bigjoe1

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President Donald Trump on Thursday said that “the war in Iran is going along swimmingly.”

“It should be ending pretty soon,” Trump said at an event in Las Vegas, echoing similarly rosy predictions about the end of the war that he has made since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.

“It was perfect. It’s perfect. It was the power we have,” the president said. “We had the most powerful military anywhere in the world.”

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Trump says war with Iran "going swimmingly "and should end soon. CNBC

Need more midnight basketball :banghead:

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Can Warsh get confirmed while Pirro is still hanging an investigation over Powell’s head? Tillis no likey.

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If Tillis digs in and the Democrats on the committee vote as a bloc then the nomination won't get out of committee.
If that happens it's my understanding the current chairman stays until a replacement is confirmed.
I doubt he gets very far in trying to fire Powell, Hell he couldn't fire Lisa Cook.
Having said that, Powell should resign as a fed Governor when his term as chairman ends next month. It's a tradition. The last time someone stayed after their term expired Harry Truman was president.

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I really like JD Vance, but who is “we”. If “we” is the US Government, how does this happen considering “we” are broke.

I fear that by “we” he means the US taxpayer who is the “we” being drained of earnings to feed the Ukraine War at the moment and will be the “we” that is drained to rebuild the Iran economy

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I think he means we will lift sanctions and unfreeze bank accounts.
No way in hell does the U.S. start writing checks.

The interesting thing to me is, this is the first time Bessent has publicly disagreed with Trump on the direction of interest rates.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said the Federal Reserve could wait to lower interest rates amid the oil spike, in a departure from his previous stance on monetary policy.

“Do I think rates should be lowered? Eventually. I think now that we have to wait and see,” Bessent told Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith at the Semafor World Economy conference in Washington, DC.

Bessent has previously said that Fed Chair Jerome Powell should hasten cutting interest rates, saying in January that reductions are “the only ingredient missing for even stronger economic growth. Which is why the Fed should not delay.”

But the change in thinking comes amid the ongoing war in Iran, which has driven up oil prices to above $100 a barrel.

That complicates the Fed’s mandate, as it eyes rising inflation alongside slowing growth. The central bank was last expected to hold rates steady this year, with the slimmest possibility of a hike, according to fed funds futures pricing.

Coming out of “January and February — the economy was very strong,” Bessent told Semafor.

Powell’s term as chair is up in May, but he could have to stay on longer if Trump’s chair nominee which Bessent helped select, Kevin Warsh, can’t get confirmed by the Senate by the time. Sen. Thom Tillis has vowed to block a Warsh vote until U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro ends her criminal probe into Powell related to Fed building cost overruns. Powell has said the probe is designed to put pressure on him by the Trump administration for not cutting rates more.

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CNBC

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he legendary derivatives trading team at Vitol Group, the world’s largest oil trader, has reportedly lost hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars on oil bets that went very wrong as the war in the Middle East roiled global markets and trapped physical supply at the Strait of Hormuz.

Vitol’s star trader Yaoyao Liu found himself on the wrong side of bets on crude and fuel prices at the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, as prices soared in the worst disruption of global oil supply in history, the Wall Street Journal reports, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

Liu’s trades are reportedly a closely-guarded secret not only on the market but also within Vitol itself.

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oilprice.com

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Asset management giant BlackRock raised its outlook for U.S. stocks, reasoning that contained impacts from the Iran war and strong corporate earnings will create a favorable backdrop for domestic equities.

The firm, which manages $14 trillion for clients, said in its weekly market note that it raised the rating a notch to overweight from neutral.

Developments in the war had made BlackRock cautious on domestic stocks. But it said prospects for a lasting ceasefire now have strategists believing that the impacts won’t be major.

“We saw two signposts that would lead us to re-up risk after reducing it a few weeks ago. First, tangible evidence of actions that would reopen flows through the Strait of Hormuz. And second, visibility on the lingering macro impact being contained,” the firm said. “This comes as expectations for corporate earnings have climbed for both the U.S. and [emerging markets] for 2026 – even since the conflict began on Feb. 28.”

Moreover, the BlackRock strategists said “the threshold for the U.S. and Iran to go back to war is high,” further limiting potential damage.

At the same time, prospects for corporate profits appear bright.

With earnings season just getting underway, S&P 500
companies are expected to post a collective 12.6% profit increase in the first quarter, according to FactSet. If historical beat rates hold, that would rise to 19%, the forecasting firm said.

Moreover, technology profits are expected to grow 45% this year, yet the sector has seen only a marginal gain this year.

BlackRock said that has put the valuation of information technology against the other 10 S&P 500 sectors at its lowest since mid-2020.

“We re-up risk in the U.S. and EM due to strong corporate earnings expectations and limited accrued damage to global growth,” the strategists said. “We focus on profit margins this Q1 U.S. earnings season and still favor thematic opportunities like defense.”

The two regions are the only overweights BlackRock has in its equity portfolio.

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CNBC

I think China is going to pressure Iran.
Something's happening. Stock markets are higher and oil prices didn't really spike.

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The Free State of Winston is a popular name given to Civil War-era Winston County, as a reflection of the county's generally pro-Union stance and resistance to Confederate rule during the war. During the secession crisis, Unionists in Winston County declared their right to secede from Alabama; much as the state seceded from the Union. Although the county pulled back from the bold step of secession and hoped to remain neutral in the conflict, it remained under state control and was the scene of violent acts of retribution during and after the war.

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Alabama had the The Free State of Winston Encyclopedia of Al.

I had ancestors on both sides of my family fought for the Confederacy