Mark Zandi

Feels pretty close to script, more or less.

You know, the president has gone down this path in other ways.

And when push comes to shove, when markets start to react, when stock prices are down, when interest rates are up,

In this case, when oil prices are up, he figures out a way to pivot, to stand down and to declare victory and hopefully move on.

And, you know, this go-around, that's been more difficult than, you know, with other similar events.

Greenland comes to mind most recently.

This one's been more difficult just because of the Iranians' leverage over the Kurds.

over the straight.

But nonetheless, that feels like where we're headed here.

And that's kind of sort of what I think markets have been anticipating.

You know, if you look at stock prices, for example, as a benchmark, you know, even at the worst of the angst around what was going on in the Middle East, they were down on the S&P 5 to 10 percent.

So not even a

you know, typical correction.

So I think investors were expecting the president to do something like this.

And in fact, that's now what he's done.

Now, clearly more script to be written here.

We'll have to see how this plays out.

You know, it's hard to imagine that it's all going to go forward without any difficulty.

It feels like there's more problems dead ahead, but we'll see.

But this so far feels kind of sort of what investors have expected.