Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on Sunday that his country is not intimidated by the United States increasing its military presence in the Middle East. Speaking at a forum in Tehran, Araghchi stressed that Iran will not give up its nuclear program, even if a conflict “is imposed on us” as it is its right. “Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment,” he noted. Araghchi’s comments came after another round of negotiations with the US on Iran’s nuclear status. Afterward, he said that Tehran is ready for peace, but also for a conflict with the US.
NN: I am wafting. I believe the US and Israel will attack
CAIRO, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Iran will strike U.S. bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by U.S. forces that have massed in the region, its foreign minister said on Saturday, insisting that this should not be seen as an attack on the countries hosting them. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi spoke to Qatari Al Jazeera TV a day after Tehran and Washington pledged to continue indirect nuclear talks following what both sides described as positive discussions on Friday in Oman.
The Reuters Gulf Currents newsletter brings you the latest on geopolitics, energy and finance in the region. Sign up here. While Araqchi said no date had yet been set for the next round of negotiations, U.S. President Donald Trump said they could take place early next week. “We and Washington believe it should be held soon,” Araqchi said. Trump has threatened to strike Iran after a U.S. naval buildup in the region, demanding that it renounce uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear bombs, as well as stopping ballistic missile development and support for armed groups around the region. Tehran has long denied any intent to weaponise nuclear fuel production. While both sides have indicated readiness to revive diplomacy over Tehran’s long-running nuclear dispute with the West, Araqchi balked at widening the talks out. “Any dialogue requires refraining from threats and pressure. (Tehran) only discusses its nuclear issue … We do not discuss any other issue with the U.S.,” he said. Last June, the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, joining in the final stages of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Tehran has since said it has halted uranium enrichment activity. Its response at the time included a missile attack on a U.S. base in Qatar, which maintains good relations with both Tehran and Washington. In the event of a new U.S. attack, Araqchi said the consequences could be similar. “It would not be possible to attack American soil, but we will target their bases in the region,” he said. “We will not attack neighbouring countries; rather, we will target U.S. bases stationed in them. There is a big difference between the two.” Iran says it wants recognition of its right to enrich uranium, and that putting its missile programme on the negotiating table would leave it vulnerable to Israeli attacks
NN: This is called playing a losing hand. And Iran is flirting with the end of the Ayatollah reign of terror. Its simple move the US assets as in fly the planes off the venerable bases. This is coming to a head.
Hedge funds turned the most bullish on Brent crude since early April as traders hedged against the risk of a military conflict between the US and Iran and potential supply disruptions from the OPEC member. Money managers increased their net-long stance on Brent crude by 31,332 lots to 278,249 lots in the week ended Feb. 3, the highest in nearly 10 months, data from ICE Futures Europe show. Bullish bets on US West Texas Intermediate oil also rose to a six-month high, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Persistent tensions between the US and Iran have driven investors to raise bullish bets on both benchmarks for four consecutive weeks. The two countries appeared to square off at sea and in the air on Tuesday, reviving a risk premium that eventually ebbed as plans for nuclear talks took shape.
Bullish Brent Bets Rise to Highest Since April
Hedge funds increased long bets amid Iran-US tensions
Source: ICE, Bloomberg
The sustained bullishness was also reflected deeper within the options market and beyond. WTI bullish call options settled at their biggest premium to bearish puts since 2022 at one point this week, while a major oil-linked exchange-traded product saw its biggest inflow since 2020.
NN: As you may recall we informed you of the record hedge fund shorts in December. And we had you double down on the $58.39 low. And we have enjoyed a $10.00 rally since then. In fact Unit 1 cash machine is now in small profits. I am sitting here looking forward to $100.00 as the Ayatollah and the Red murderers are sent to their 62 virgins.
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% duty on “any country” that “directly or indirectly” purchases, imports, or acquires goods and services from Iran. Furthermore, Trump stated that the executive order may be modified in case foreign nations decide to retaliate against the new tariff. The measure comes amid Washington’s increased pressure against Iran and shortly after negotiations about the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program in Oman. The new levy could affect nations such as China, a major importer of Iranian oil.
On February 6, 2026, the U.S. Treasury and State Department sanctioned 15 entities, 2 individuals, and 14 vessels for their involvement in shipping Iranian oil. This action targeted Iran’s “shadow fleet” and aimed to disrupt the funding of destabilizing activities. The sanctions focus on blocking these vessels and companies from facilitating Iranian oil exports. This move also highlights ongoing U.S. efforts to curtail Iran’s oil trade.
Here is the press release:
The Department of State is sanctioning 15 entities, two individuals, and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade in Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products. These targets have generated revenue that the regime uses to conduct its malign activities.
Instead of investing in the welfare of its own people and crumbling infrastructure, the Iranian regime continues to fund destabilizing activities around the world and step up its repression inside Iran.
So long as Iranian regime attempts to evade sanctions and generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund such oppressive behavior and support terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will act to hold both the Iranian regime and its partners accountable.
The President is committed to driving down the Iranian regime’s illicit oil and petrochemical exports under the Administration’s maximum pressure campaign.
All Department of State targets are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13846, which authorizes and reimposes certain sanctions with respect to Iran, and in furtherance of President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 2. For more information, please see the Department’s Fact Sheet and Treasury’s Press Releases.
A new round of indirect nuclear talks between the US and Iran in the Omani capital Muscat concluded, Iranian state TV IRIB reported on Friday.Following negotiations between delegations led by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi (pictured left), the latter told reporters that the talks were “positive” and that the parties had decided to continue negotiations. He added that the precise timing and location of the next round are still to be decided. “These consultations focused on creating the right conditions for the resumption of diplomatic and technical negotiations, while emphasizing the importance of these talks, given the parties’ commitment to their success in achieving lasting security and stability,” Iranian state-affiliated news agency Tasnim elaborated on the subject.
Bitcoin rebounded sharply on Friday, reversing a recent selloff that had dragged the token below $70,000 for the first time since 2024, as investors appeared to look past earlier doubts about crypto’s role. The move suggests improving risk appetite after days of caution driven by geopolitical and macroeconomic tensions. The jump also comes as investors move away from precious metals, which resumed their decline, sliding around 10% toward the $65 level after a brief attempt to stabilize following historic losses. At 1:03 am ET, Bitcoin, the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, soared 6.11%, trading at $66,591.700, while Ether gained 7.66% at $1,962.8917.
NN: For the record we took another 32K last night closing out for the 3rd time $100,000 We will be selling again soon. I want to give the dippers another chance to “by the bottom”
By the way the famous crypto cheerleaders are suffering horrific losses. Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies reported a large net loss of over 9 billion dollars recently, mainly due to the crash in their Ethereum holdings.
BitMine Immersion Technologies reported a large net loss of about 5.2 billion dollars recently, mainly due to swings in their Ethereum holdings. They hold around 4.2 million Ethereum tokens, which is about 3.5 percent of Ethereum’s supply. Their stock has been very volatile, and while they had a profitable period last year, the recent losses are tied closely to the crypto market’s moves. In short, their performance depends heavily on Ethereum’s value.
The crypto market in 2026 has seen large losses, with overall values down by 25 to 40 percent. Bitcoin and Ethereum have both dropped significantly. Coinbase’s stock is down about 45 percent in the last three months, and while some crypto funds have seen around 9 to 18 percent losses recently, detailed fund-by-fund returns are not fully public yet. Overall, the sector is facing a difficult period, and many crypto funds are likely underwater this year
This is just a sampling of the massive loses. I believe the loses are much higher because of massive leverage and i believe they are un funded
Bitcoin tumbled below $70,000 as the unwinding of leveraged bets and broader market turbulence deepened a selloff that has wiped out all of the gains since President Donald Trump’s election set off a speculative rush into cryptocurrencies. The token fell as much as 8.6% Thursday to $66,364, the lowest since October 2024, before steading around $67,000 by the middle of the trading day in New York. The rout has erased nearly half of Bitcoin’s value since it reached a record four months ago and has spread to other tokens, related ETFs and companies like Strategy Inc. that hold vast sums of coins. Bitcoin trades below $70,000 for the first time since November of 2024. A selloff has wiped out all of Bitcoin’s gains since the election of President Donald Trump. Bloomberg’s Muyao Shen reports. The downturn has marked an abrupt retreat from Bitcoin’s meteoric rise through much of last year, when the return of the crypto-friendly Republican to the White House sent investors piling into such tokens and the Wall Street vehicles that have sprouted up around them. The market started cracking this month as rising geopolitical tensions sent tremors across global financial markets and curbed risk taking. That sparked Bitcoin’s precipitous decline from mid-January and set off a self-reinforcing cycle of selling as funds liquidated assets to meet redemptions and unwind leveraged bets.
“The fear and uncertainty across the market is evident,” said Chris Newhouse, head of business development at Ergonia. “Without conviction-based buyers willing to lean into the selling, each wave of ETF redemptions and liquidation cascades.” He said that’s “amplifying the magnitude of each leg lower and reinforcing the defensive positioning that’s keeping organic demand on the sidelines.”
Bitcoin Slump
Largest token’s decline leads significant market wipeout since October peak
Source: CoinGecko
The slide has echoes of the one in 2022, when prices retreated sharply from the surge seen during the easy-money era of the pandemic as the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy. It has already taken a toll on intermediaries like the exchanges Coinbase Global Inc., whose shares have tumbled more than 30% this year, and Gemini Space Station Inc., which said it plans to cut up to 25% of its workforce and wind down operations in the UK, European Union and Australia. This time, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also seeing competition from other forms of speculation, like legalized sport gambling and prediction-market wagering on everything from politics to entertainment. At the same time, retail flow continues to chase zero-day options in equities and higher-yield crypto plays across decentralized exchanges. The latest drop comes as digital assets face continued doubts about their real-world use, as well. Once touted as an inflation hedge or a rival to gold or the US dollar as a stable store of value, Bitcoin has continued to trade more like a high-risk asset and has failed to serve as a haven during times of financial market stress. In fact, its growing presence in institutional portfolios has at times made it more vulnerable to broad de-risking, particularly during bouts of volatility in tech equities and precious metals, like what has been seen in recent weeks.
“Despite prayers to the other side, crypto-market sentiment continues to hit new lows as the space is a crisis of narrative,” said Augustine Fan, partner at Hong Kong-based crypto options platform SignalPlus.
Inflows into US spot-Bitcoin ETFs had acted as a leg of support for much of 2025 as tens of billions of dollars flowed into the products and helped buoy the token’s price. But those flows have reversed as prices have plummeted — and about $2 billion has come out of Bitcoin ETFs over the past month alone, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The figure is even starker when looked at over the past three months, with more than $5 billion yanked out. The meltdown of the largest cryptocurrency has rippled through the digital-asset world, with smaller, less liquid speculative tokens down even more. The MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Small-Cap Index, which tracks the 50 smallest digital assets in a basket of 100, has plummeted around 70% over the past year. Traders have become increasingly defensive in the options market, with a surge in demand for downside protection around $70,000. Medium-term contracts such as those expiring in late June are pointing to an even more bearish outlook on token prices with the most open interest clustered around $60,000 and $20,000, according to Deribit. Ilan Solot, senior global markets strategist at Marex, said the recent selloff has been fueled by several factors, including the downturn in some tech stocks, the outperformance of gold, the broader risk-off sentiment and general questions about the framework for evaluating the value of cryptocurrencies. “The outlook is probably still bearish for now, but the worst might be behind us,” he said. “Still, these types of moves have historically always been buying opportunities for multi-year investors and many will see it that way.”
Job cuts in the United States observed a monthly slump of 205% and an annual one of 118% to reach 108,435 in January, Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed in its report published on Thursday. The figure is the highest one registered for January since 2009, and the highest monthly one since last October. Most jobs, 31,243, were cut in transportation, followed by technology at 22,291, and healthcare at 17,107. Meanwhile, employers announced 5,306 hiring plans, the lowest number for the month since tracking began in 2009. “Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January. It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026,” Challenger’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Andy Challenger said.
NN: AI is another jobsloss revolution. Millions are about to be replaced by AI
Iran’s military issued a warning to the United States on Thursday, stating that US bases in the region are vulnerable and within its operational reach. Army spokesman Amir Akraminia said US President Donald Trump “must choose between compromise or war.” Akraminia said the military is prepared for any scenario the “enemy” may choose, including war. He noted that alongside the new 1,000 drones, air defense systems have been upgraded and made operational. He warned that any war would spread across the region, targeting all US bases, from the occupied territories to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. “Our access to US bases is easy, and this increases their vulnerability … This has been our message, and we have stated it repeatedly. Once again, we state decisively that we have full readiness to defend the country,” the spokesman stressed.
NN: Simple solution. Bomb the shit of Iran. Far easier to destroy missiles on the ground. Much harder to destroy them in the air. As far as US bases… Fly all the planes out of their. Move personal and bomb the shit of Iran.
Silver prices fell sharply after a brief rally, sliding back into negative territory amid heightened market volatility. The metal, which had climbed above $90 hours ago, gaining more than 6%, lost momentum as it retreated more than 14% to trade below $75. Silver fell 14.86% to $74.47 at 9:59 pm ET, while spot gold lost 2.55% to go for $4,812.53 an ounce. At the same time, palladium dropped 2.18% to $1,704.21 and platinum plunged 3.60% to $2,149.66.
NN: The dip shits got dipped again. The bubble burst. Every rally back is a sell.
Silver fell sharply, wiping out a two-day recovery, as the white metal struggled to find a floor following a historic market rout. Gold also declined. Spot silver plunged as much as 17% on Thursday, having flickered briefly above $90 an ounce in early Asian trading. After a record-breaking rally that appeared to run too far, too fast, the metal has retreated by more than a third from an all-time high hit on Jan. 29. The sudden and sharp decline in precious metals also weighed on sentiment in base metals markets, with copper falling more than 1% to slip below $13,000 a ton. Meanwhile, spot gold dropped as much as 3.5% in choppy trading.
Precious metals soared last month in a rally underpinned by speculative momentum, geopolitical upheaval and concerns about the US central bank’s independence. That surge came to an abrupt halt at the end of last week, with silver seeing its biggest ever daily drop on Friday and gold plunging the most since 2013.
Investors had built up large positions in precious metals, and further fuel was added by heavy inflows into leveraged exchange-traded products and a wave of call-options buying. A sudden collapse during Asian trading hours on Friday continued into the early part of this week, before dip-buying supported prices in the last couple of sessions.
Gold prices are “likely to remain volatile until there is greater certainty on the monetary policy outlook,” Standard Chartered Plc analysts including Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said in a note. Some of this near-term volatility may result from investors redeeming their holdings in exchange-traded products, they said, but “structural drivers remain intact and we continue to expect a rebuild to the upside.” Silver has traditionally been more volatile than its more expensive cousin, owing to its smaller market size and lower liquidity. Even then, recent swings stand out for their scale and speed, with price moves magnified by heavy speculative inflows and thinner trading in the over-the-counter market.
NN: Silver prices at these new lower levels is a sick joke. Markets have a way of correcting stupidness. The dippers got their ass beat again in this most recent drop.
