US stocks rallied on the back of de-escalating tensions in the Middle East, dovish comments from several Federal Reserve officials, reports that the U.S. and China signed a new trade deal, and comments from several U.S. government officials indicating that more trade deals were close to the finish line. The S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite, up 3.4% and 4.3%, respectively, both closed at record highs. On the macro side, Core PCE, Fed’s preferred inflation measure showed modest uptick in May, up 2.7% yoy. S&P Global reported that U.S. business activity expanded in June, albeit at a moderately slower rate than in May. U.S. Treasury yields decreased in response to some of the week’s softer-than-expected economic data as well as comments from several Fed officials indicating rate cuts could be on the table sooner than many have been anticipating. The STOXX Europe 600 Index ended 1.3% higher as the promise of German economic stimulus and increased military spending by NATO buoyed stocks. Japan’s stock markets advanced strongly over the week, with the Nikkei 225 Index gaining 4.6%. The dollar was dumped for the third week in the last four, closing at its weakest since February 2022. Gold fell for the second week in a row. Crude WTI oil price was down almost 13% on the week - the worst since March 2023 as it erased all the geopolitical premium. Bitcoin had its best week in almost two months, back above $108k intraday.