Sabri Beneshour

Clara Gillespie is Senior Fellow for Climate and Energy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Thank you so much.

In New York, I'm Sabri Beneshour with the Marketplace Morning Report.

From APM American Public Media.

The price of gas is at a three-year high.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio.

President Trump has reportedly told White House aides he is willing to end the war with Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil supply normally moves.

This is according to The Wall Street Journal.

The president had previously threatened to use force to open the strait, which would have meant a significant escalation.

Stock futures rallied on the news.

The price of oil, however, is still elevated, $115 a barrel, and the average price of gas is now above $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.

Marketplace's Nova Sappho has more on that.

Tax day is in two and a half weeks, and the average tax refund will be higher this year because of the 2025 tax cuts.

A lot of people could really use that money, and it would normally be a little economic boost for consumers.

Enter higher gas prices than Nova was just talking about.

And depending on how things go, economically speaking, it could all just end up being a wash.

Marketplace's Justin Ho looked into it.

And that means that the consumer can absorb price shocks more readily than if they were stretched out on debt.

If you're a renter, you've felt the pain of rent increases.

If you've been a new buyer in the last couple of years, you've paid much higher mortgage interest rates.