{"id":74598,"date":"2026-11-12T16:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trump-signals-military-action-in-cuba-and-iran-as-tesla-spacex-merger-talks-advance\/74598\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T16:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:38:17","slug":"trump-signals-military-action-in-cuba-and-iran-as-tesla-spacex-merger-talks-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trump-signals-military-action-in-cuba-and-iran-as-tesla-spacex-merger-talks-advance\/74598\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Signals Military Action in Cuba and Iran as Tesla-SpaceX Merger Talks Advance"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>President Trump signaled potential military intervention in Cuba and Iran<\/strong>, stating he would consider &quot;a little bit&quot; of force in Cuba and would &quot;not hesitate&quot; to act against Tehran following three weeks of rapid conflict.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tesla (<a href=\"\/stock\/TSLA\">TSLA<\/a>) and SpaceX (<a href=\"\/stock\/SPCX\">SPCX<\/a>) are reportedly in advanced merger discussions<\/strong> for a record-breaking deal that could be announced as early as December 2026.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yemen\u2019s Houthis attacked a pumping station at the Saudi East-West Pipeline<\/strong>, creating fresh volatility in global energy markets and threatening crude supply lines.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/MSFT\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"18\" title=\"Stock: MSFT\">Microsoft<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>) is battling widespread server outages<\/strong> across multiple regions, attributing the connectivity errors to a cluster of &quot;unexpectedly unavailable&quot; servers rather than a traffic spike.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trafigura has been identified as a &quot;key player&quot; in a London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminum squeeze<\/strong>, having built a massive long position in the China trade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Geopolitical Tensions Escalate in Middle East and Caribbean<\/h2>\n<p>President Trump sparked significant market uncertainty Thursday by suggesting the United States is prepared to use <strong>military force in both Cuba and Iran<\/strong>. Regarding Cuba, the President noted he would &quot;certainly consider&quot; a limited military engagement, adding that he intends to &quot;get Cuba done&quot; before leaving office.<\/p>\n<p>The rhetoric follows what Trump described as <strong>three weeks of rapid-paced conflict with Iran<\/strong>. He warned that if diplomatic or current strategies do not &quot;work out,&quot; he would not hesitate to escalate to full military force. These comments coincide with a confirmed attack by <strong>Yemen\u2019s Houthis on a pumping station<\/strong> at the Saudi East-West Pipeline, further destabilizing the region&#39;s energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h2>Tesla and SpaceX Move Toward Historic Merger<\/h2>\n<p>In the corporate sector, advisors are reportedly progressing on terms for a <strong>merger between Tesla (<a href=\"\/stock\/TSLA\">TSLA<\/a>) and SpaceX (<a href=\"\/stock\/SPCX\">SPCX<\/a>)<\/strong>. The deal, which would represent a historic consolidation of Elon Musk&#39;s industrial empire, could be announced as early as <strong>December 2026<\/strong>, though sources indicate the timeline could slip into 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The potential merger comes amid heightened scrutiny of Musk&#39;s business ties. Separately, reports emerged that <strong>Alice Huang owned stakes in Chinese businesses<\/strong> that directly benefited Huawei, a development President Trump called &quot;a horrible thing&quot; while acknowledging that espionage between the U.S. and China is &quot;reciprocal.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Microsoft Infrastructure Struggles and Commodity Squeezes<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/MSFT\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"18\" title=\"Stock: MSFT\">Microsoft<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>) confirmed that a portion of its worldwide infrastructure is experiencing <strong>elevated load and connectivity errors<\/strong>. The tech giant clarified that the issue is driven by a <strong>significant number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable<\/strong> rather than a surge in user traffic. The company has paused all deployments and begun redistributing traffic to stabilize the network.<\/p>\n<p>In the commodities market, <strong>Trafigura has emerged as a central figure<\/strong> in an aluminum squeeze on the London Metal Exchange. The trading house has reportedly built a <strong>significant long position<\/strong>, impacting the China trade and causing price distortions. Meanwhile, the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported that a <strong>U.S. military officer was arrested in the United Kingdom<\/strong> following a sting operation, adding another layer of complexity to international relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways President Trump signaled potential military intervention in Cuba and Iran, stating he would consider &quot;a little bit&quot; of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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