Adrian Day, president of Adrian Day Asset Management, shares his latest thoughts on gold.
He also discusses the opportunity in gold stocks, saying that while as a group they’re up 55 percent in last year, valuation metrics are lower than they were two years ago.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
After soaring to all-time highs during the first quarter of 2025, how could gold follow up during Q2?
By setting new price records, of course.
Tariff threats, financial uncertainty and geopolitical tensions all fueled the yellow metal’s price rise during the second quarter of the year, which saw gold reach the US$3,500 per ounce mark for the first time.
While central banks continued to make gold purchases during the period, so too did retail investors, who shied away from US treasuries in favor of a more tangible safe-haven asset class.
Gold had an impressive run during the first quarter of the year, steadily rising from US$2,658.04 on January 2 to US$3,138.24 on April 2, leaving investors to wonder how much more gas was available for Q2.
Gold price, April 1 to July 10, 2025.
Chart via Trading Economics.
The price of gold started the second quarter on a downswing, falling below the US$3,000 mark by April 8, but quickly found momentum and soared to its quarterly high of US$3,434.40 on April 21.
It broke through the US$3,500 threshold briefly during the day’s trading session.
However, the gains were temporary, and gold once again fell; by May 1, it had dropped to US$3,237.30.
The metal saw a slight rebound to US$3,400.70 before the May meeting of the US Federal Reserve, but it came under pressure after that and had fallen to US$3,185 by May 14.
The end of May saw more tailwinds for the gold price, pushing it first to US$3,358 by May 23, then to US$3,381.70 by June 2. By the middle of the month, it was back to trading above US$3,400. Since that time, the precious metal has remained mainly above the US$3,300 level, closing the quarter at US$3,303.30 on June 30.
The biggest story from the first quarter has carried over into the second quarter: tariffs.
Since the start of his second term in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump has applied the threat of tariffs like a cudgel in trade talks with other countries. His long-held belief is that other nations, even longtime allies, are benefiting from trade with the US, while the US itself is facing detrimental effects.
During the first quarter of the year, the Trump administration levied tariff threats against Canada and Mexico. While most of his promised import fees were dialed back at the eleventh hour, a 25 percent tax was still applied to imports of Canadian steel and aluminum, as well as non-CUSMA-compliant automobiles and parts.
On April 2, Trump announced a broader set of tariffs on nearly every country in the world, regardless of trade status with the US. Dubbed “Liberation Day” by Trump, the executive order applied a baseline 10 percent fee to all imports from most countries to the US, plus significant reciprocal measures against countries with the largest trade deficits.
The new measures, set to be implemented on April 9, created panic among investors, causing a global market meltdown. Fear also spread to US debt holders, such as Japan and Canada, which began to sell US treasuries, pushing up the 10 year bond yield. Spooked investors rapidly flocked to gold, pushing the price to record highs above US$3,400.
“The bond market understands that Washington is so broken and the debt situation is so bad,’ he explained. ‘It varies in degrees compared to other countries, but everybody’s in the same boat. That’s why gold all of a sudden … gold is the safe haven now, even more than treasuries. And I don’t think a lot of people every thought they’d see that again.’
Ultimately, the stock market turmoil and the shift in bond market sentiment brought about a quick reversal from Trump, who paused his tariff plans for 90 days. Although the gold price showed signs of easing as market participants calmed, the metal remained high through the end of the quarter as uncertainty remained near the surface.
The pause was set to expire on July 9, but the White House announced a last-minute extension delaying the implementation of the tariffs on all but 14 countries, including Japan, South Korea and South Africa.
However, there are still underlying concerns.
The US-China trade war, which raged through much of the first half of the year, was put on hold on May 12 after tariffs between the two largest economies reached their peak, adding headwinds to the gold price. Up to that point, the US had levied a 145 percent import tax on Chinese goods while China had applied a 125 percent tax on US imports.
Although tensions have stabilized since the pause, on July 7, China warned the US against reigniting conflicts. China also said it would retaliate against any country that makes deals with the US to China’s detriment.
Financial uncertainty was a key driver of the gold price through the second quarter as investors sought to diversify their portfolios amid a chaotic investment landscape, but it wasn’t the only factor.
Geopolitical tensions also played a significant role, particularly in the Middle East.
With the Israel-Gaza conflict now past 18 months, the larger fear was that it would spill into a broader regional war.
Those fears were stoked in late May, when there was speculation that Israel was preparing to attack nuclear facilities in Iran. The news helped pull gold out of monthly lows as more investors sought the safety of the metal.
Ultimately, the speculation was true — on June 12, Israel launched attacks against key nuclear sites in Iran, causing Iran to launch counterattacks against targets in Israel and providing further tailwinds for the gold price.
Other support for the gold price came from continued purchases from central banks.
According to World Gold Council data, central banks bought 244 metric tons of gold in Q1. The amount was 24 percent higher than the five year quarterly average, but 9 percent lower than the average from the last three years.
The largest first quarter gold buyers were the National Bank of Poland, which added 49 metric tons of the metal to its holdings, increasing its total to 497 metric tons. This was followed by the People’s Bank of China, which purchased 13 metric tons, bringing its reported gold reserves to 2,292 metric tons
In another report, the World Gold Council indicates that despite high prices, central banks continued to buy gold in May, albeit at a slightly reduced pace, with a net 20 metric tons entering their reserves.
But it’s not just central banks that are picking up gold.
“In the past, there has been relatively little involvement, even to now, from western retail investors in this move. This has been overwhelmingly led by central banks and large funds,” Temple said.
However, he noted a shift in buying on the back of wider interest, pointing to gold’s popularity at Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), although he noted, ‘So far, this hasn’t moved the needle significantly.’
Temple added, “Traditionally the big needle mover when you’ve got these larger swings in markets and market sentiment has come from investors who are buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and buying the larger gold stocks, and then ultimately working their way down the food chain and buying the better exploration stories. We finally started in recent months to see some of that where it’s deserved. There have been some really nice moves.’
This idea is echoed in the World Gold Council’s June ETF report, which indicates that ETF flows ended the first half of 2025 with the highest semiannual inflows since the first half of 2020.
The North American movement led the way, with more than US$4.8 billion entering the market in June, bringing the total for the first half of the year to US$21 billion. This was followed by US$2 billion in inflows in Europe, with its first half total reaching US$6 billion. Asian markets added US$610 million with a first-half record of US$11 billion.
The expectation is that the factors that drove the gold price in H1 are unlikely to go away soon.
Trump continues to kick the tariff question down the road. And although a ceasefire has been called between Israel and Iran, tensions in the region are still high. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is ongoing, with Russia escalating attacks at the start of July, to the point of invoking Trump’s ire.
“We were thinking that by the time you got into June, July, August, not only would you have some seasonal weakness, but you’d also have a situation where financial markets might have calmed down and taken a less pessimistic outlook to the economy, simply because the initial shock of Trump policies was in there and had been digested. What we’re seeing is a prolongation of that shock period.’
Financial uncertainty and conflicts were a theme echoed by Kandoshko.
She pointed to the July 9 — now August 1 — deadline for tariffs as a potential inflection point.
“This could spark another rally in gold prices if trade tensions escalate. I have a feeling that the existing tariffs will gradually push prices up, which might lead the Fed to hold off on cutting rates. In the grand scheme of things, higher inflation is likely to boost gold demand, especially from central banks,” Kandoshko said.
She also believes a weak US dollar will likely be a boon for gold, making it more attractive to overseas buyers.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Q2 confirmed that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom is entering a new phase in the physical world.
As the industry evolves, attention is being directed to strengthening underlying infrastructure while advancing areas like embodied AI, a subsector that MarketsandMarkets projects will grow at a CAGR of 39 percent globally by 2030.
Also during Q2, a geopolitical tech rivalry exacerbated shifting macroeconomic conditions.
While the race for compute, energy, hardware and supply chain dominance intensified, talk of tariff policies reigniting inflation or contributing to stagflation created brief periods of contraction.
Concerns also grew around AI-driven job displacement, amplified by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s ominous warning that AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years.
On a more positive note, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) both ended Q2 up by 0.5 percent, closing the first half of 2025 at all-time highs with gains of 5.5 percent.
That said, investor enthusiasm for AI is showing early signs of recalibration.
Big Tech delivered generally robust Q2 earnings despite initial volatility in April, but posted only modest year-to-date gains, suggesting near-term caution around richly valued growth names. Meanwhile, quantum computing, which NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said was decades away just six months ago, made measurable progress in Q2, drawing attention from both deep-tech investors and national governments.
McKinsey’s annual Quantum Technology Monitor projects that quantum computing, communication and sensing could generate up to US$97 billion in global revenue by 2035, with quantum computing leading the way.
Not surprisingly, AI companies performed well. Thirty-eight AI stocks chosen by Morningstar — including Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR), Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW), Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) — closed 27.3 percent higher, outpacing the Morningstar US Technology Index, which gained 22 percent.
Ultimately, the quarter underscored a strategic pivot for major tech players, prioritizing vast infrastructure investments alongside aggressive AI monetization efforts to capitalize on this transformative era.
In public markets, AI-related equities continued to attract attention.
NVIDIA posted another blockbuster quarter, with its market cap on the cusp of $US4 trillion at the end of June. Its performance was driven largely by demand for Blackwell architecture.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), facing a possible Chrome divestiture, reported an increase in AI-related ad revenue and highlighted growing adoption of its Gemini model suite. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported a 23 percent annual increase in net sales from its Amazon Web Services segment, beating earnings estimates by 17.78 percent.
Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ:META) Reality Labs division reported a $US4.2 billion operating loss; however, interest in embodied AI applications for the metaverse and augmented reality continue to be the company’s long-term play, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg poaching the industry’s top talent to assemble the Meta Superintelligence Lab. On July 7, Reuters reported that the company had added Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Ruoming Pang as its latest recruit.
Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) OpenAI partnership faced issues after OpenAI bought Windsurf, an AI coding firm. Disputes arose over Microsoft’s access to WindSurf’s IP and its stake in a restructured OpenAI.
Q2 was also marked by a shift to AI in hardware, robotics and edge applications.
Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Google introduced specialized AI accelerators, a potential challenge to NVIDIA’s nearly three year run as the dominant provider.
Notable developments in robotics included Google Cloud and Samsung Electronics’ (KRX:005930) partnership, integrating Google Cloud’s advanced generative AI technology into Samsung’s new home AI companion robot, Ballie.
Data center operators like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud also increased their infrastructure investments in the US as part of an effort to reduce reliance on foreign markets and secure long-term AI compute capacity.
Companies began testing or rolling out new AI agent capabilities, empowered by the Model Context Protocol from Anthropic. Major tech players, along with payment giants Visa (NYSE:V), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Stripe, Block (NYSE:SQ) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), began adopting the Model Context Protocol to integrate seamless payment functionality directly into AI chatbots, moving beyond simple browse to full commerce.
Microsoft enhanced its GitHub Copilot offering with new coding agents capable of autonomous actions, while a handful of companies, including Dataiku, Databricks and Atlassian (NASDAQ:TEAM), introduced tools designed to build, deploy and manage autonomous systems for real-world enterprise applications.
On the quantum computing side, a paper published by researcher Craig Gidney for Google’s Quantum AI division suggests that a quantum computer could break a highly secure 2048 bit encryption, like the kind used for online banking, much faster than previously thought, requiring fewer than a million qubits.
Quantum computing firms later saw their shares spike following bullish comments from NVIDIA’s Huang at his company’s Paris GTC conference. Before Huang’s comments, IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced its development of the world’s first large-scale, error-free quantum computer, set to launch by 2029.
Q2 confirmed the AI cycle is evolving beyond text-based chatbots to hardware, embodiment and commercial uses.
While the Magnificent Seven still largely drove returns in Q2, there’s an expectation that earnings growth will broaden out to other sectors. Picton Investments’ 2025 mid-year update suggests that foundational model growth is encountering headwinds, with competition challenging the need for extensive capital expenditure.
Graph indicating that investor enthusiasm for AI stocks has recently ‘lost altitude.’
Graph via Picton Investments.
However, the firm also suggests that this shift is redirecting the spotlight to real-world AI applications, leading to an expected acceleration of industrial adoption and the creation of new companies.
At this year’s Web Summit conference in May, panelists emphasized the critical role of strategic early stage investments when it comes to navigating the evolving AI landscape and identifying new opportunities.
“Our take is (that) AI is going to upend a lot of technology businesses. In the specific sense, I am of increasingly high conviction that authoring software is going to be more or less free, and that’s going to shake up the topology of the software business market (in terms of) what makes sense and what’s investable,” said Brett Gibson, managing partner at Initialized Capital, during a panel discussion on where AI investment is headed next.
He added that customizable software will ultimately allow for tailored solutions for virtually any need.
In H2, quantum computing could continue its shift from pure research into early stage commercialization.
Updates may come from firms like IonQ (NYSE:IONQ), which recently raised US$1 billion to expand quantum networking, as well as Quantinuum and PsiQuantum, which may reach technical milestones.
Meanwhile, D-Wave (NYSE:QBTS) is pivoting toward hybrid commercial models, which may offer continued proof of revenue from quantum optimization-as-a-service.
However, the outcome of ongoing trade negotiations between the US and the rest of the world could impact chip capacity and rare earths supply chains, constraining the growth of AI hardware stocks.
The Trump administration’s imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Japan and South Korea may pose a threat to semiconductor capacity and rare earths equipment imports critical for AI hardware.
“Both countries have been close partners on economic security matters and have a lot to offer the United States on priority matters like shipbuilding, semiconductors, critical minerals and energy cooperation,” Asia Society Policy Institute vice president Wendy Cutler said in response to the hikes.
The second quarter of the year confirmed an evolution in the AI landscape as the industry moves beyond theoretical discussions to real-world applications and critical infrastructure development.
While geopolitical tensions and concerns about job displacement may continue to present challenges, this pivot could set the stage for continued innovation and adaptation as the industry navigates both opportunities and complexities.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday announced that he would revive his criminal referral against Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding yet another wrinkle to the ongoing Biden White House autopen saga.
‘Today I will reissue my criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ,’ Paul said on X.
It’s not the first time that Paul has issued a criminal referral against Fauci, who is the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical adviser to former President Joe Biden.
The first came in 2021, when Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research for the COVID-19 virus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The next came in 2023, again as part of Paul’s efforts to investigate the origins of the virus.
‘Perjury is a crime,’ Paul said. ‘And Fauci must be held accountable.’
Fox News Digital reached out to Paul’s office for comment.
This time, Paul’s reupping of his criminal referral comes after a new report added another chapter to the ongoing autopen saga, in which President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have accused Biden of shrugging off his authority to aides and top officials in the White House to authorize his signature on a slew of pardons and documents.
The New York Times reported that emails showed that Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients gave final approval for the use of the autopen for preemptive pardons for Fauci and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, two of Trump’s top critics.
Biden signed the bulk of his over 4,000 clemency documents in the waning months of his presidency, a point that Trump and congressional Republicans have pounced to hammer in the claims that the former president’s cognitive ability was declining and his staff were running the White House.
Trump has gone so far as to request Attorney General Pam Bondi open an investigation into Biden’s usage of the autopen, while Republicans in the Senate and House have all held their own committee hearings on the matter.
And earlier Monday, Trump told reporters that Biden’s alleged use of the autopen amounted to possibly ‘one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years.’
‘I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you,’ Trump said.
Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to declassify all documents related to the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Hawley’s request comes a year after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired off several shots at Trump from a rooftop near the presidential rally grounds. The gunman had a clear shot and grazed the president’s ear.
Even after a year, though, questions still remain about how Crooks was able to get a clear shot.
In his letter to Noem, Hawley mentions the one-year anniversary of the first assassination attempt on Trump.
‘This occasion marks a deeply troubling chapter in our nation’s history and serves as a reminder of the importance of transparency in preserving public trust during moments of national crisis,’ he wrote. ‘To that end, I urge you to take the necessary steps to declassify all documents within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) related to the events of July 13, 2024.
‘As you know, assassination attempts against current and former presidents are rare but profoundly consequential events in American life,’ Hawley continued. ‘And the American people rightly expect full transparency from their government.’
The senator pointed to investigation stonewalling tactics from the Biden administration’s Secret Service and DHS, which he said ultimately denied basic facts to the American people.
‘The public learned far more from whistleblowers than they did from public officials, and I released a report documenting these disclosures, many of which have been corroborated to date,’ Hawley wrote. ‘In October of last year, in a unanimous vote, the Homeland Security Committee passed my legislation requiring the Secret Service release to the public all pertinent documents.
‘Now, I am requesting that you immediately declassify and release all documents relating to the first assassination attempt on President Trump within the full extent of your authority, subject only to the narrowest possible redactions necessary to protect ongoing operations or individual safety,’ he said. ‘The public deserves a full and accurate account of this event, the circumstances that allowed it to happen, and the steps the government has taken since to strengthen protective measures.’
Hawley requested a complete inventory of all classified or non-public materials related to the first assassination attempt on Trump, including reports, internal communications, threat assessments, after-action reviews and coordinated records with other agencies.
He also requested a formal explanation for the continued classification of materials Noem believes must remain restricted, as well as a proposed plan and timeline for the immediate declassification and public release of all remaining documents, all by July 30, 2025.
Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment on the matter.
Hawley released a report in September, detailing the failures of the Secret Service in connection with the attempted assassination of Trump in July, which included whistleblower allegations that are ‘highly damaging to the credibility’ of the agency.
The report uncovered a ‘compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding.’
Hawley accused the Secret Service, FBI and DHS of all trying ‘to evade real accountability.’
‘These agencies and their leaders have slow-walked congressional investigations, misled the American people, and shirked responsibility,’ the report states.
After the first of two assassination attempts against Trump in just over two months, Hawley visited the Butler rally site to interview whistleblowers and opened up a whistleblower tip line, encouraging those with relevant information to share with officials.
Documents subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs also show major failures among the six U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agents who were suspended without pay in response to the assassination attempt.
The documents were based on interviews with the agents and their colleagues and revealed that several agents admitted the existence of major security concerns at the Butler rally, but none of them elevated the concerns or helped produce a plan to properly cover the roof that provided Crooks a clear shot of Trump.
The documents show that some agents in charge never even conducted walk-throughs of the site. For example, the lead advance agent, documents show, never did a final security walk-through of the rally site because she was in the hospital for heat exhaustion, the special agent in charge said when questioned.
Some of the agents were suspended without pay for various terms, though none of the agents were fired.
America has triumphed in each industrial revolution – whether steel, energy or manufacturing – and has the power to lead the AI revolution, too. This week in Pittsburgh, President Donald Trump is bringing together leaders to address a defining challenge of our time: how to fuel the AI revolution with American energy.
Progress on this front will be consequential for our economy, our national security, and America’s global leadership.
President Trump’s announced $500 billion private sector AI investment is a critical enabler for our country. But artificial intelligence won’t power itself. It needs vast amounts of electricity, delivered affordably and reliably.
And as demand for AI computing surges, the real question isn’t just about who writes the best code – it’s also about who can build out data center infrastructure behind it. The U.S. has the unique capability to do that – including the energy dominance to fuel it – and we now have the political will to lead.
U.S. policy has often prioritized climate idealism over energy pragmatism. Wind, solar and battery technologies will play a key role in our energy future, but they are not available at the scale or reliability needed to fuel expected AI data center demand. And these combined sources are more expensive than U.S. natural gas.
Without a balanced and clear-eyed approach, we risk pushing AI innovation – and the economic and national security advantages that come with it – overseas.
Other countries are already trying to lure investment away from the United States by subsidizing AI computing power. In China, dozens of data centers are being built – 39 approved in the last quarter of 2024 alone. In Malaysia, authorities are fast-tracking electricity infrastructure for data centers, cutting lead times to just 12 months, compared to five years in the U.S. Some American companies are already helping to finance data center growth in the Middle East.
The path to powering America’s AI dominance is rooted in abundant American natural gas. The United States is already by far the world leader, accounting for a quarter of global natural gas production. And we are also one of the lowest-cost producers.
Equally important is to ensure AI power demand doesn’t drive up electricity costs for consumers. We can develop natural gas-based power generation independent of the current electric grid and co-locate it with data centers across the country. Providing this dedicated electricity prevents a competition for grid-connected power, which would drive up costs and burden our already strained electricity grid.
New solutions like this require creative partnerships and continued innovation – which is why Chevron is working with Engine No. 1 and GE Vernova to establish facilities designed to provide reliable, affordable, long-term power-generating solutions to underpin American AI leadership.
President Donald Trump, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa., recognize the opportunity for the United States to achieve AI dominance. By leveraging abundant American natural gas as a foundation to meet surging AI power demand, we can strengthen our national security, grow our economy and protect our technology leadership.
We have the power to lead the race to develop and deploy AI. It’s time to use it.
Members of the ‘Squad’ are undermining coexistence between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, Israeli-Arab activist Yoseph Haddad told Fox News Digital.
‘Representatives of the Squad are trying to harm the coexistence and partnership that exist in the region between Arabs and Jews,’ Haddad said. ‘I think it was [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez herself who said she had no idea about the geopolitics of this region—she’s right. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib know exactly what’s going on here, but they decide to lie and twist the facts.’
Haddad, the CEO of Together Vouch for Each Other — an organization founded in 2018 by young Israeli Arabs to bridge cultural and religious divides — has emerged as a prominent voice in Israel’s public diplomacy efforts following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Since the attack, Jewish communities across the United States and Europe have faced a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, with pro-Hamas demonstrations appearing on college campuses as early as October 8.
‘The first group is what I call the useful idiots — people who have no idea what’s going on but joined because it felt like the cool thing to do,’ Haddad said. ‘Then there are the paid protesters. You see the same faces at different rallies holding different signs — sometimes it’s about LGBTQ issues, sometimes it’s pro-Palestinian, sometimes it’s about internal American problems.’
‘It’s always the same person, just a different outfit and a different sign,’ he continued. ‘And the third group — the most dangerous—are the extremists who’ve come from the Middle East. Those are the ones we should be most concerned about.’
Haddad traced the rise of extremist voices in the West to waves of immigration and population displacement from conflict zones in the Middle East. While the majority of Muslim immigrants fled persecution in search of a better life, he said, a vocal minority brought with them the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, effectively holding their communities hostage.
‘When you have so many immigrants all around the world, it’s enough for 10 or 20 percent of them to be extremists — and suddenly, you’re dealing with millions of extremists,’ he said.
‘Ostriches, when there is a danger and there is a problem, what they do is they stick their head in the sand thinking the problem will just pass because nobody will notice them,’ he added. ‘And this is what the weak governments are doing right now, becoming like an ostrich. The only problem is that no one will skip them over, it will make it easier to chop their heads off.’
Addressing accusations that Israel enforces an apartheid system between Jews and Arabs, Haddad rejected the comparison outright.
‘In real apartheid, like in South Africa, everything was segregated — transportation, hospitals, courts, sports, even walking on the sidewalks,’ Haddad said. ‘But if you actually come to Israel and see life here, it’s the complete opposite — 180 degrees different.’
‘Stop speaking from a place of emotion — that’s exactly what The Squad is doing,’ he continued. ‘Start talking about facts. Then you’ll realize that anyone who concludes Israel is an apartheid state is an imbecile.’
He also mentioned a run-in he had with a protester, who he refers to as ‘the useful idiots.’
They have no clue … One time, I read the charter of Hamas to some pro-Palestinian useful idiot, I read it to them, and I said you agree to this, and they said no, no, no I didn’t know that. And I said yes, but this is what you are supporting, and he had the headband of Hamas on his head. You understand that this is what you are supporting.
‘He literally took the band off after that. Such useful idiots like this you have a lot, not just in the United States, you can see it in Europe as well.’
When asked what he believes the Palestinians ultimately want, Haddad pointed to slogans often heard at anti-Israel and antisemitic protests, such as ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘There is only one solution: Intifada revolution.’
‘The majority of Palestinians do not want to live side by side with Israel,’ Haddad said. ‘So when people talk about a two-state solution and question Israel’s commitment, I say: Don’t ask the Israelis — ask the Palestinians. You’ll be shocked to find that many of them aren’t willing to accept it.’
Haddad pointed out that history can be approached in multiple ways — through religious texts like the Torah for Jews, the Bible for Christians and the Quran for Muslims. Even those who are atheists can look to history books for evidence of the deep-rooted connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
Haddad argued that the Torah explicitly mentions the presence of Jews in Israel, tracing their presence back thousands of years. He also highlighted the Biblical reference to the birthplace of Jesus in Jewish Bethlehem, challenging the notion that Palestinian Muslims have a historical claim to the land before the Jews.
Haddad noted that while Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran, the term ‘sons of Israel’ appears more than 43 times. He also emphasized that the name ‘Palestine’ was imposed by the Romans as a punishment for the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Haddad highlighted that in 1947, Arabs had the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state through the U.N. Partition Plan, which the Jews accepted despite receiving less land and fewer resources. However, the Arabs rejected the plan and opted to wage war. When the Jews emerged victorious, 156,000 Arabs remained within what became Israel. Sharing his personal connection to this history, Haddad explained that his grandfather was one of those Arabs who stayed and eventually became part of the Arab Israeli identity.
‘It’s either you accept the fact that Israel exists and is here to stay, or you continue with this cycle of bloodshed and death that we are trying to escape,’ said Haddad. ‘But the ones who will suffer the most are you, the Palestinians, whether in the West Bank or Gaza.’
Several requests for comment sent to Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar were not returned.
Former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is poised to face members of the Senate on Tuesday to get the ball rolling on his nomination to represent the U.S. at the United Nations.
Waltz’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee comes months after he exited his job at the White House amid controversy surrounding his role in a Signal group chat with other top administration officials.
Democrats vowed to grill Waltz during his confirmation process in the aftermath of The Atlantic magazine’s reporting about a Signal group chat that his team had set up to discuss strikes against the Houthis in March.
Even so, the tough questioning from Democrats on the so-called ‘Signalgate’ issue isn’t expected to derail Waltz’s confirmation to the post, given that Republicans hold a 53–47 majority in the Senate.
‘It’s all theater — you know he’s going to get confirmed,’ a GOP foreign relations source told Fox News Digital. ‘If Signalgate’s a big thing against him, it wasn’t enough to get anyone else fired or impeached or anything like that.’
Waltz, a former congressman who represented Florida’s 6th congressional district, is a retired Army National Guard colonel and former Green Beret. During his time in uniform, he served four deployments to Afghanistan and earned four Bronze Stars — the fourth-highest military combat award, issued for heroic service against an armed enemy.
Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were both entangled in the Signal chat that Waltz’s team created where members of the Trump administration discussed strike plans against the Houthis.
Waltz in March said he took ‘full responsibility’ for the Signal group chat, and the Trump administration has maintained that no war plans were shared in the chat. The Atlantic published the full exchange of messages, which included certain attack details such as specific aircraft and times of the strikes from Hegseth.
On May 1, President Donald Trump announced Waltz’s departure from his role as national security advisor and hours later unveiled the former Florida congressman’s nomination to represent the U.S. at the U.N.
Democrats called for Hegseth’s resignation as a result of the chat and warned that Waltz would face the heat during the confirmation process for U.N. ambassador.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said in a May interview with CBS News that Waltz could count on a ‘brutal, brutal hearing’ from senators, and described his nomination as ‘failing up.’
‘He’s not qualified for the job, just by nature of the fact that he participated in this Signal chain,’ Duckworth, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS News.
Duckworth, who served in the Illinois Army National Guard as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and lost both of her legs during a 2004 deployment to Iraq, told Fox News Digital Monday that Waltz’s involvement in the group chat should disqualify him from serving as U.N. ambassador. She also said that every official included in the chat should be fired.
‘As a retired Soldier, Waltz should have shut the unclassified chain down as soon as he saw Hegseth share such classified information that could’ve gotten our pilots killed,’ Duckworth said in a statement. ‘It’s clear Waltz cannot be trusted to make critical and sensitive national security decisions, and I look forward to pressing him on his conduct and holding him accountable.’
Duckworth has pinned most of the blame on Hegseth for Signalgate. Prior to Trump’s announcement on Waltz’s U.N. ambassador nomination, Duckworth said in a May post on X that of ‘all the idiots in that chat, Hegseth is the biggest security risk of all — he leaked the info that put our troops in greater danger.’
In addition to Waltz and Hegseth, administration officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were part of the group chat.
Additionally, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Chris Coons, D-Conn., said that Waltz could brace for a meticulous confirmation hearing before the committee’s members.
‘I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing,’ Coons said in a post on X in May.
A spokesperson for Coons did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
The GOP foreign relations source described the fallout from Signalgate a ‘huge nothing burger,’ and pointed out that Democrats’ previous efforts to use Signalgate against Waltz and Hegseth have proven unsuccessful.
‘If this was their deathly bullet, it would have killed Hegseth, and it would have killed Waltz, but they’re both left standing,’ the source told Fox News Digital.
A Senate aide told Fox News Digital that while Waltz took the brunt of the blame for Signalgate because his team created the chat, Democrats’ expected questioning of the group chat during the hearing is actually about finding a new avenue to go after Trump.
‘I don’t think he’s the target. He’s just the mechanism to go after the target,’ the Senate aide said. ‘At the end of the day, Democrats want to criticize and go after the president, so these guys are just a mechanism to get there.’
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have voiced support for Waltz, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, calling him a ‘great choice’ for the position in a post on X in May. Additionally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at the time that the Senate would ‘for sure’ confirm Waltz.
‘Some things I know for sure: the sun rises in the East, sets in the West and Mike Waltz will be confirmed as the next UN Ambassador,’ Graham said in an X post in May. ‘He is highly qualified, well-positioned, and will be a strong voice for our nation at the UN.’
Since Waltz’s departure as serving as national security advisor, Rubio has stepped in to fill that role.
Trump previously nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to represent the U.S. at the U.N. However, her nomination was pulled in March, and Trump claimed at the time that the House could not give up another Republican seat with its slim 220–212 Republican majority.
If confirmed as U.N. ambassador, Waltz would be responsible for representing U.S. interests at the U.N.’s New York headquarters, weighing in on resolutions, treaties and other global matters.
Waltz could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital.
The 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly is scheduled for Sept. 9, providing a window of time for Waltz’s nomination to make it through the entire confirmation process beforehand.
‘The hope is to have him in place before the U.N. General Assembly is in session,’ the GOP foreign relations source told Fox News Digital.
The Federal Reserve has brought in its inspector general to review a building expansion that has drawn fire from the White House, according to a source familiar with the issue.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell asked for the review, following blistering criticism of the project, initially pegged at $2.5 billion but hit by cost overruns that have brought accusations from President Donald Trump and other administration officials of “fundamental mismanagement.”
“The idea that the Fed could print money and then spend $2.5 billion on a building without real congressional oversight, it didn’t occur to the people that framed the Federal Reserve Act,” Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ve got a real problem of oversight and excess spending.”
The inspector general serves the Fed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is responsible for looking for fraud, waste and abuse. Powell’s request was reported first by Axios.
In a letter posted to social media last week, Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, also slammed the project, which involves two of the Fed’s three Washington, D.C., buildings including its main headquarters known as the Eccles Building.
Vought, during a CNBC interview Friday, likened the building to the Palace of Versailles in France and charged that Powell was guilty of “fiscal mismanagement” at the Fed.
For its part, the central bank has posted a detailed frequently asked questions page on its site, highlighting key details and explaining why some of the specifications were changed or “scaled back or eliminated” at least in part due to higher-than-expected construction costs.
“The project also remediates safety issues by removing hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead and will bring the buildings up to modern code,” the page explains. “While periodic work has been done to keep the buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were constructed.”
The Fed is not a taxpayer-funded institution and is therefore not under the OMB’s supervision. It has worked with the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington on the project, but also noted on the FAQ page that it “does not regard any of those changes as warranting further review.”
In separate comments, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, speaking Sunday on Fox News, called the renovation costs “outrageous” and said it was more evidence the central bank “has lost its way.” Warsh is considered a strong contender to succeed Powell when the latter’s term as chair expires in May 2026.
I remain very bullish and U.S. stocks have run hard to the upside off the April low with growth stocks leading the way. I expect growth stocks to remain strong throughout the summer months, as they historically do, but we need to recognize that they’ve already seen tremendous upside. Could technology (XLK) names, in particular, use a period of consolidation? Well, if we look at a 5-year weekly chart, the XLK really isn’t that overbought just yet:
The weekly PPO has crossed its centerline and is gaining bullish momentum. The recent price breakout suggests to me that we likely have further to run. And if you look at the weekly RSI, you’ll note that we’ve seen the weekly RSI move well into the 70s and even close to 80 before witnessing a market top or pause. Outside a bit of profit taking, I really don’t see the likelihood of a big selloff here. Keep in mind that the XLK represents 31% of the S&P 500. If the XLK doesn’t slow down, it’s very unlikely that we’ll see any type of meaningful decline in the S&P 500 either.
Growth stocks have historically performed well over the summer months. One way to visualize this is to compare large-cap growth (IWF) to large-cap value (IWD) using a seasonality chart. Check this out:
The average monthly outperformance since 2013 is reflected at the bottom of each month’s column. If you add those numbers for May through August, you get +5.4%. If you add those numbers for the other 8 months combined, you get +0.6%. Clearly, large-cap growth has the tendency to outperform value from May through August. We’re in the growth “sweet spot” right now.
I say absolutely not. Yes, we’ve run substantially higher off that April low, but I see more left in the tank. Will we see profit taking from time to time and could we see a period of consolidation? Sure. But I still believe that remaining on the sidelines is a big mistake as plenty of market upside remains. In fact, I see another somewhat forgotten asset class that’s poised to scorch 50% higher or more, possibly over the next 6 months. I’m investing in this area now, as I believe it’s in the early stages of a significant rally, and believe it would be prudent for you to take a look as well. For more information, simply CLICK HERE, provide your name and email address, and I’ll send you a video that explains exactly why I’m favoring this group right now!
Happy trading!
Tom