Your IMPORTANT Weekly Briefing: (19th June 2026)

The Neil McCoy-Ward Newsletter

June 19, 2026

Opening Note…

Welcome back again this week,

We’re now in our final few days in Japan, and the relaxing retreat this week was just what I needed!

I really think it’s crucially important that we all take a break every once in awhile to ‘de-stress’ and get focused on what it is we want in life… I didn’t realise just how stressed I was until I tried to relax and simply couldn’t or the first day.

It took me 3 days before I was finally relaxed! My wife found it amusing how much time I spent at the Koi pond feeding the fish, but I found this to be very relaxing… ha

 

And although this week showed me just how badly I needed a break, it also showed me just how much I enjoy my work.

I really do love and feel fulfilled in helping people around the World with the free information I provide each week. Plus the paid courses that help people and families to improve their lives and finances…

I truly can’t wait to get back to work and start live-streaming again from the studio on the Isle Of Man in a couple of weeks time.

(More Japan pictures at the end of the newsletter)

Table of Contents

1. Weekly Spotlight

China Tightens Control of Rare Earths as the G7 Responds

This week the G7 met in Evian and announced a plan to break China's grip on rare earth metals. The G7 pledged that no single country should supply more than 60% of their rare-earth and magnet imports by 2030, with a longer-term aim of 50%.

They also agreed to build a joint stockpiling alliance pointing to the 195 projects worth 64 billion euros that have been lining up since January.

While the statement didn't mention China by name, the timing of this announcement clearly isn't a coincidence.

Because the same week, China's Mineral Resources Law got its first major overhaul since 1986.

So let me break down what this law actually does, because it' really is a big deal.

Beijing can now define its own list of "strategic minerals" and update that list whenever it feels like it using a three-layer reserve system:

  • The first layer is a stockpile of finished material.

  • The second is a set of production lines kept on standby, so output can be ramped up fast.

  • The third (and this is the most important bit) is a group of mineral-rich zones the state has deliberately decided to leave in the ground and hold for later.

In a crisis, the government can take direct control of mining and force companies to comply. The law also introduces "countermeasures" against anything that threatens China's mineral security. But when the official announcing it was asked what those countermeasures actually are, he declined to say.

Seen against all that, the G7 announcement looks less like the bold opening move people thought it was and more like a reaction to one.

As you may know, China refines roughly 90% of the world's rare earths, the metals used inside pretty much all tech. It supplies around 70% of the exact materials the G7 is now trying to diversify away from…

That raises the question: Can the West really hit its 2030 target? I'd be very surprised.

Japan has spent fifteen years trying to reduce its dependence on Chinese rare earths, and yet it still sources about 75% from China.

And the problem runs deeper than just opening up new mines. The West mostly has access to light rare earths, while China dominates the heavy rare earths, the ones essential to the magnets inside missiles and motors.

Opening a mine in Australia or Texas takes a few years, but building the refining capacity and the capability China spent four decades developing? That takes far longer.

2. Quick Takes

Here are the other top stories shaping the week:

  • Oil Tankers Are Already Racing Back To Hormuz Before Friday's Iran Peace Deal

    Oil tankers are turning around and heading back to the Strait of Hormuz before it even reopens. That dropped oil below $80 a barrel. 60 big tankers are now waiting near the Gulf, up from 36. They're betting the war is over before the deal is even signed, but its important to remember getting oil flowing normally again will take months

  • Someone Keeps Betting Big Against Oil Just Before Trump's Iran Moves

    US regulators are looking into a series of oddly well-timed oil bets, placed just minutes before Trump or Iran changed course on the war. In one case, $580 million was bet 15 minutes before Trump posted about peace talks. The White House says there's nothing to it. But three times in a row, just before big news, is hard to call this a coincidence…

  • The US Is Rushing To Replace The Weapons It Used Up On Iran

    Trump has used an old Cold War law to force companies to make more weapons. At the same time, he is asking for $350 billion to refill missile stocks drained by the war

  • UK Drug Shortages Are The Worst Ever

    Pharmacists say medicine shortages are the worst they've ever seen. Painkillers, blood pressure pills and epilepsy drugs are all running low as the Iran war disrupts air freight. 96% of pharmacies say it's now a real risk to patients

  • Finland Just Opened The Door To Nuclear Weapons On Putin's Doorstep

    Finland's MPs voted 125 to 61 to drop a ban on nuclear weapons, letting them sit on Finnish soil for the first time, right along its 810-mile border with Russia. It's meant as a warning but seeing it’s a country that gave up 80 years of neutrality to join NATO - it clearly wants the option ready before it's needed

  • Ethereum Is Having A Terrible Year, And Bitcoin Is Leaving It Behind

    Bitcoin is down 11% this year. Ethereum has dropped 32% and sits 60% below its peak. Big firms keep buying Bitcoin on every dip, while money flowed out of Ethereum's funds for a record 17 days straight. The two biggest names in crypto are now heading in very different directions

  • Congress Just Agreed To Ban A US Digital Dollar Until 2030

    Inside a new housing bill is a ban stopping the Federal Reserve from creating a digital dollar until the end of 2030. People have opposed this for years as everyone knows that a currency system like this would lead to mass surveillance

  • Germany's AfD Just Hit A Record 9-Point Lead

    Germany's anti-immigration AfD has jumped to a record 29%, nine points ahead of Merz's CDU, which fell to an all-time low of 20%. The other parties refuse to work with the AfD, so the CDU is stuck teaming up with the left, which angers its own voters. If the party keeps ignoring voters' problems they will eventually find the voters look for someone who will listen…

  • Too Young For TikTok, Old Enough To Vote

    The government just banned under-16s from social media, telling us it's all about protecting the kids. But "think of the children" is the oldest trick in the book. What these rules really build is age verification, meaning ID checks and tracking for everyone. At the same time they are saying 16 year olds have the maturity to vote in elections… so which is it? It’s a Trojan horse.

Opportunity:

Just a reminder that Digital Income Mastery is still on sale for a very limited time…
each Saturday throughout June, two more modules will be released. The entire Blueprint AND Marketing programs have now been released and I have almost finished producing the full Sales program.

Modules 5 and 6 will be released tomorrow.

Here’s the best price currently on offer for the FULL 3 course program that will end soon: LINK

And please remember to keep sending in your amazing testimonials! Every week more keep coming in - let’s keep your income generation growing!

NEIL’S TAKEAWAYS:

In the United States
This week was Kevin Warsh's first meeting as the new head of the Federal Reserve, and as we expected it didn't go the way the President was hoping. Trump put Warsh in the chair expecting him to cut interest rates. Instead, the Fed held rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75%.

Now, 9 of the 18 are pencilling in a rate hike. That is a massive turnaround in just three months…

And the reason for this is the new Inflation print just hit 4.2%, the highest it has been in three years.

SpaceX had its IPO last week, and since then the stock had gone vertical, climbing three straight days and at one point worth more than Amazon, before its first down day on Wednesday.

Only about 4% of its shares can be traded right now, so when so few stocks chase that much demand, the swings become extreme. The stock price even blew past the most optimistic Wall Street target in 48 hours, with no earnings and nothing changing in the business (meaning it was entirely driven by speculation). If you want to know more about the Space X IPO and how I’m playing it you can become a member of my Patreon here and read my forecast LINK

Prepare: Keep a close eye on energy costs spreading into everyday goods, this is the trigger that would force the Fed's hand.

Across Europe:
The final figures for the first quarter of the Eurozone showed the bloc actually shrank by 0.2%, its first contraction since 2022. A lot of the MSM are saying a big chunk of that was a one-off swing in Ireland's pharma exports, so it isn't quite as bad.

But strip that out and you still have France flat at zero growth and Germany scraping along at 0.3%.

The Bank of England held UK rates at 3.75% this week, but two members wanted to raise rates, up from just one last time.

UK inflation is now at 2.8%. Transport costs jumped almost 7%, services inflation, the number the Bank watches most, climbed to 3.7%, and the energy price cap is set to rise about 13% this summer.

Prepare: Be careful with anything that needs cheap credit or a strong consumer, because Europe has neither right now. And if your mortgage deal is ending soon, the path back to lower rates just got longer… (despite what the media is saying about ‘cheap deals’)

On the Global Stage:
The Bank of Japan raised rates to 1% this week, the highest level since 1995, and signalled more to come. Its exports jumped 17% in May, the fastest in over three years, and the Nikkei pushed past 70,000 for the first time ever.

A deputy governor made clear they would rather move now than be forced into bigger, faster hikes later. I’m watching the yen closely. It’s sitting near 160 to the dollar, and a lot of global liquidity has been borrowed cheaply in yen and parked elsewhere.

If Japanese rates keep climbing, some of that liquidity gets pulled back home, and that can ripple through markets everywhere.

Prepare: Keep an eye on the yen and anything tied to the borrow-cheap-in-Japan trade, because that unwinding can move fast.

P.S. If you like this kind of commentary, and want detailed investment posts - then you’ll love the private finance and investing community over on Patreon (where you’ll also get as many as 3 Significantly Undervalued stock picks each month). You can also speak with me privately via personal messaging. Check it out here: LINK

3. Chart Of The Week

The Biggest US Companies

Amazon has overtaken Walmart as America's biggest company by revenue, posting $717 billion to Walmart's $713 billion, the first time in more than ten years that Walmart hasn't held the crown.

The win wasn't due to its online stores, it came from advertising and its AWS cloud and AI division.

Elsewhere in the rankings, drug distributor McKesson leapt four places on the back of booming demand for weight-loss jabs, while Exxon Mobil slid to ninth.

4. Market Overview

S&P 500 (U.S.) Basically went nowhere. The early lift came from the US-Iran peace deal, but a hawkish Fed meeting, pointing to a possible rate hike later this year, took the wind out of it. Tech did the late work to claw back midweek losses, leaving the index flat by the time markets shut early for Juneteenth.

FTSE 100 (UK) Fell. Oil sliding toward three-month lows dragged BP and Shell with it. Miners like Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto weighed too. Banks and healthcare offered a bit of support, but not enough to keep it green.

S&P/TSX Composite (Canada) Drifted lower. Cheaper oil hit energy and materials, and gold miners had a rough patch, with Alamos in particular getting hammered late. The on-again-off-again Middle East peace headlines kept everyone cautious and stopped any rebound from sticking.

ASX 200 (Australia) Couldn't hold its early gains. Started strong on the Iran ceasefire buzz, pushing toward 9,000, but a hawkish Fed and firm talk from the RBA repriced rate expectations and hit gold miners and growth names. A Friday iron-ore and resources rout finished the job, and the week closed lower.

🇺🇸 United States – S&P 500

  • High: 7,575

  • Low: 7,405

🇬🇧 UK - FTSE 100

  • High: 10,560

  • Low: 10,355

🇨🇦 Canada – TSX Composite

  • High: 35,624

  • Low: 34,901

🇦🇺 Australia – ASX 200

  • High: 8,980

  • Low: 8,808

Cryptocurrency:

  • Bitcoin (BTC): -1.2%

  • Ethereum (ETH): 1.3%

  • Tether (USDT): 0.0%

  • BNB (BNB): -4.5%

  • USDC (USDC): 0.0%

  • XRP (XRP): 0.0%

  • Solana (SOL): 2.3%

  • TRON (TRX): 2.5%

  • Figure Heloc (FIGR_HELOC): -1.7%

  • Hyperliquid (HYPE): 15.9%

Metals Market:

Gold–Silver Ratio: ~64:1, Ticked higher, climbing back toward the mid-60s after dipping near 61. That means gold held up better than silver this week, with the safe-haven crowd leaning back into gold.

Gold & Silver:

  • Gold:  -1.75% with a Week High: $4,382 & Week Low: $4,122

  • Silver: -4.99% with a Week High: $71.58 & Week Low: $63.33

5. Faith & Success

❝

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

- Mark 6:31

Whenever I take a week or two off to ‘rest’ - people often leave me comments or send emails saying things like:

“Neil you used to post every day, now you hardly post!”

“I need you to do a livestream daily, I rely on you for my news, where are you?”

“You are taking too long on your vacation, hurry back and post plz”

(Yes, these are actual comments and messages, haha - it’s good to be appreciated)

Now, there is a point to this - because I want to tell you about a moment a few years back where I genuinely ran myself into the ground…

I was juggling my holiday cottage portfolio, plus renovations, plus a couple of new business ventures, then the YouTube channel, Patreon, new course writing, recording and editing AND renovating the Castle - all at once!

And for a long stretch, I wore the exhaustion almost like a badge of honour:

"Look how much I'm getting done." "Look how busy I am." “Look how capable I am.”

If someone asked how I was doing, my answer was basically a list of everything on my plate, delivered with a strange sort of pride…

Or people just thought I was making it up… that was another response I would get, sort of like ‘oh sure you’re doing all those things‘ (while rolling their eyes).

But then one day, I just stopped functioning properly and my mind got totally foggy.

And it just kept getting worse and worse until I took a break from everything. Some of you may even remember that I made a video at that time, explaining why I was going to be taking a break for 2 or 3 weeks from posting.

So many people told me to take a break, but I just didn’t feel like I could.

And I do get it. And if I had my time again, I’d probably still not take a break. I know that might sound strange, but I genuinely felt and still feel that when you have momentum, you HAVE to keep it going.

But there’s a limit to that.

I think a lot of us - especially anyone building something, whether that's a business (Digital Income Mastery?), a career, or just trying to keep a household running - we carry this belief that rest has to be earned…

Kind of like: ‘you're only allowed to stop once you've proven you deserve it.’

But the finish line keeps moving. Every time I finished a big project, I said to myself, ‘ok now it’s time to take a break’ - but I never did.

So we have several distinctions overlapping here, deserving, momentum, rest, habits…

But I had to learn from this the hard way at the expense of my health.

Now, I try to take time whenever I can for rest at the appropriate time. Plus, I combine this with regular walks and periods of quietness.

At the castle, I'll sometimes just walk the grounds for an hour with absolutely no agenda. No podcast or music in my ears, no plan, nothing to "optimise" - just peace and quiet…

Well, if you don’t include the chickens following me around and jumping on my lap and shoulders when I stop to sit down. They somehow just won’t leave me alone, ha

But here’s the point: after every single rest period, I come back with more clarity than I had before.

It’s funny how that works…

So don’t think of periods of rest as laziness, because it’s not - it’s much needed maintenance. You wouldn't run a car for years without ever changing the oil and expect it to keep performing. Yet we do exactly that to ourselves, over and over.

So this weekend (or very soon), I'd genuinely encourage you to step away for even just an hour (but a weekend is best)…

To do nothing, just rest and get some peace and quiet.

Your mind, your decisions, and the people around you will be better for it.

My rest is now over for this period, and I look forward to getting back to work shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a couple of photos from this week:

The famous Fujiya Hotel (with natural hot springs) - where we stayed this week

I’m not sure why I like this photos so much, but it’s my favourite of the trip so far

Have a restful weekend my friend!

Take care, and God Bless,

Neil,

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DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is 100% FREE & is designed to help your thinking, not direct it. These newsletters shall NOT be construed as tax, legal, or financial advice and may be outdated or inaccurate; all decisions made as a result of this information are yours alone.

Trading/Liability: Neil McCoy-Ward operates/trades under a private Ltd company within the Isle of Man.

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