Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

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What's going on, guys? It is Monday, June 23rd, and today we are talking about what it means for markets that the U.S. has joined the conflict in Iran, from oil to stocks to inflation and beyond.

Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash

breakdown pod. Late on Saturday night, early on Sunday morning, depending on where you are,

the U.S. joined the conflict in Iran, dropping bunker buster bombs on three nuclear enrichment facilities.

Reports differ on the extent of the damage. President Trump characterized the

strike as very successful, and in an interview from the White House declared that Iran's

facilities had been completely and totally obliterated, but as satellite images became available,

there has been a little bit more of a question. Eric Schmidt of the New York Times reported that

anonymous sources within the administration said that the bombing, quote, did not destroy the heavily fortified facility, but severely damaged it. When asked if he has

100% confidence that Iran's nuclear sites were completely destroyed during a Sunday show

appearance, Vice President J.D. Vance, sidestepped the question, stating, I feel very confident

that we've substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of

the attack. Now, of course, at this point, all eyes are on potential escalation. Small anti-war protests

have sprung up in multiple U.S. cities. Democratic lawmakers are pointing out that these strikes

were conducted without congressional approval or a former declaration of war, but none of that

really matters as compared to what comes next. Iran exchanged further missile fire with Israel on Sunday in the wake of the bombing.

Estimates vary, but the general consensus is that half of Iran's missile stockpile

has either been depleted or destroyed over the first 12 days of the conflict.

That would conform with reports of increasingly sophisticated missiles being deployed over the weekend,

suggesting stocks of more basic weaponry are running dry. Now that the U.S. is directly involved in the conflict, many think that Iran might turn

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