Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
On hold: US Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Pakistan for a second round of peace talks with Iran was put on hold after US officials said Tehran failed to respond to American negotiating positions. With the ceasefire set to expire Wednesday night Washington time (Thursday AEST), Iran’s Foreign Ministry said via state TV that it had not decided whether to send a delegation, blaming “contradictory messages, inconsistent behaviour and unacceptable actions by the American side.” Trump told CNBC the US military was “raring to go" if no deal was struck and said he did not want to extend the truce. Meanwhile, the US military boarded a sanctioned tanker, the M/T Tifani, in the Indian Ocean. That was the first such boarding outside the Middle East since the war began and part of what officials are calling “Economic Fury”. Trump separately confirmed the US was considering a currency swap with war-battered Gulf ally the UAE. He also said he would like to see a buyer emerge for struggling Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy for the second time in under a year as jet fuel prices surge on the back of the Iran war. In the same interview, Trump said it was “possible” the White House and Anthropic could reach a deal to use the AI company’s technology in the Defence Department. “We had some very good talks with them, and I think they’re shaping up,” Trump said. “They’re very smart, and I think they can be of great use.“(NYT)(WSJ)(Bloomberg)(CNBC)
2.
War torn: A rebound of oil prices drove stocks lower on Wall Street after the New York Times reported Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran had been put on hold, sending the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 all lower. Brent crude surged nearly 5% topping USD99 a barrel, bond yields rose and the dollar strengthened. US retail sales jumped 1.7% in March, the largest rise in a year, as the Iran war boosted gasoline prices and drove a record surge in receipts at service stations. Apple shares fell 2.5% after announcing hardware chief John Ternus will replace CEO Tim Cook in September. On the corporate front, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources that Deutsche Telekom is considering a full combination with T-Mobile US, which would rank as the largest-ever public M&A deal. Elsewhere, Spirit Airlines shares surged as much as 178% after Trump said he would like to see a buyer emerge for the struggling carrier and suggested the federal government could help given thousands of jobs were at stake. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)
