Trump Launches Committee to Probe Fed Governor Lisa Cook

Donald Trump launched an official committee to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, according to reporting from the Financial Times. The committee will examine claims that Cook made false statements regarding one or more mortgage instruments and plans to conduct an in-person hearing to address the matter directly. The move injects direct political scrutiny into the central bank's governing board at a time when bond markets are already wrestling with a multi-decade repricing across long-duration debt. Benchmark sovereign yields remain elevated near their highest marks in over two decades. The 30-year yield touched 5.61%, widening the spread between the 10-year and 30-year benchmarks to roughly 37 basis points. That sustained term premium lifts debt servicing costs across mortgages, credit markets, and corporate balance sheets, leaving the macro backdrop sensitive to institutional friction in Washington. On our desk, that rate pressure continues to cleave index market structure in two. SPY trades above its zero-gamma line at 776.54 against a 771.66 flip, keeping dealers hedged as shock absorbers between a 767 put wall and a 780 call wall with an expected move of 0.72%. In contrast, the tech-heavy QQQ sits at 749.97, trapped underneath its 750.81 flip in short gamma. That posture forces market makers to press intraday declines toward the 742 put wall rather than cushion them, widening tech's expected move to 1.34% with an elevated skew of 3.7. Small caps mirror that fragility: IWM trades at 278.57, pinned below its 280.02 flip and testing its 277 put wall in short gamma with an expected move of 1.45%. Positioning shows where the cushion lives and where it runs out. While broad equities maintain positive dealer gamma on SPY, political friction around Fed governance lands directly on an interest-rate-sensitive tape where tech and small caps are already forced to trade without dealer insulation.