South Korea June L-money supply YoY 9.4%; prior unchanged at 9.2%.

Michael Stephens, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said Iran is deliberately seeking to prolong the war because it does not view economic pressure as an existential threat to the regime. After nearly six months of fighting, Tehran is convinced the US will not mount a ground invasion and that "the survival threat has gone," so it is trying to accelerate operations to "make Trump feel greater pain" and prefers to "drag it out." Stephens said, contrary to pre-war expectations of imminent collapse after mass protests, Iran has not fallen and Washington appears to lack effective means to compel Tehran; Iranians can "continue to live in a stalemate" — suffering but not facing a survival crisis, which he described as the core problem for the US.

Aug 13 — WTI (USO) nominal exposure ~22.248 mln barrels, down 3.571 mln barrels on the day; Brent (BNO) futures positions ~7.576 mln barrels, down 56,000 barrels.