Daily Briefing — July 20, 2026 | Oil Tops $90 as Iran Strikes Continue, Big Tech's $6 Trillion Earnings Week Begins

Brent crude crosses ninety dollars a barrel for the first time in over a month as the U.S. military enters a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, reviving inflation fears at the exact moment the Federal Reserve is signaling a more hawkish stance than markets expected. We break down Kevin Warsh's June policy pivot, why thirty-year Treasury yields have climbed back above five percent, and what it means heading into this week's pivotal earnings reports from Alphabet, Tesla, and Intel — three companies with a combined market value north of six trillion dollars, reporting just as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slides into a bear market.We also cover Friday's broad-based selloff on Wall Street and in Europe, Berkshire Hathaway's standout defensive performance amid reports of major share buybacks, Uber's improved takeover offer for Delivery Hero, UniCredit's ongoing bid for a stake in Commerzbank, and the yen's slide to a four-decade low against the dollar as the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve pull further apart on policy. Plus: gold under pressure from rising yields, a preview of Thursday's European Central Bank meeting, and why a new open-weight AI model from China's Moonshot rattled an already-nervous chip sector.For informational purposes only. Not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice.