Trump administration officials are examining what a potential spike in oil prices as high as $200 a barrel would mean for the economy, a sign senior officials are studying the possible fallout from extreme scenarios for the Iran war, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Modeling of how damaging a bigger jump in oil prices could be to growth prospects is part of regular assessment done during t...
Trump administration officials are examining what a potential spike in oil prices as high as $200 a barrel would mean for the economy, a sign senior officials are studying the possible fallout from extreme scenarios for the Iran war, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Modeling of how damaging a bigger jump in oil prices could be to growth prospects is part of regular assessment done during times of strain and is not a prediction, according to the people, who asked not to be identified commenting on matters that aren’t public. The effort is aimed at making sure the administration is prepared for all contingencies, including a prolonged conflict, they said. The latest comments by Iran suggested some willingness by Tehran to negotiate an end to the war if its demands were met. The U.S. sent a 15-point ceasefire proposal to Iran that was originally brushed aside by Iranian officials. WTI crude ( CL1:COM ) futures were up 1.6% to $91.71/bbl at press time, Brent ( CO1:COM ) also gained 1.5% to $103.78/bbl, and front-month Nymex natural gas ( NG1:COM ) for April delivery ticked up 0.5% to $2.97/MMBtu. ETFs: ( USO ), ( BNO ), ( UCO ), ( SCO ), ( USL ), ( DBO ), ( DRIP ), ( GUSH ), ( USOI ), ( UNG ), ( BOIL ), ( KOLD ), ( UNL ), ( FCG ), ( XLE ) More on Crude Oil Futures, Brent Futures Gas Prices Up More Than $1 In March Global Markets Swing On U.S.-Iran War Headlines As Risk-On Rally Falters - A Cross Analysis On S&P 500, U.S. Dollar Index, AUD/USD, And WTI Crude Commodities: Shifting War Outlook Persian Gulf energy infrastructure repair cost could top $25B, Rystad says Oil prices will not go back to $65/bbl even if the Iran war ends – analyst
PonyWang/iStock via Getty Images When Meta ( META ) started building their Superintelligence team (MSL) in mid-2025, I certainly expected to see faster progress than what we have seen from them so far. I wonder if the Llama 4 fiasco, as well as the backlash for “Vibes” last year, made Meta much more tentative than usual for releasing new products/features. This is making Meta increasingly look lik...
PonyWang/iStock via Getty Images When Meta ( META ) started building their Superintelligence team (MSL) in mid-2025, I certainly expected to see faster progress than what we have seen from them so far. I wonder if the Llama 4 fiasco, as well as the backlash for “Vibes” last year, made Meta much more tentative than usual for releasing new products/features. This is making Meta increasingly look like a laggard in the AI race despite spending commensurate capital on compute and talent compared to other players leading the race. Despite looking like a laggard, Meta also seems to be on a tuck-in acquisition spree every other week these days. Just in March, Meta acquired Moltbook , a social media platform for AI agents, and made a non-exclusive license deal with Dreamer , the startup that helps consumers build AI agents. Since the Dreamer co-founders joined MSL as part of the deal, this is essentially yet another roundabout “acquisition” Silicon Valley invented in the current antitrust environment. The fact that Dreamer raised $56 million at a $500 million valuation back in December 2024 and Dreamer’s CEO was a former CTO of Stripe makes me think Meta may have paid a good premium to get the Dreamer team in MSL. Just last week, Dreamer’s now former CEO demoed the product in this podcast , and it indeed looks quite promising. In fact, while reacting to the acquisition news, Alex Heath mentioned the following in his newsletter: I was recently given a demo of the product by co-founder (and former Stripe CTO) David Singleton. I was so intrigued that I demanded to be added to the beta. I clearly wasn’t the only one who was impressed. With the Manus and Dreamer deals, it appears Meta is getting more serious about agent infrastructure above the model layer. In fact, even if Meta remains a laggard in building a SOTA model for the foreseeable future, their core business continues to offer compelling opportunities to integrate AI on top of the model layer. Even though Meta may seem ...
US president claims Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side; Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi says US and Iran ‘signalling a willingness to negotiate’ Iran rejects US ceasefire plan and submits its own amid push for talks Analysis: Trump pitches Iran peace plan but military buildups rarely veer to off-ramp China’s foreign minister has said that a “glimmer of hope” for peace has eme...
US president claims Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side; Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi says US and Iran ‘signalling a willingness to negotiate’ Iran rejects US ceasefire plan and submits its own amid push for talks Analysis: Trump pitches Iran peace plan but military buildups rarely veer to off-ramp China’s foreign minister has said that a “glimmer of hope” for peace has emerged due to moves to stop the war in the Middle East, despite Tehran vowing to keep fighting. Wang Yi urged dialogue in separate calls with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts, suggesting that both Tehran and Washington had shown signals they were willing to return to the negotiating table. Speaking of negotiations now is an admission of defeat. Prolonging this war would only result in further casualties and needless losses, leading to a further spillover of the conflict. Continue reading...
Sin Bi Cheah, CEO of Malaysian‑based Orkim Group, discusses the impact of the Iran war on the shipping industry. The company transports clean petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas. He speaks with Paul Allen from the sidelines of 'Asia-Pacific Maritime 2026.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Sin Bi Cheah, CEO of Malaysian‑based Orkim Group, discusses the impact of the Iran war on the shipping industry. The company transports clean petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas. He speaks with Paul Allen from the sidelines of 'Asia-Pacific Maritime 2026.' (Source: Bloomberg)
A Chinese military research team has released what it described as the first publicly available visible light-infrared ship detection data set, a resource that could sharpen maritime target recognition for drones, missiles or surveillance systems operating at night or in environments where radar is degraded or suppressed. The dual-modal ship detection (DMSD) data set contains more than 2,000 paire...
A Chinese military research team has released what it described as the first publicly available visible light-infrared ship detection data set, a resource that could sharpen maritime target recognition for drones, missiles or surveillance systems operating at night or in environments where radar is degraded or suppressed. The dual-modal ship detection (DMSD) data set contains more than 2,000 paired visible and infrared vessel images and nearly 20,000 annotated instances, according to the...