AUSTRALIA'S S&P/ASX 200 INDEX FALLS AS MUCH AS 1.7% TO 8,729.30 POINTS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved emergency foreign military sales worth $25.8 billion to Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, covering Patriot PAC-3 MSE and GEM-T interceptors. The emergency designation bypasses congressional review periods, and the higher total reflects adjustments to earlier approvals initially disclosed as $8.6 billion. Proposed quantities include up to 600 interceptors for the UAE, 500 for Kuwait, 300 for Qatar and 50 for Bahrain, amid already strained US inventories and production limits of roughly 650 PAC-3 MSEs annually at Lockheed Martin and 300 GEM-Ts at RTX. Elaine McCusker, former Pentagon official now at the American Enterprise Institute, said, “The only way that you really get any delivery timelines that are faster than two or three years — and that’s optimistic — is if we have it in stock,” adding, “You’re definitely not going to get something for the current conflict.” Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, said priority requests “are going to displace or delay delivery to someone else.”

FED'S WILLIAMS: THERE IS ENOURMOUS DEMAND FOR US GOVERNMENT DEBT