Recapping last week now, and markets were rocked by a global tech sell-off, even as oil prices declined amid increasing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. So both the S&P 500 (-1.95%, -0.05% on Friday) and the Nasdaq (-4.60%, -0.24% Friday) declined, whilst the Magnificent 7 (-5.46%, +1.47%) entered correction territory, down -12.6% from its May 28 peak. A large part of the tech weakness was driven by chipmakers, as the Philly Semiconductor Index dropped by -7.94% (-5.29% Friday), despite a brief reprieve midweek after Micron beat revenue estimates for Q4. In Asia, the Kospi (-5.81%, -7.08% on Friday) and Nikkei (-2.65%, -4.15%) also slumped.The equity sell-off came despite Brent crude prices (-10.65%, -4.34% on Friday) falling back to below their pre-war levels at $71.99/bbl, as flows through the Strait of Hormuz continued to ramp up. The oil price decline has eased fears about an inflation shock and aggressive rate hikes. That was also helped by some positive US data last week, including Thursday’s PCE inflation which showed headline PCE up only +0.4% on the month (vs. +0.5% expected).So investors dialled back expectations of Fed rate hikes, with the amount of hikes priced by December down -7.3bps to 32bps over the week. In turn, that led the 2yr Treasury yield -8.7bps lower over the week (-3.1bps on Friday), whilst the 10yr yield (-8.4bps, -2.3bps on Friday) fell to 4.37%. Pricing of ECB rate hikes by December also fell -12.8bps over the week to 24bps. Germany’s 2yr (-12.9bps, -1.1bps on Friday) and 10yr (-13.4bps, -0.6bps on Friday) declined in response.Finally, in Europe UK assets outperformed as Prime Minister Starmer’s resignation announcement on Monday helped ease political uncertainty with Andy Burnham so far unchallenged as Starmer’s successor. Yields on 10yr gilts (-11.1bps, +3.2bps Friday) fell, while the FTSE 100 rose +1.40% (-0.21% on Friday). That helped keep the STOXX 600 stable over the week (+0.04%, -0.68% Friday), even as the DAX (-1.26%, -1.29% Friday) and CAC 40 (-0.55%, -0.43% Friday) fell after Friday’s slump.