Trump Calls for Iran De-escalation; Oil and LNG Jump

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And again, the escalation having a ripple effect across the energy markets. As we said, the price of Brent crude is up to $115 a barrel and European natural gas up 24% this morning. Dan Mortoff covers the energy markets for Bloomberg. Now we're not talking about, okay, once the straight is open, we'll get things rolling again in a matter of weeks. When we're talking damage to these facilities, I mean, we're talking now potentially a matter of months that production could be offline. And, you know, we won't know the details for a little while here, but traders are going to start pricing in that risk of longer and larger supply outages. And that's going to be a big problem for the global economy. And it's Bloomberg, Stan Marta. Again, noting that European benchmark futures jumped as much as 35%. pushing LNG prices to more than double their pre-war levels. John Bloomberg News has learned the FBI is investigating whether Joe Kent, who resigned his position as a top counter-terrorism official this week in protest of the Iran War, improperly shared classified information. Sources say the investigation precedes Ken's resignation on Tuesday, but it comes as the Justice Department has undertaken multiple investigations over the last year into political foes of President Trump. And Fed share, Jerome Powell, says it's too soon to know the impact of surging oil prices on the U.S. economy. He says the central bank won't cut rates again until inflation cools. And as heard right here on Bloomberg Radio, Jerome Powell talked about the impact of the war on inflation. We don't know how big these effects are going to be, and I don't want to characterize them in any way. Of course. People are already seeing gas prices. Gas prices are up almost a dollar a gallon. We hope that isn't for a long period of time, and of course people will feel that, but I don't want to speculate about what that might mean, because honestly, that would sound like I have some idea of what's actually going to happen, and I don't think anybody really does. Well, the Federal Reserve yesterday decided to leave rates unchanged for a second straight meeting. And in a more surprising move here, John Jerome Powell also commented on the ongoing investigation of the Fed by the Department of Justice. Jerome Powell says he won't be resigning as a member of the Fed's board of governors for now. I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality. And I would refer you to the statement that was in the Fed's brief that you will all have seen. And I won't have anything more for you on that. And Jerome Powell's term as chair expires in May, but he could remain on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee as a governor. The Fed chief also said he would continue to serve as chair if his successor, Kevin Warsh... is not confirmed by the end of his term. And the Middle East war of the backdrop of a key meeting in Washington today. Japan's prime minister is going to meet with President Trump. Let's get more from Washington and Bloomberg's Amy Morris.

Bloomberg Radio. All right. Thanks, Jamie. And programming node, markets may close on Friday, but the world doesn't. That's why we're bringing you a new live radio and TV show. Bloomberg, this weekend looking beyond the daily headlines to the bigger themes driving politics, business, and culture. Join David Goura, Christina Rafini, and Lisa Mateo for smart conversations and in-depth interviews that help make sense of the week that's been and what comes next. Get Bloomberg this weekend live, Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. Eastern on Bloomberg Radio TV and the Bloomberg Business app. And it brings us to 5'9 on Wall Street. Time to look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Thank you very much, John. The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard Dodge, questions about the severity of the threat posed by Iran in Senate testimony. Tulsi Gabbard declined to say whether she thought Iran represented an imminent nuclear threat to the U.S. as the White House has claimed. She was questioned by Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that as the White House claimed on March 1st, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment. You won't answer the question. D&I Chief Tulsi Gabbard admitted a conclusion from her written testimony that Iran's uranium enrichment program had been obliterated in strikes last year. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says Democrats are willing to jeopardize travel to further their agenda. The DHS shutdown has caused TSA employees to Ms. Pajax. According to TSA data, nearly 10% of workers called in sick Wednesday. It's now been over a month since the start of the... partial government shut down. Jill Deanovic is a TSA agent and union representative. While she is still showing up to work, she described what would make her stop showing up? What would make us stop is that we are just financially unable to do so. We're already getting to that point, actually. Our callouts have been going up, up, up since last week when we actually missed that first full paycheck. We don't have the fuel to continue coming to work at this point. TSA agent Jill Deannavich fears the Senate going on recess next week. Democratic lawmakers have stormed out of a closed door briefing on the Jeffrey Epstein files by Justice Department leaders. The lawmakers say they will push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case. Global news 24 hours a day. And whenever you want it with Bloomberg News now, I'm Michael Barr. This is Bloomberg. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update, and for that we bring in Dan Schwartzman. The NCAA tournament field is 64 tipping off this afternoon after Miami of Ohio knocked off SMU 89 to 79 while Prairie View A&M beat Lehigh 67 to 55 in the final two first four matchups. Top overall seed Duke begins its quest for a national championship as the Blue Devils Face Sienna in Greenville, South Carolina. One other number one seat in action today is Michigan Battles Howard. Lakers have now won seven straight as L.A. beat the rocket.

124 to 116 to win both ends of a two-game series in Houston. In other action, the Celtics dominated the Warriors 120 to 99. The Thunder beat up on the nets 121 to 92 while the Nuggets were stunned at Memphis 125 to 118. Show A. Otani in good form making a spring training pitching debut, striking out four while hitting 99 miles per hour. 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. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like, if the VIX hits 25, buy a put option on the S&P 500. Or, if my cash balance goes above $20,000, move the excess into my direct index. You approve the workflow and your agent handles the risk. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the public API. Go to public.com slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less. That's public.com slash market. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokred services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions. Not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off. Deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM. Let's talk about healthcare for a second. It doesn't always work the way people expect it to. If you've ever waited on a prescription refill or had a hard time getting the care you needed, you know the feeling. The system should just work better for everyone. That's exactly what the people at Optum are trying to do every day. They're a health care company linking patient care and pharmacy services and using data and technology to drive the whole system, so care is connected, not complicated, for patients and providers. Things like making it easier to get care that looks at the whole person, from primary care doctors to mental health support and even in-home care, and then using technology to make sure they all work together. Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients. And those prescriptions? Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients money, and make it easier to get refills. Little by little, Optum is helping make health care work as one for everyone. Head to business.optim.com to see how. 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.

And good morning. I'm Karen Moscow alongside John Tucker Carlson, and President Trump is pressing for a de-escalation of attacks on Middle East energy assets after Iranian and Israeli strikes on major gas hubs jolted global markets. Posting on social media, the president also pledged the U.S. would massively blow up the entirety of the world's largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again. We want to get the latest on the war now with owner-aunt, Bloomberg's managing editor for Middle East and North Africa. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. We want to talk about these latest strikes, including one of the world's largest LNG plant. How significant is this? This is quite significant. As you said, the Ruslafan complex is home to the world's largest LNG plant. Qatar itself is one of the top three LNG exporters in the world. Obviously, it had already stopped. exporting the fuel due to the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the war began and during the first week of the war, in fact the first few days of the war, it had already stopped producing the fuel because of some strikes. Yesterday marks an escalation, well, attacks overnight into Thursday, marked an escalation in Iran's war tactics. It said that it would retaliate against all Gulf nations hosting Arab and American energy companies after its own. prized South Pars gas fields did come under attack by Israel on Wednesday. And Raslafan, or Qatar's LNG plant, was not the only one that was targeted by Iran overnight into Thursday. We have seen similar attacks on two refineries in Kuwait, a gas and oil field. in the UAE and a couple of refineries as well as other important energy assets in Saudi Arabia. So Iran's attacks have been broad and they've targeted many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf overnight. All right. Well, you also mentioned Israel's attack on South Pars, and Trump is making it clear that the U.S. was not involved in that attack. Is it important that he tried to distance himself from that? Yes, it says a lot about what may be going on behind the scenes, because the first public messaging coming out of Israel was that the US was indeed informed and had the approval for yesterday's attack on South Pars, but following Iran's out-sized reaction and its pledge to attack all these Arab countries, and in fact the fact that it adhered to that pledge and did end up attacking. Raslafan, where its attacks resulted in extensive damages. We've seen Mr. Trump coming out almost immediately and saying that that attack by Israel was not done with the US's knowledge, nor was that of Qatar. It would not happen again. And it also asked Iran to act with restraint and threatened to attack the South Pars with...

greater force if Iran continues its strikes on Qatar's LNG infrastructure in particular. And with only about 30 seconds, seems like we're even further away from a possible end, doesn't it? No, it doesn't feel like there's going to be any relief from this war anytime soon. We are seeing a continuation of attacks in both directions, both from Iran and the U.S.-Israeli alliance on the 20th day of the war. 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 Karen Moscow. I'm John Tucker Carlson. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here, a Bloomberg Daybreak. When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For mid-size and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering, and claims experience. Learn more at thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. Policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut. These days, it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere you turn, every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, ACTA helps you get identity right by securing your AI agents' identities, giving you a single layer of control, a single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with ACTA, you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent, secure any agent. Octa Secures AI. As industries evolve faster than ever, companies need an environment that accelerate strategic growth, and Michigan delivers on that promise. From emerging startups to global enterprises, Michigan offers what executives value most, a resilient, innovative ecosystem, diverse communities that attract top talent, and a quality of life that supports work-life balance. With our unified team Michigan approach, businesses scale faster and compete at the highest level. Michigan, pure opportunity, seize your opportunity at Michigan.

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