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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bagaei: The United States violated the terms of the memorandum of understanding just weeks after it was signed.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Baghae: The memorandum of understanding we signed with the United States did not specify a 60-day period.

A political advisor to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stated that the Strait of Hormuz will only reopen when the United States fulfills its commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

According to Hoisington data, from December 2025 to the end of June 2026, the Federal Reserve's holdings of U.S. Treasury securities increased by approximately $290 billion, a seven-month increase approaching the approximately $320 billion increase during the pandemic, and total holdings also reached a new high. Part of this increase comes from reserve management purchases to maintain sufficient reserves, and another part is the reinvestment of principal from maturing MBS; the latter merely adjusts the asset structure and does not expand the balance sheet by an equivalent amount. The New York Fed initially conducted $40 billion in reserve management purchases per month, but this has decreased to $10 billion since the beginning of summer. According to research by the New York Fed, the current purchases have indeed increased demand for short-term debt, eased pressure in the repurchase market, and marginally lowered short-term financing costs, but they are still incomparable to the pandemic-driven QE—the Fed purchased nearly $2 trillion in medium- and long-term Treasury securities in 2020 alone. This only proves that balance sheet reduction has ended, and the Fed has once again become an important buyer in the short-term debt market, but it has not yet entered into QE or YCC.

The NI225 closed up 506.45 points, or 0.74%, at 69,220.25 on Monday, August 17.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 49.90 points, or 0.55%, at 9065.30 on Monday, August 17.