Dan Schwartzman

The U.S.

has said the truce is conditional on Iran on blocking Hormuz.

Since Thursday morning, just nine ships have been observed passing through the strait, with five heading out of the Gulf and four going in the opposite direction.

Ahead of the Pakistan talks, President Trump is making new threats over the strait.

Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall has more on that from Washington.

That's Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall.

Several Asian countries, including India and the Philippines, are pushing the U.S.

Treasury Department to renew a sanctions waiver allowing them to purchase Russian crude.

The current waiver is set to expire on April 11th.

The waivers have prompted criticism from European allies who want to limit financial benefits to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the war in Ukraine.

Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon set for next week in Washington will be preparatory at the ambassador level.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying Thursday that the negotiations will be focused on disarming Hezbollah.

Lebanese officials have said they want a temporary ceasefire before talks would start.

That's according to mediators.

Netanyahu, though, said Thursday that there is no ceasefire in Lebanon, but Israel would limit attacks after Netanyahu was asked by President Trump to scale back his assault as not to damage talks between the U.S.

and Iran.

That's according to people familiar with the matter.

The consumer price index rose 0.9 percent from February, the most in nearly four years, in large part due to the sharp increase in gas prices tied to the conflict in the Middle East.

Bond traders held on to wagers that the Fed will lower interest rates once this year on the data showing inflation quickened in March.

Interest rate swaps show traders pricing in a roughly one in four chance of a quarter point rate cut this year, slightly lower than before the data.