Baltic Dry Index. 2640 +07 Brent Crude 98.41
Spot Gold 4754 Spot Silver 78.54
US 2 Year Yield 3.78 +0.06
US Federal Debt. 39.148 trillion
US GDP 31.348 trillion.
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
Ernest Hemingway
To the global stock casinos, their bets that the erratic, bombastic, TACO prone, President Trump would fold and extend the Iran ceasefire, paid off.
The big question now is, did any/how many District of Crooks insiders place bets?
About 24 hours after threatening US war crimes in Iran by “blowing up every power station and bridge in Iran”, President Trump gave in to Iran, getting nothing back in return.
Vice President Vance, who President Trump said on Monday was travelling to Pakistan for talks with Iran, remains in the District of Crooks.
Trump Fed Pick Warsh Grilled By Democrats
April 21, 2026 at 11:02 PM GMT+1
US President Donald Trump reversed
himself again, this time on repeated statements that he was unlikely to
approve an extension of the ceasefire in the US-Israel war with Iran. On
Tuesday, the 79-year-old Republican did just that, as he continues to look for
a way out of a deeply unpopular conflict that’s driven up gas prices while
driving down his poll numbers.
Earlier, Vice President JD Vance’s planned
trip to Pakistan for peace negotiations was put off because Iranian officials
refused to attend, citing what they said were unreasonable US demands. Iran’s
semi-official Tasnim news agency said there is currently no prospect of Iran
participating in negotiations.
Top Iranian officials didn’t immediately
comment on Trump’s latest pronouncement. Tasnim reported Iran didn’t request an
extension of the ceasefire, citing unidentified sources. It also said the
country won’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the American naval
blockade continues, which Trump has pledged to keep in place.
Before Trump’s latest turnabout, the
world’s top oil traders warned that the ongoing closure of the strait is increasing
the risk of a global recession. While international forecasters already
acknowledge the conflict is sapping economic growth and oil demand, merchants
including Vitol, Gunvor and Trafigura cautioned the situation will get even
worse if the strait doesn’t open soon. —Jordan
Parker Erb
Trump’s Fed Pick Grilled By Democrats: Evening Briefing Americas - Bloomberg
Japan's Nikkei 225 rises to record high as Trump
extends Iran ceasefire
Published Tue, Apr 21 2026 7:49 PM EDT
Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit a record high on
Wednesday as President Donald Trump extended a
U.S. ceasefire with Iran, even as other Asia-Pacific markets were broadly
lower amid concerns that the Middle East conflict could drag on.
“Based on the fact that the Government of
Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field
Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have
been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their
leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump said in
a Truth Social post.
He added that the ceasefire would be
extended until Tehran submitted a proposal or discussions were concluded, and
that the U.S. military would continue its blockade of Iranian ports.
However, the timeline remains uncertain.
Negotiators from Tehran said they wouldn’t attend the talks with the U.S.,
calling them a “waste of time,” Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.
The uncertainty also delayed Vice
President JD
Vance’s trip to join peace talks, according to reports from Axios and The New York Times, citing U.S. officials with knowledge of
the situation.
Oil futures gave up earlier gains. West Texas Intermediate futures
were 0.49% lower at $89.23 per barrel as of 11:50 p.m. ET. Brent crude declined 0.31%
to $98.17 per barrel.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose to a new
record of 59,691 following the release of its latest trade data. The
country’s exports
rose for a seventh straight month, posting a trade surplus of 667
billion yen ($4.18 billion) in March, compared with a surplus of 1.1 trillion
yen forecast, data from Reuters showed. The focus will also be on the Bank of
Japan’s policy meeting next week. The Topix, however, lost 0.63%.
South Korea’s Kospi pared earlier losses
and slipped 0.14% amid some profit-taking after reaching a record high on
Tuesday. The small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.81%. Producer prices in
March grew at their fastest pace in over three years, supported by higher oil
prices amid the conflict in the Middle East, central bank data showed.
Mainland China’s CSI300 index gained
0.30%, while Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng index declined 1.32%.
India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.48%. Shares of
IT company HCL Technologies dropped 8.87% after its fourth-quarter earnings
missed expectations.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.94%
lower.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both
added 0.4%. Futures tied to
the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 190 points, or 0.4%
During Tuesday’s regular session,
the S&P 500 closed
down 0.63% at 7,064.01, while the Nasdaq Composite settled
0.59% lower at 24,259.96. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average shed 293.18 points, or 0.59%, to finish at
49,149.38.
Asia-Pacific
markets today: Nikkei 225, Kospi, Hang Seng Index
Oil edge lower as fragile Iran ceasefire extension
clouds outlook
Published Tue, Apr 21 2026 8:57 PM EDT
Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday as
uncertainty lingered over the trajectory of the U.S.–Iran conflict, after
President Donald Trump extended a fragile ceasefire with Tehran but signaled
tensions remain far from resolved.
International benchmark Brent crude and
U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures both slid, with Brent declining 0.68% to
$97.81 per barrel while the WTI lost 0.29% to $89.04 per barrel.
The moves come after Trump said the U.S.
would prolong its temporary truce with Iran beyond the previously set deadline,
citing a “seriously fractured” political situation within Tehran.
The ceasefire will remain in place until
Iranian leaders present a unified proposal to end hostilities with Washington
and Israel, he said in a post on Truth Social. In the meantime, the U.S. would
continue its blockade of Iran’s ports.
The ceasefire extension underscores the
uncertain path toward de-escalation. While the move delays the risk of imminent
military strikes, it also highlights deep divisions within Iran’s leadership
and the lack of a clear diplomatic breakthrough.
Earlier on Tuesday, oil prices rose after
it became clear that Vice President JD Vance had not departed for Pakistan,
where peace talks with Iran were supposed to resume.
However, Iranian state news outlet Tasnim
reported that negotiators from Tehran had informed their U.S. counterparts
through an intermediary in Pakistan that they would not appear for further
talks.
“Iran ultimately announced today that
under these circumstances, attending the negotiations is a waste of time
because the US prevents reaching any suitable agreement,” Tasnim reported.
Oil
price: WTI, Brent, Iran ceasefire extension clouds outlook
Why Trump’s latest blink on Iran could be more
than a TACO Tuesday
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Wed, April 22, 2026 at 5:00 AM GMT+1
President Donald Trump blinked again by
extending the ceasefire with Iran.
His critics are mocking another TACO
(“Trump always chickens out”) Tuesday after the president caved on one more
personal red line days after warning there’d be “no more Mr. Nice Guy” if the
Islamic Republic didn’t capitulate.
But the derision would be more justified
if a president risked more Iranian and US lives by doubling down on what looks
like an unwise war purely to preserve his tough-guy persona.
A haunting question about the Vietnam War
that future Sen. John Kerry posed to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee in 1971 seems apt here: “How do you ask a man to be
the last man to die for a mistake?”
Still, Trump’s climbdown cast fresh doubts on his wartime
leadership skills on a day when Iran refused to show up to talks in Islamabad
aimed at ending the war — leaving Vice President JD Vance cooling his heels at
home.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he’d put US attacks on hold
at the request of Pakistan to allow Iran to send a proposal and until talks
conclude one way or the other. He also argued that the process was complicated
because Iran’s leadership was “seriously fractured.”
CNN reported that top officials believe
there was little point in Vance traveling to Pakistan for the talks. They
believe Iran didn’t reply to US proposals because its leaders don’t yet have
consensus on their position or on how far to empower negotiations on the
country’s uranium stockpile. One complicating factor may be that new Supreme
Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in hiding and may be unable to transmit clear
directions, the sources said.
This is possible, but it may also be a
self-serving way to cover Trump’s climbdown. Doubts about Iranian diplomats’
authority to negotiate always cloud talks with the Islamic Republic. And it may
also highlight the incoherence of US strategy, since the Iranian leadership’s
fractures were exacerbated by Israeli assassination raids that wiped out top
officials with the political clout to do deals.
One big Trump failure revealed
The president’s spin cannot obscure the
most important takeaway from Tuesday: His strategy of using threats of
overwhelming US military force to coerce Iran into surrendering at talks has
now failed multiple times. Inside Iran, therefore, it must appear that Trump’s
threats of military escalation lack credibility.
More
Why
Trump’s latest blink on Iran could be more than a TACO Tuesday
In other news.
Explainer-Who are the candidates running for UN
secretary-general?
Tue, April 21, 2026 at 6:02 AM GMT+1
GENEVA, April 21 (Reuters) - The 10th
United Nations secretary-general will be elected this year for a five-year term
starting on January 1, 2027.
Here are the candidates so far running to
take over from outgoing U.N. chief Antonio Guterres.
RAFAEL GROSSI
Rafael Grossi, a 65-year-old career
diplomat from Argentina, has been an omnipresent, hyperactive director general
of the U.N. nuclear watchdog for the past six years.
While the International Atomic Energy
Agency has long policed Iran's nuclear programme, Grossi led negotiations aimed
at salvaging parts of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers
after President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of it in
2018. Grossi's critics argue he has gone too far in trying to cut deals with
Iran.
A father of eight and polyglot who speaks
English, Spanish, French and Italian, Grossi has raised both his and the IAEA's
profile with his shuttle diplomacy in international crises.
More
REBECA GRYNSPAN
Rebecca Grynspan, 70, depicts herself as a
reform‑minded multilateralist who has battled gender barriers and has had a
lifelong belief in the U.N. and its commitment to peace, development and human
rights.
A former vice president of Costa Rica who
heads the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, Grynspan said she stepped
back from duties until September to avoid conflicts of interest during the
campaign. Grossi has continued in his role at the IAEA while campaigning.
Born to parents who fled Europe after
World War Two, she links her worldview directly to the origins of the U.N. and
its role in international cooperation and preventing conflict.
More
MICHELLE BACHELET
Michelle Bachelet, 74, is a two-time
president of Chile and a former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who
also served from 2010-13 as executive director of U.N. Women, an agency
promoting women's rights.
In March, Chile withdrew its backing for
Bachelet after a right-wing shift in the country's leadership, but she said she
would press ahead with support from Brazil and Mexico.
Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast's
government said her campaign lacked broad political consensus at home and faced
poor odds internationally.
More
MACKY SALL
Macky Sall, who was Senegal's president
for 12 years until 2024, emphasises his experience as head of state as a key
asset for the role of secretary-general.
The 64-year-old geologist - the son of a
peanut seller from a poor part of the West African country – completed major
infrastructure projects during his tenure and has championed African
development.
Sall has stressed the need to support
developing countries burdened by debt. He is calling for an overhaul of the
Security Council, in a nod to demands from developing nations for permanent
seats on the most powerful U.N. body.
"More than ever, a reinvented
multilateralism remains the best way to respond to the challenges of a world
in full transformation," he said on X.
More
Explainer-Who are
the candidates running for UN secretary-general?
The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope
is never so lost that it can't be found.
Ernest Hemingway
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Retail
sales post biggest jump in more than 3 years on record spike in gas prices
April
21, 2026
A
record spike in gas prices drove US retail sales higher in March, rising by the
fastest monthly pace in more than three years, new Commerce Department data
showed Tuesday.
Retail
sales jumped 1.7% in March, a sharp upswing from February’s 0.7% gain, marking
the fastest pace since January 2023.
The
retail sales figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not inflation.
Gas
prices soared in March as a result of the war with Iran and the effective
closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel for the transport of oil.
Retail sales post
biggest jump in more than 3 years on record spike in gas prices
UK
unemployment rate drops unexpectedly
21
April 2026, 07:13 BST
The
UK's unemployment rate has fallen unexpectedly but wages are growing at their
slowest pace for more than five years, the latest official figures show.
Unemployment
fell to 4.9% in the three months to February, despite predictions it would
remain unchanged at 5.2%.
However,
the fall appears to reflect a slight rise in the number of people no longer
looking for work, largely among students, who are not included in the
unemployment figures.
The
numbers from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also show wages rose at
an annual pace of 3.6% between December and February, the weakest rate since
late 2020. Despite the slowdown, pay is still rising faster than inflation.
Liz
McKeown, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics
(ONS) figures, said: "Alongside falling unemployment, the number of people
not actively seeking work increased, with data suggesting fewer students
seeking work alongside their studies."
The
inactivity rate – which measures the proportion of people unemployed but not
looking for work – was 21% in the December to February period, up from 20.7%.
Most
of the data released by the ONS was gathered before the outbreak of the
US-Israeli war with Iran, which has led to a surge in energy prices.
If
these energy prices remain high, economists have warned this could affect the
jobs market in coming months.
More
UK unemployment
rate drops unexpectedly - BBC News
The Strait of Hormuz blockade: how US action against Iran risks global
economic fallout
21 April 2026
A US naval blockade
targeting Iranian shipping is beginning to disrupt one of the world’s most
critical trade routes, raising fears of rising energy prices and wider economic
instability.
The move is designed to
pressure Tehran by cutting off key revenue streams—but its effects are already
being felt far beyond the region.
Pressure on Iran
According to the BBC, The United States has
imposed restrictions on ships traveling to and from Iranian ports following
failed negotiations and amid a fragile ceasefire.
The strategy targets
Iran’s core economic lifelines, particularly oil exports and maritime revenues
linked to the Strait of Hormuz. US forces have already intercepted vessels and
forced others to turn back, tightening control over Iran’s access to global
markets.
Iran has condemned the
move as “piracy” and warned of retaliation, signaling that tensions could
escalate further.
----Economic and geopolitical risks
The consequences of the
blockade extend far beyond Iran.
Energy prices have
already shown signs of volatility, with Asia particularly exposed due to its
reliance on oil flows through the region. China, a major buyer of Iranian
crude, could face supply disruptions, while other economies risk knock-on
effects across fuel, food and industrial sectors.
At the same time, the
blockade increases the risk of military escalation. Iran has threatened to
restrict access to the strait, and any breakdown of the ceasefire could draw in
regional powers and deepen the conflict.
The longer the standoff
continues, the greater the risk that a targeted economic move turns into a
broader global crisis.
Sources: BBC, Digi24
The Strait of Hormuz blockade: how US action against Iran risks global
economic fallout
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
Homeowner
converts used BMW car battery into emergency power source
April
20, 2026
Upgrading your home with solar panels and battery
storage is one of the tried and tested methods for saving money on home energy,
preparing for power outages, and even cutting ties with power companies.
One homeowner recently took to Reddit to share how they
transformed a BMW i3 battery into a home backup energy solution. The original
poster had the comment section intrigued after sharing an image of the large
battery system.
In the comments, the OP explained they used an inverter
and battery emulator to pair the electric vehicle battery with their solar
panels. The total cost of the project was $1,176. "I think this is the
cheapest way for sure to get a large home battery!" the OP added.
They aren't the only one reaping the benefits of cheap
at-home energy. With some solar owners seeing thousands of dollars in savings on their bills over the years, panels and batteries are becoming
popular upgrades across the United States.
If you're curious about how solar panels can transform
your home energy, connect with the experts at EnergySage. Its free tools can help you
get quick installation estimates and compare quotes.
While some commenters had valid safety concerns, which
the OP addressed, others offered support for the DIY endeavor.
"Does anyone have a business doing this yet?"
one user wrote. "I'm a huge
fan of reusing electronics like this, and also it seems like an economical way
to get a massive home battery backup."
Another said: "This is
simply awesome. I never knew. That's a lot of stored power!"
While this homeowner chose a DIY approach, many find it
easier to work with trusted partners to find the best solar panels for their
homes and budgets. Homeowners using free comparison tools can save up to $10,000 on solar
purchases and installations.
EnergySage also offers a helpful mapping tool that shows you, at the state level, the average
cost of home solar and available incentives. It ensures you lock in the best
price for rooftop panels and snag all the incentives you can.
Plus,
if you're looking for home battery solutions like this homeowner, EnergySage
can help you with competitive installation
estimates and
information on storage options. If you're concerned about power outages or
rising energy costs, or looking to cut ties with the grid entirely, a home
battery backup could be a good fit.
Homeowner converts
used BMW car battery into emergency power source
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of
how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
Ernest Hemingway
