Looking beyond the missile counts — and the struggle to manufacture dice in the US

Happy Wednesday, wonderful people. We may have regressed war-wise with a return of the US’ naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz after a barrage of airstrikes earlier this week between the US, Iran, and its Gulf neighbors, but we’ll get to that elsewhere in this morning’s issue.

The numbers we’re focusing on aren’t missile counts, but rather indicators that the market is choosing to look beyond Hormuz jitters. US inflation cooled to 3.5% in June, down from May’s three-year high, and the S&P still managed to close at a record 7,537, while Brent is still hovering below USD 90.

Don’t pass Go, don’t collect USD 200: Tariffs have gotten so knotty that a Monopoly importer tried to make the board game in the US to dodge the import duty, but the plan nearly crumbled as the company struggled to manufacture all the parts of the game — particularly the dice — domestically. Somewhere, the ghost of the game’s original anti-monopolist designer is having a very good day.

Elsewhere, researchers just debunked one of the oldest bits of desert folk wisdom — that baby rattlesnakes are deadlier than adults because they “can't control their venom.” Turns out the juveniles meter their dose just fine; it's the grown snakes that empty the tank.

We’re heading into the final stretch of the week with our eyes on a handful of things: More inflation prints and central-bank chatter to tell us whether “higher for longer” survives an oil scare, and a closer look at how Gulf carriers are repositioning fleets around the disruption. Plus, we’ll be waiting to see whether Argentina makes it through its semi-final match against England today, with the winner of that game set to face off against Spain next Sunday. –Salma