Refinitiv reports Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said Trump's reference to an economic "D‑Day" is a U.S. ploy to distract from domestic crises and will only bring further failure to the United States.

US stocks closed higher Wednesday. Dow Jones Industrial Average preliminary close +0.22%, S&P 500 +0.21%, Nasdaq +0.16%. Moderna (MRNA.O) surged 176%; Merck (MRK.N) +12.6%. Marvell Technology (MRVL.O) +9.8%. SK Hynix (SKHY.O) +0.35%. SanDisk (SNDK.O) -3.5%; Micron Technology (MU.O) -0.39%. Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index +1.5%.

Goldman Sachs trading-desk data show July ETF and index options put/call ratio (PCR) rose to 112%, a year-to-date high. Since March the PCR gap between ETF+index options and single-stock options has widened to 53 percentage points, signaling investors are selectively buying individual names while materially increasing market-level hedging. Goldman says traders may continue to hold favored stocks and use ETF and index options to protect against market, interest-rate and macro-driven drawdowns. If demand for index puts continues to climb while single-stock buying stays resilient, markets could move further into a stock-selection, lower-aggregate-beta regime.