To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: Trump threatened that a ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight.’ Then Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire , including reopening the Strait of Hormuz . Markets are overjoyed so far, with a historic fall in oil prices . In other news: It looks like inflation rose last month (data due Friday). AND: More l...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: Trump threatened that a ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight.’ Then Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire , including reopening the Strait of Hormuz . Markets are overjoyed so far, with a historic fall in oil prices . In other news: It looks like inflation rose last month (data due Friday). AND: More lunar tunes . A Civilization Survives These have been 24 eventful hours in the annals of war and peace. They dawned in the US with the leader of the free world threatening to commit genocide. This is what President Donald Trump said on Truth Social early Tuesday: Words fail. However, a little more than an hour before his deadline came a flurry of activity. Mediator Pakistan asked for a cessation, and then Trump called off the scheduled bombing and announced a two-week ceasefire to start once Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Markets responded to the hard fact that civilization would not be killed off and oil prices tumbled. Then came critical confirmation from Iran’s leadership. They really have agreed to the ceasefire. Talks under Pakistan’s aegis are slated for Friday. A little later, it filtered out that Iran still intended to charge for passage through the international waterway. Compared to what had seemed possible when the American day started, this was great news and the oil market responded accordingly: Putting the events in recent context, this was West Texas Intermediate’s biggest daily fall since the pandemic: Going further back, the market is pricing this as a truly historic development. These are the 10 biggest daily declines in the Brent crude contract since 1990. Only two selloffs, during the Covid-19 chaos in 2020 and in January 1991 when allied forces entered Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm , have been greater: It’s encouraging that the oil shock resolved most satisfactorily for the capitalist world, rather than like the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the dis...
President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran that will see Tehran temporarily reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz brought welcome relief to Asian markets on Wednesday. With Trump’s deadline approaching for the Islamic Republic to reopen the waterway or face obliteration, he announced a halt to attacks for two weeks and said he had received a “workable” 10-poi...
President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran that will see Tehran temporarily reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz brought welcome relief to Asian markets on Wednesday. With Trump’s deadline approaching for the Islamic Republic to reopen the waterway or face obliteration, he announced a halt to attacks for two weeks and said he had received a “workable” 10-point proposal. Iran later said it had agreed to safe passage in the strait, through which a fifth of...
WD-40 ( WDFC ) declares $1.02/share quarterly dividend , in line with previous. Forward yield 1.92% Payable April 30; for shareholders of record April 17; ex-div April 17. The company has now announced a dividend of $1.02 for three consecutive quarters. See WDFC Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on WD-40 WD-40: Squeaking By As Growth Loses Its Lubrication WD-40: Reiterate Se...
WD-40 ( WDFC ) declares $1.02/share quarterly dividend , in line with previous. Forward yield 1.92% Payable April 30; for shareholders of record April 17; ex-div April 17. The company has now announced a dividend of $1.02 for three consecutive quarters. See WDFC Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on WD-40 WD-40: Squeaking By As Growth Loses Its Lubrication WD-40: Reiterate Sell On Weak Q1 Earnings WD-40 Company's Drop Doesn't Justify An Upgrade Quant snapshot: Delta Air Lines leads top-rated names as Byrna Technologies, Simulations Plus lag WD-40 shares hit 52-week low after Q1 earnings miss
Thai Liang Lim/iStock via Getty Images Perplexity’s revenues have jumped about 50% in a month, with estimated annual recurring revenue rising to more than $450 million in March, the Financial Times reported. The surge in revenue comes after the launch of a new agent tool and a shift to usage-based pricing, the report said. Before the new pricing system, Perplexity had grown its ARR to $305M from $...
Thai Liang Lim/iStock via Getty Images Perplexity’s revenues have jumped about 50% in a month, with estimated annual recurring revenue rising to more than $450 million in March, the Financial Times reported. The surge in revenue comes after the launch of a new agent tool and a shift to usage-based pricing, the report said. Before the new pricing system, Perplexity had grown its ARR to $305M from $16M over two years. A Perplexity executive told the FT that revenue retention was “strong,” without providing a figure. Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity AI recently got a boost as a U.S. appeals court paused a California ruling that had blocked the company's AI-powered shopping tool on Amazon ( AMZN ) . More on Perplexity, Appeals court allows Perplexity AI shopping bots to keep shopping on Amazon Utah man files class action lawsuit against Perplexity for sharing search data with Google, Meta
US stock index futures rallied after President Donald Trump ’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war triggered relief across markets. S&P 500 contracts rose 2.5% as of 3:04 a.m. in New York, while those on the Nasdaq 100 climbed 3.2%. Brent crude fell as much as 16% before trading around $94 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate dropped to around $96. Trump announced the agreement...
US stock index futures rallied after President Donald Trump ’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war triggered relief across markets. S&P 500 contracts rose 2.5% as of 3:04 a.m. in New York, while those on the Nasdaq 100 climbed 3.2%. Brent crude fell as much as 16% before trading around $94 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate dropped to around $96. Trump announced the agreement on social media hours after Pakistan, a mediator in talks, implored the US leader to back off his deadline for attacks on Iranian infrastructure. Israel has also agreed to the ceasefire, according to a White House official. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible for two weeks. Investors are trying to gauge whether this marks just a temporary halt of hostilities or a longer term truce. An easing in oil prices would help lift sentiment given concerns over the potential for higher inflation and slower growth caused by rising energy costs. “Near term, this creates the conditions for a relief rally,” said Mathieu Racheter , head of equity strategy at Julius Baer. “I expect cyclicals and stocks and sectors sensitive to rates to lead the rally overall. Also, the broader rotation story from US into non-US equities should now reassert itself again.” Read more: Why Trump’s Iran Threats Raise War Crime Concerns: Explainer The S&P 500 Index dropped more than 5% in March on the war, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index tumbled 8%. Both have rebounded somewhat from their recent lows as optimism grew for a deal to end the conflict. Markets have seesawed on daily headlines since the war began in late February, as investors reacted to attacks and threats followed by talk of negotiations. While much remains uncertain, the deal buys time for the two sides to reach an agreement to end the six-week-old war. “This may prove to be the off-ramp to the conflict that markets were looking for,” said Kerry Craig , a glob...
Signage for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Mumbai, India, on Friday, April 5, 2024. Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images India's central bank on Wednesday held benchmark interest rates at 5.25% as strong growth allows it room to keep policy tight at a time when the Iran war has raised inflation risk. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the policy rate to remain unchanged. The monetary...
Signage for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Mumbai, India, on Friday, April 5, 2024. Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images India's central bank on Wednesday held benchmark interest rates at 5.25% as strong growth allows it room to keep policy tight at a time when the Iran war has raised inflation risk. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the policy rate to remain unchanged. The monetary policy committee thinks the intensity and the duration of the conflict, along with the resulting damage to the energy and other infrastructure, pose a "risk to the [India's] inflation and growth," Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in his statement. India's consumer inflation rose for a fourth straight month to 3.21% in February, up from 2.75% in the prior month. While the country has seen sharp growth, expanding at a faster-than-expected 7.8% in the December quarter, the Iran war threatens to slow growth. India's Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran last month had also warned that growth forecast of 7.0%–7.4% for the financial year ending March 2027 faces "considerable downside" risk due to rising energy costs and supply‑chain disruptions linked to the Iran war. Nageswaran said the Middle East conflict would disrupt supplies of key commodities such as oil, gas, and fertilizers, push up import prices, and raise logistics costs, which would have an impact on both growth and inflation. The conflict, which began on Feb. 28 following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, has disrupted movement of goods through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway carrying 20% of global oil — driving up energy and freight costs and straining supply chains. In a temporary relief, U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire earlier in the day, with Tehran saying that safe passage of ships was "possible" for the next two weeks in coordination with the country's armed forces. Signaling growth worries, HSBC flash Purchasing Managers' Index compiled by S&P Global showed that India'...
Lemon_tm Gold prices advanced in Asian trading on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to finalize talks on ending the war. Spot gold ( XAUUSD:CUR ) rose 1.8% to $4,794.08 per ounce at press time, after gaining as much as 3.1% earlier in the session and building on a 1.2% increase from the previous session. The U.S. dollar index ( DXY ) fell 0.8% to $...
Lemon_tm Gold prices advanced in Asian trading on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to finalize talks on ending the war. Spot gold ( XAUUSD:CUR ) rose 1.8% to $4,794.08 per ounce at press time, after gaining as much as 3.1% earlier in the session and building on a 1.2% increase from the previous session. The U.S. dollar index ( DXY ) fell 0.8% to $ 98.90. Trump said in a social-media post that he had agreed to suspend bombing less than two hours before a self-imposed deadline to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization,” adding that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was a key condition for the pause. Iran said safe passage through the strait was “possible” for two weeks. "Risk appetite has ebbed and flowed as this conflict has persisted," ANZ analysts said in a note. "It has also heightened the prospect that central banks will delay cutting rates or even hike them on the back of elevated energy prices." Gold, a non-yielding safe-haven asset, tends to benefit in low-rate environments and during times of uncertainty. Additionally, bullion also received a boost on reports that China has accelerated its gold purchases, the brokerage said. Base metals, meanwhile, were mixed, as investors struggled with conflicting headlines of ceasefire talks and threats of attacks. Among other precious metals, silver prices ( XAGUSD:CUR ) rose 4.8% to $76.43 per ounce, while platinum ( XPTUSD:CUR ) gained 4.4% to $2,032.90. Palladium ( XPDUSD:CUR ) advanced 5.4% to $1,535.50. Gold and Gold Mining ETFs: ( GLD ), ( IAU ), ( SGOL ), ( OUNZ ), ( BAR ), ( GDX ), ( GDXJ ), ( NUGT ), ( RING ), and ( DUST ). More on Gold Spot Price, SPDR Gold Shares ETF, etc. Stocks From Liberation Day To Iran War If Silver Is Near A Bottom, The SILJ ETF Offers Value Commodities: Oil Climbs On Trump Escalation Threat China's central bank buys the most gold in a year as Iran war slashes prices Weekly ETF flows: Five of 11 sectors record outflows; energy sector lea...