Trump Pushes for Speedy End to Iran War
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What are President Trump's views on the Iran war and its resolution?
President Trump tells aides that he wants a speedy end to the Iran war. Plus, a look at the traders making big money on last-minute bets tied to White House policy.
During an otherwise quiet hour in the oil futures market, there was more than $760 million worth of trading in Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures.
And after unearthing hundreds of millions of carats, Rio Tinto exits the diamond business. It's Thursday, March 26th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Nearly a month into the war with Iran, President Trump has privately told advisers that he believes the conflict is in its final stages and hopes for a diplomatic settlement to bring it to an end within weeks.
How are traders reacting to changes in White House policies regarding oil?
We're winning so big, nobody's ever seen anything like we're doing in the Middle East with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us.
That was Trump speaking at an event in Washington last night. We report that while there are no easy options for ending the war and the president still has objectives like securing U.S. access to some of Iran's oil, Trump's attention has at times shifted. In discussions with political allies, Trump has begun focusing on November's midterms, tightening voter eligibility rules and addressing long lines at airports. Close advisers also want him to prioritize the most pressing issue facing voters, concerns about the cost of living, which have been exacerbated by the war. Meanwhile, facing the risk of tariffs on top of war-related costs, EU lawmakers are today voting on whether to back a trade deal reached with the U.S.
last year. Our Kim McRaehl is in Brussels.
The deal that was reached last year is where the U.S. agreed to cap tariffs for most EU exports to the U.S. at 15%. And this vote is important because Europeans are worried that if they don't cut their tariffs, the U.S. could renege on its pledge to keep most of its tariffs on the EU at 15 percent or lower. And actually, that's something that Trump's ambassador to the EU warned was a possibility during an interview he did with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.
To cushion against changes in U.S. policy, EU lawmakers have made the bloc's tariff cuts conditional on Washington fulfilling its side of the bargain. And while President Trump's tariff decisions, military strikes and sudden policy shifts over the past year have often moved markets, our reporting shows that there have been several occasions in which unusual trades have hit the tape just ahead of major announcements. You may have heard on the show about one trader who made more than $400,000 in profits after placing a series of bets on Polymarket about the timing of Nicolas Maduro losing power in Venezuela, with the last one coming just an hour before Trump announced his capture. And as journal reporter Alexander Osipovich explains, that's not the only unusual trade.
On Monday morning, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he was postponing his threatened attacks on Iranian energy plants.
What challenges are mariners facing due to the Iran conflict?
This caused a wild shift in the market. It caused stock futures to go up, caused oil futures to drop precipitously. And then we discovered not too long afterwards that there had been a flurry of trading activity just about 15 minutes before Trump sent that market moving post. During an otherwise quiet hour in the oil futures market, There was more than $760 million worth of trading in Brent and West Texas intermediate crude oil futures, and there was no real catalyst for this to happen. This led immediately to speculation that somebody had traded ahead of Trump's announcement.
Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation into the trades, saying they resemble corruption. The White House has denied that its officials were involved in any sort of illegal insider trading and called such speculation baseless.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are President Trump's views on the Iran war and its resolution?
0:03–0:53
2
How are traders reacting to changes in White House policies regarding oil?
0:53–3:10
3
What challenges are mariners facing due to the Iran conflict?
3:10–6:52
4
What are the implications of the Iran war on global shipping and logistics?
6:52–10:31
5
How is the shipping industry responding to disruptions caused by the Iran war?
10:31–12:32
Speakers
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