Trump Sets New Iran Ultimatum; Saudis Raise Asia Oil to Record Premium

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today. Alexis, we begin with the latest developments in the war with Iran. President Trump has extended his deadline until tomorrow night for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This came in a profanity-laced social media post where the president threatened to blow up Iran's power plants and bridges before announcing what appears to be a Tuesday 8 p.m. deadline. And all this comes after a harrowing mission over the weekend where hundreds of U.S. Special Forces rescued an airman shot down over a mountainous area of Iran. We get more from Bloomberg. White House correspondent Jeff Mason. There is an ultimatum, and that's sort of the operative question here,

is does he just kind of focus on the success and use that as a catalyst to continue with the two to three week deadline that he had focused on for concluding the war, or does he follow through on the escalatory language that he also employed last week in that prime time speech on Wednesday night and reiterated in the Truth Social Post about the deadline and the power plants? Bloomberg's Jeff Mason appeared on Bloomberg this weekend, heard Saturdays and Sundays on Bloomberg Radio. This morning, Axios is reporting that mediators from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are pushing a 45-day ceasefire

to head off President Trump's threats. The Associated Press reports Iran and the U.S. have received a draft proposal. Meantime, the latest wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran has killed more than 25 people. Israel's defense minister says one of them was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Intelligence Unit. President Trump says he will hold a news conference from the White House this afternoon at 1 p.m. Wall Street time will bring it to you live on Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television, and the Bloomberg business app. Nathan, Japanese Prime Minister Senei Takayichi says she is looking to hold talks with Iran's leader

and possibly also a separate call with President Trump as the clock ticks on the president's latest threat to bomb Iran's infrastructure. Takeichi made the comments during a parliamentary session today. Japan has a key interest in maintaining a working relationship. with Iran, which controls passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point through which Japan secures over 90% of its oil. Well, right now, Alexis crude oil is falling. Brent, it is down one and a half percent, trading above $107 a barrel. West Texas Intermediates down 2% at $109. Brent is up about 50% since the start of the war. In another note, Saudi Arabia is raising the price

of its main oil grade to Asia to a record as the near closure of Hormuz curbs fly. OPEC Plus is warning that damage to Middle East energy assets will have a prolonged impact on oil supply even after the Iran war ends. The group approved a symbolic increase in output quotas for next month, with key producers agreeing to increase targets from May by about 206,000 barrels a day. And equity futures are rising this morning, Alexis. Right now, S&P futures are up 4 tenths percent. Dow futures are two-tenths of a percent higher NASDAQ futures leading the way up seven-tenths of one percent. The S&P 500, though, is down 4.3% since the war began, and several markets in Europe and Asia are still closed for the Easter holiday. And the sudden increase in gas prices is that to be on full display in key inflation data due out this week.

Let's get the latest with Bloomberg's John Tucker Carlson. And Alexis, the Iran War pushed up gasoline prices at the pump by at least a dollar a gallon. As a result, economists are forecasting a 1% increase in the consumer price index for March. That would be the sharpest one month advanced since 2022. The CPIs due on Friday. Oil prices have been rocked by five weeks of war, climbing to almost $120 a barrel last month as key Middle East energy assets, came under attack, and Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.

All this is created with the International Energy Agency called the biggest supply disruption in the history of the market. And new inflation risks stemming from war in the Middle East means the Fed may struggle to lower interest rates this year. In New York, I'm John Tucker Carlson, Bloomberg Radio. Okay, John, thanks. Let's get an update now on the other major war overseas. Satellite images from NASA show Russia's key Black Sea oil terminal caught fire following an overnight drone attack. Ukraine is aiming to reduce the Kremlin's ability to export oil and reap windfall profits from the global crude price spike driven by the war in the Middle East.

Relentless drone strikes on oil ports reduced Russia's seaborne exports in March to the lowest in two months, according to Bloomberg calculations. Meanwhile, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is concerned that a prolonged Middle East war could erode America's support for Ukraine as Washington's global priorities shift. He says Ukraine urgently needs more patriot air defense systems from the U.S. as Kiev tries to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks. Speaking over the weekend, Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready for peace talks. We are ready to come.

I always said that we are ready for the meeting on the level of leaders in kind of format. Volodymyr Zelensky also claims Russia benefits economically from the Middle East War and is sharing intelligence with Iran. High above Earth, Alexis, the Artemis astronauts are expected to complete a record-breaking lunar fly-by today. Reed Wiseman is commander of Artemis II. He live-streamed from the shuttle. Yesterday, we were looking out the docking hatch, which is off the camera to the top side, and we were just starting to see the moon, and it just looked different. And We were catching glimpses of the far side, the side that you can never see from Earth, of Gramaldi, of Oriental. We were just starting to see around Grammody into that far.

And as four humans who have looked at the moon our entire lives, it just looked different out the window. And that is wild. It just really put our place in the universe in perspective. Artemis 2, Commander Reid Wiseman, speaking aboard the Orion Crew capsule. As the vehicle circles the far side of the moon, communication back to Earth is expected to be. blocked for about 40 minutes. This evening, the crew is expected to have reached the mission's maximum distance from Earth, 252,760 miles. That will surpass the farthest distance traveled from Earth by humans, which was set by the Apollo 13 mission.

508 on Wall Street. Time now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. For that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Good morning, Michael. Good morning, Alexis. Pope Leo celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff, urging peace through dialogue and calling for an end to conflicts worldwide. Speaking before a crowd of about 50,000 from St. Peter's Basilica, Leo, the first U.S. born Pope, emphasize Easter's message of hope and transformation. Happy Easter. May you bring the joy of Jesus, who is risen and present in our midst,

to all you meet. Pope Leo is set to begin a 10-day trip through parts of Africa where he's expected to visit four countries. A challenge of faith in her darkest moments. That's how Savannah Guthrie described the last few weeks as the search for her 84-year-old missing mother Nancy continues. The today show host spoke before the congregant of Good Shepherd, New York, during their digital Easter gathering Sunday.

These moments of deep disappointment with God. the feeling of utter abandonment. For most of us, there will come a time in our life when these feelings hold sway. Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Arizona home on February 1st. California is among those challenging the federal government on President Trump's executive order to limit mail-in voting. Daniel Farber, a professor at UC Berkeley Law School. Framers of the Constitution clearly saw elections as, a state function, and they've really only allowed these very limited exceptions.

Professor Farber says the president's executive order tasks the DHS with creating a list of citizens who are eligible to vote, and then it passes the list over to state election officials to enforce it. President Trump endorsed Steve Hilton, a Republican and former Fox News host, to be the next governor of California from a wide field of candidates competing to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom. Global news, 24 hours a day, and whenever you want it, with Bloomberg News now. I'm Michael Bar, and this is Bloomberg, Alexis. Thanks, Michael.

Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update, and for that we bring in John Stash Hour. A blowout in the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament championship game in Phoenix. UCLA, all over South Carolina, 79 to 51, the Bruins finished the season going 37 and 1. The men have their championship game tonight in Indianapolis. Yukon has won six title games since 1990. Michigan in their history has only won one. With only four games left in the NHL regular season, the slumpy New York Islanders fired their coach, Patrick Gua.

That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this. Support for the show comes from public.com. If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions, buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge.

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Member FDIC. Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on SiriusXM, and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg business app. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. Tuesday, 8 p.m. appears to be the latest deadline from President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as mediators pushed for a ceasefire, to head off the president's threats, Republican Mike Turner sits on the House Armed Services Committee. The streets are going to be open, and it certainly is important to occur.

But you can't say, well, as long as the straits are open, we don't. We can let them continue to be a power that marches toward being a nuclear power. Republican Congressman Mike Turner appeared on ABC's this week, heard Sundays on Bloomberg Radio. Joining us this morning from Jerusalem is Bloomberg News reporter Dan Williams. Dan, what do we know about mediation efforts and what to make of the president's latest threats? Good morning. Good morning. Not much, except that there are reports that there is a final push, a 48-hour push, to get some sort of ceasefire in place. No confirmation of that, certainly not from the Iranian side.

From the U.S. side, we've had bluster. We've had off-delayed deadlines, which suggests either that President Trump is confident that he's close to achieving some sort of deal, it just needs a bit more time, or that he's buying time, playing for time. And one shouldn't rule out the possibility we've seen this in previous weekends, arguably, that this is yet another effort to calm energy markets ahead of their reopening after the Easter holiday weekend. So it's very hard to know. In terms of where I am, Israel, which is the full partner in least militarily, in this war, there is no confidence that a ceasefire as in the offing. Perhaps that's wishful thinking.

It appears the Israelis would like to have more time to press this campaign. They say every day brings achievements militarily against their arch for Iran, including overnight the killing of the intelligence chief of the IRGC. They are aware, however, that Trump calls the shots. In fact, the Israeli prime minister said as much a couple weeks ago, he described Trump as the leader in this war and Israel as the U.S. ally in this war, i.e. the junior partner. So for now, I think everyone is waiting to see what becomes of this deadline if it'll be met, if it won't be met and what follows, or if it'll be extended yet again.

The president has gone back and forth, has it about whether reopening the Strait of Hormuz is even a priority for the U.S. in terms of overall goals in the war. What could these latest threats mean when it comes to potential duration, Dan? Well, if we take the president and at his word, he's basically talking about laying. waste to Iran. That would open up an entire new set of targets. It would open up an entire new set of questions over the legality of this war, given that many of those targets would, by definition, be civilian targets. It would also open up questions about the downstream effects of this war, given that both Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu said at the outset, aspirationly, that while the immediate objectives of this war were military, degrading Iran's ability to project strength, to project threats

in the nuclear realm, the ballistic missile realm. Their downstream aspirational goal was to see the Iranian opposition, the Iranian people take the reins in Iran and topple this regime. Hard to see how unleashing massive force against assets that the wider population needs, energy, desalination, water, and the like, electricity won't risk alienating the very population that the allies say they're trying to help. Just 30 seconds left. We've heard Israel say Iran still has to be.

a thousand missiles threatening it. What does that say about claims that the U.S. has nearly achieved its objectives? Again, that raises a big question about the duration here, a simple back of the envelope calculation, given that the Iranians have now been firing, in fact, already four times this morning by my count. Missiles at a rate of about 10 to 15 a day,

they could potentially last for months without arsenal. So basically, but again, no one was offering here absolute success. what both the allies were offering was a dramatic degradation of Iran's capabilities in the hope that it would bring back an organic internal toppling of the regime rather than just a functional attack on the arms of the regime, the military arms of the regime. This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m. Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen.

You can also listen live each morning, starting at 5 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York. Bloomberg 991 in Washington, Bloomberg 929 in Boston, and nationwide on Sirius XM Channel 121. Plus listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg business app now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces. And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's the latest news whenever you want it in five minutes or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Alexis Christophores. I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day

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