug 2026
Inflation came in cooler in July and the White House is taking a bow, but real wages are still negative, meaning prices are still rising faster than most people's pay, and that'…
The Open Bell — Ep. 038 — 13 Aug 2026
The Strait of Hormuz has been nearly shut for six months now and the IEA says the world is heading into the third quarter short by 1.8 million barrels a day, which is the kind o…
The Open Bell — Ep. 037 — 12 Aug 2026
The July inflation number just came in hotter than expected, and the reason is pretty direct: the collapse of US-Iran peace talks sent oil prices climbing, and that cost has now…
The Open Bell — Ep. 036 — 11 Aug 2026
Iran's foreign minister just ruled out direct talks with Washington and renewed demands over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that 20% of the world's oil supply passes …
The Open Bell — Ep. 035 — 10 Aug 2026
The US economy shed jobs in July for the first time since February, and the bizarre part is that markets loved it, because bad news for workers still reads as good news for rate…
The Open Bell — Ep. 029 — 31 Jul 2026
The US economy slowed sharply in Q2 and inflation is finally cooling, but both things are happening for the same reason, which is that oil prices fell, which is itself a consequ…
The Open Bell — Ep. 028 — 30 Jul 2026
The Fed held rates steady again, but three of its own members wanted a hike, the bond market threw a fit, and long-term borrowing costs are now at levels most people haven't see…
The Open Bell — Ep. 027 — 29 Jul 2026
Iran fired ballistic missiles at US troops in the Middle East overnight, every one was intercepted, and oil prices surged more than 4% anyway, because markets don't price what h…
The Open Bell — Ep. 026 — 28 Jul 2026
South Korea had to hit the pause button on its entire stock market this morning as the global bet on AI spending started looking a lot shakier than it did last week.
The Open Bell — Ep. 025 — 27 Jul 2026
Oil just had its worst day in months, and the reason is genuinely good news: Iran and the US have agreed to stop hitting each other, at least for now, and the relief in energy m…
The Open Bell — Ep. 024 — 24 Jul 2026
Oil crossed $100 a barrel overnight because Houthi rebels in Yemen set fire to a Saudi tanker in the Red Sea, and if you're wondering what that has to do with your petrol bill, …
The Open Bell — Ep. 023 — 23 Jul 2026
Iran nuclear talks have collapsed, the U.S. is on its eleventh straight night of strikes on Iranian military facilities, and for the first time since this conflict started, two …
The Open Bell — Ep. 022 — 22 Jul 2026
Trump just hit Canada with 50% tariffs using a law that hasn't been touched since Herbert Hoover was in the White House and the Great Depression was still getting started, and i…
The Open Bell — Ep. 021 — 21 Jul 2026
Nine consecutive nights of US strikes on Iranian targets have pushed oil back above $90 a barrel, and if you think that's a story about geopolitics and not about your petrol bil…
The Open Bell — Ep. 020 — 20 Jul 2026
The US and Iran escalated over the weekend in ways that will show up at your petrol pump this week, with Brent crude clearing $90 a barrel after strikes hit vessels near the Str…
The Open Bell — Ep. 018 — 17 Jul 2026
TSMC, the Taiwanese company that makes the chips inside almost everything AI runs on, just reported its best earnings in years and its stock still fell more than 4%, which tells…
The Open Bell — Ep. 017 — 16 Jul 2026
The US struck Iranian targets overnight for the second time in as many days, oil is back above $80 a barrel, and the risk that the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that hand…
The Open Bell — Ep. 016 — 15 Jul 2026
US inflation posted its biggest monthly drop in six years, which sounds great until you find out the main reason it fell is already going into reverse.
The Open Bell — Ep. 015 — 14 Jul 2026
Trump has reimposed a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that carries a fifth of the world's seaborne oil, and slapped a 20% toll on everything that move…
The Open Bell — Ep. 014 — 13 Jul 2026
U.S. forces struck Iranian targets overnight and Brent crude is back above $79 a barrel, which means the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel that carries roughly a quarter of t…
The Open Bell — Ep. 011 — 9 Jul 2026
Trump just torched the Iran ceasefire deal and the U.S. bombed over 80 Iranian targets overnight, and the immediate consequence is sitting right there on the petrol station fore…
The Open Bell — Ep. 010 — 8 Jul 2026
The US struck more than 80 Iranian targets and revoked Iran's oil export waivers on the same day, and if you think that's just a geopolitics story, check your petrol app in a fo…
The Open Bell — Ep. 009 — 7 Jul 2026
SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 this morning, which means the index funds sitting in millions of retirement accounts had no choice but to buy $4.3 billion worth of Elon Musk's rock…
The Open Bell — Ep. 008 — 6 Jul 2026
US markets reopen after the long weekend and Nasdaq futures are already up nearly a percent, but the real story is what's inside the index now, because SpaceX just got added to …
The Open Bell — Ep. 006 — 3 Jul 2026
The Strait of Hormuz is half-blocked, LNG infrastructure is damaged, and the IEA is using words like "greatest threat to global energy security in history," which means the pric…
The Open Bell — Ep. 005 — 2 Jul 2026
Meta has spent years hoarding AI chips, and it's bought so many that it's now turning itself into a cloud computing business to lease the excess out, which apparently came as en…
The Open Bell — Ep. 004 — 1 Jul 2026
Oil just posted its worst quarter since the pandemic, down 38% in three months, and the story isn't just cheap petrol: it's that a collapse this big reshapes everything from Sau…
The Open Bell — Ep. 003 — 30 Jun 2026
The US and Iran agreed to stop shooting at each other across the Strait of Hormuz, and oil markets dropped so fast you'd think someone had flipped a switch, which is exactly wha…
The Open Bell — Ep. 002 — 29 Jun 2026
Venezuela's earthquake death toll has passed 1,450, the country's worst in over a century, and the fact that U.S. Marines are now surveying its main port tells you something imp…
The Open Bell — Ep. 001 — 23 Jun 2026
Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow channel that carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil — was closed, on the exact same day the US quietly granted Iran permissi…
The Open Bell — 19 Jun 2026
Brent is still above $100 and the ceasefire holding the Strait of Hormuz together is contested enough that calling it a ceasefire feels generous — this is the biggest oil supply…
The Open Bell — 18 Jun 2026
American consumers spent nearly twice what forecasters expected in May, which sounds like great news until you ask whether they're actually better off or just paying more for th…
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