Baltic
Dry Index. 2354 +104 Brent Crude 95.57
Spot Gold 4825 Spot Silver 79.87
US 2 Year Yield 3.76 -0.02
US Federal Debt. 39.119 trillion
US GDP 31.328 trillion.
“Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. We have trade and energy agreements with Iran. We will respect and honour those agreements and expect others not to interfere in our affairs.”
China Defence Minister Dong Jun
Having backed himself into a corner of his own making, Trump and Team Trump are desperately spinning that new talks with Iran are at hand.
But even if such talks are real, why would Iran concede now? Iran holds almost all the cards. The global economy is maybe ten days away from starting to sieze up.
A seizure that will be globally blamed on Israel and Trump’s very rude America.
Having insulted most of the world, friend and foe alike, coveted Canada and Greenland, started a war with no end plan, blockaded Iran’s oil exports, further rapidly stressing the global economy, Trump and Team Trump are facing a looming global economic disaster.
Iran has merely to run out the clock. Trump has to fold or take the global consequences. But don’t expect mainstream media to report it truthfully.
Without Trump concessions and fast, bad things start happening in the markets once reality sets in.
Iran and US Look to Arrange More Peace Talks
After a failed first round, both sides
appear headed back to the table.
April 14, 2026 at 10:57 PM GMT+1
According to the Trump administration, six
merchant vessels complied with instructions from American forces to
turn around and re-enter an Iranian port during the first day of its
promised blockade, as traders watched for signs of ships testing the
restrictions.
No vessels made it through the flotilla,
the US said, which is made up of more than a dozen warships and 10,000 service
personnel. The administration says it is enforcing the measures in the Gulf of
Oman and the Arabian Sea, lying in wait for Iranian vessels that try to sail
out of the Persian Gulf. That means some ships can cross the Strait of Hormuz
but still not break the blockade.
As the blockade continues, Iran and the US
are said to be looking to arrange a second round of peace talks following a
failed first round, with Tehran mulling
a pause in shipments through the strait to help ease the path toward
an agreement on time and place. The stated objective is to hold
more discussions before a ceasefire in the US-Israel war with Iran
expires next week.
With the possibility of further peace
talks, stocks
continued their climb on Tuesday, putting the S&P 500 Index within
sight of a fresh record. —Jordan
Parker Erb
Stocks
Rise on Iran War Talks Push: Evening Briefing Americas - Bloomberg
Asia markets open higher as hopes for a U.S.-Iran
deal rise and oil prices drop
Published Tue, Apr 14 2026 7:45 PM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher
Wednesday, tracking overnight gains in U.S. stocks, as oil prices fell amid
rising hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict.
A White
House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of
negotiations between Washington and Tehran was under discussion. Nothing has
been officially scheduled yet, the official said, who asked not to be named to
discuss the administration’s internal plans.
“We’ve been called by the other side,”
President Donald Trump said
Monday. “They’d like to make a deal very badly, he added.
The West Texas Intermediate was
down 0.34% at $90.97 per barrel as of 11:46 p.m. ET. Brent crude reversed early
losses, rising 0.33% to $95.10 per barrel.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.84% while
the small-cap Kosdaq gained 2.61%. Shares of information technology services
provider Samsung SDS rose 20% following news that private equity firm KKR will
buy $820 million of its convertible bonds.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.88% higher,
while the Topix rose 0.60%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index inched 0.2%
higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng index added 0.80% higher. China’s finance ministry said it will
issue 15.5 billion yuan-denominated treasury bonds in Hong Kong on April 22,
according to Reuters.
India’s Nifty 50 was trading 1.61% higher
following a holiday on Tuesday.
Futures tied to the broad market
index and Nasdaq 100
futures were last trading marginally lower. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell
by 17 points, or less than 0.1%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500
rose 1.18%. The Nasdaq
Composite gained 1.96%, while the blue-chip Dow advanced 317.74 points,
or 0.66%.
The S&P 500 is nearing its all-time
high of 7,002.28, reached on Jan. 28.
Asia
markets today: Nikkei 225, Hang Seng, CSI 300
Trump’s Hormuz blockade puts China, India
in crosshairs as U.S. pressure on Iran spills over
Published Tue, Apr 14 2026 11:51 PM EDT
The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz
is not only squeezing Iran but also ratcheting up pressure on two of its most
consequential relationships in Asia — India and China.
With roughly 98% of Iranian oil exports
bound for China, and a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping weeks
away, Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran risks destabilizing the
fragile detente that the administration has carefully cultivated with Beijing.
India, with its complicated
ties with the U.S., is increasingly finding U.S. policy at odds with its
economic interests — most acutely in the energy shock now rippling
through its economy.
Trump is scheduled to visit China in
mid-May, and the administration signaled repeatedly in recent weeks that it
wants the bilateral relationship stable enough to keep the high-stakes meeting
on track.
“The Iran conflict, particularly the
blockade, may upend this effort,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia
Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator.
Signs of friction are already emerging.
Beijing, which had kept its stance on Trump’s blockade largely restrained,
appeared to harden its tone on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo
Jiakun slammed the move as “dangerous and irresponsible,” and
it will only “exacerbate tensions.”
More than a month into the war, Trump
pulled a familiar playbook when he threatened
to hit China with a 50% tariff if Beijing supplies weapons to Iran.
Beijing pushed back, with Guo rejecting what he called “groundless smears and
malicious linkage.”
“China will resolutely retaliate with
countermeasures against any U.S. attempt to use weapons sales as a pretext for
additional tariffs,” Guo said.
India, in the meantime, is facing a
different type of pressure. Its heavy reliance on imported energy has left it
increasingly exposed to the economic fallout from the conflict.
Earlier this month, India resumed
purchases of Iranian oil and gas after a seven-year hiatus,
having secured
safe passage for its ships through the strait from Tehran, under a
temporary U.S. waiver.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after
a nearly 40-minute call with Trump on Tuesday, said the
two leaders had a “useful
exchange of views” on the Middle East conflict and that India
“supports de-escalation and restoration of peace at the earliest.”
Even if Washington carves out special
provisions for India, they are unlikely to cover the full scale of New Delhi’s
gas needs, said Arpit Chaturvedi, South Asia geopolitical risk advisor at
consultancy Teneo.
As the U.S. blockade takes hold, India
will likely halt its crude imports from Iran, said Chaturvedi, otherwise “we
will see the relationship between New Delhi and Washington deteriorate.”
For now, “there is no incentive for India
to risk its relationship with Washington any further, and bring [it] close to a
point of no return,” Chaturvedi added.
More
Iran
war: Trump’s Hormuz blockade tests U.S. ties with China and India
Global economy to grind to a halt as chilling
10-day meltdown warning issued
14 April 2026
The global economy has been issued a
10-day warning as Iran's and US's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz could bring
global trade close to a halt.
Robert Pape, a professor at the University
of Chicago, said he believes the economic consequences of the war are about to
expand far beyond the price of oil-and he says the effects will be felt in
days, Business Insider reported.
"Within 10 days, parts of the global
economy will start running short of critical good. Not just higher prices -
Shortages. Markets are not ready for this," he said.
Quoted by Business insider, he said:
"Once inventories run down, this stops being about expensive inputs. It
becomes about missing inputs. Factories don't slow because costs rise. They
stop because materials don't arrive."
He also added that America's energy
independence "won't spare the US economy from more pain to come, echoing
other commentators who have said recently that the US isn't isolated from the
disruptions", the same outlet reported.
Business Insider also spoke to Michael
Cembalest of JPMorgan Private Bank who also said that the US's energy
independence "won't shield the US from energy shocks," the Insider
wrote.
Cembalest, quoted by the same publication,
said: "When supply chains seize, the shock transmits via trade
reductions," Pape added. "This is the real shift: prices no longer
determine outcomes. Access does. By the time shortages show up in headlines,
it's already too late. That's how these shocks work."
More
Global
economy to grind to a halt as chilling 10-day meltdown warning issued
In other news, about those Gulf blockades. First
there was one blockade then another came along. Approx. 16 minutes.
Strait of Hormuz and Dueling Blockades -
The United States and Iran Block Access to the Persian Gulf
Strait of Hormuz and Dueling Blockades -
The United States and Iran Block Access to the Persian Gulf
Don't interfere: China fires warning shot at US
over Hormuz blockade
13 April 2026
A senior Chinese official has warned the
United States against imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and cautioned
it not to interfere in China's bilateral relations with Iran.
Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun's
warning coincided with the start of the US naval blockade at 7:30 pm IST on
Monday.
"We have trade and energy agreements
with Iran; we expect others not to interfere in our affairs," said Jun,
adding that the Strait of Hormuz remains open for China.
The waterway is extremely crucial for
Beijing as it supplies nearly 40 per cent of its oil and at least 30 per cent
of its LNG needs. Hence, China has been pushing for a ceasefire to secure the
critical waterway in the Gulf.
China's Foreign Ministry has also said
that "maintaining the waterway's safety, stability and unimpeded passage
serves the common interests of the international community."
"The root cause of disruptions to
navigation through the strait lies in the conflict involving Iran, and the way
to resolve this issue is to achieve a ceasefire and end hostilities as soon as
possible," SCMP quoted spokesperson Guo Jiakun as saying on Monday.
He also added that China is ready to play
a positive and constructive role in ending the conflict in the Middle East.
More
Don't interfere:
China fires warning shot at US over Hormuz blockade
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Surcharges Are Suddenly Everywhere—And Grumpy Americans Are Paying Up
The
add-ons were a feature during Covid and are once again sneaking their way onto
bills. ‘I feel like I need to be my own detective.’
April 12, 2026 8:00
pm ET
An extra 3% for paying
with a credit card. A 5% involuntary contribution to a restaurant’s employee
wellness fund. $25 a month in addition to rent for trash
collection.
Consumers already weary
of rising inflation are now contending with a new crop of costs that are hidden
in plain sight. New fees or surcharges are popping up everywhere as companies
search for ways to recoup their own rising costs while blaming outside pressures.
In recent weeks,
package-delivery companies and airlines have announced new or higher fees, citing increasing fuel prices. Economists expect
more to follow unless oil prices rapidly fall.
Surcharges increase
pressure on consumers, whose spending drives the economy. On Friday, the
University of Michigan’s survey of consumers reported its lowest-ever sentiment reading, beating out the 2008 recession and the pandemic,
pointing to Americans’ increasing concerns over rising prices.
Yet there is a simple
reason why companies like these types of fees, which often don’t show up until
a customer is already checking out: They work.
A JD Power study released
in 2025 found that 34% of small businesses were adding credit-card surcharges.
A fifth of restaurant operators, meanwhile, now add fees or surcharges to
customer checks, according to a 2025 report from the National Restaurant Association,
up from 16% in 2022.
“Consumers tend to pay
less attention to surcharges than to base prices,” said Vicki Morwitz, a
marketing professor at Columbia University.
Researchers call this
phenomenon a “lock-in effect.” By the time a surcharge appears at the end of a
transaction, consumers have already committed to the purchase and are far less
likely to abandon it than if they had seen the full price from the start. That
makes them mad. But it doesn’t cause them to change their behavior.
---- How much a surcharge irritates consumers depends
largely on where it appears in a transaction. Fees disclosed upfront and
included in an initial purchase price are generally better-received than those
that show up only at checkout, a practice known as drip pricing.
The Federal Trade
Commission banned drip pricing in short-term lodging and live-event ticketing
in 2025, citing research showing that consumers were manipulated by low initial
prices even when the full cost was eventually disclosed.
Companies sometimes
prefer surcharges to straight price increases because they shift blame to an
external force. When airlines or shipping companies label a fee a “fuel
surcharge” they are pointing at a circumstance outside of their control rather
than appearing to pad their margins, said Rebecca Hamilton, a marketing
professor at Georgetown University.
---- Not everyone is convinced the current wave is as
justified—or as temporary—as companies claim.
Corey Andrews, 32, views
the fees as a one-way street.
“If jet fuel goes back
down, the baggage fees won’t,” he said, referring to nearly every major U.S.
carrier’s recent decision to raise prices for checked baggage. Andrews, a laid-off market strategist in Denver,
tries to avoid fees in his day-to-day life. He has at times not returned to
restaurants that pass wellness service charges on to customers, and he avoids
fee-heavy food-delivery apps. He waits until he has multiple items to buy from
a retailer to avoid paying for shipping, and signs up for credit cards with
travel-status points that make checked baggage free.
“I consider myself a
savvy consumer,” Andrews said. “But when everything goes up, you run out of
levers.”
More
Surcharges Are Suddenly Everywhere—And Grumpy Americans Are Paying Up -
WSJ
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.
This new chip could slash data center
energy waste
Date: April 10, 2026
Source: University of
California - San Diego
Summary: A new chip design
from UC San Diego could make data centers far more energy-efficient by
rethinking how power is converted for GPUs. By combining vibrating
piezoelectric components with a clever circuit layout, the system overcomes
limitations of traditional designs. The prototype achieved impressive
efficiency and delivered much more power than previous attempts. Though not
ready for widespread use yet, it points to a promising future for
high-performance computing.
As data centers consume more
energy to support growing digital demands, engineers at the University of
California San Diego have introduced a new chip design that could make powering
graphics processing units (GPUs) more efficient. The innovation focuses on a
key function in electronics: converting high voltages into the lower levels
required by computing hardware. In laboratory testing, a prototype chip
successfully performed this type of voltage conversion with high efficiency
under conditions similar to those found in modern data centers.
The findings, published
in Nature Communications, suggest the potential for smaller and
more energy-efficient systems in advanced computing environments.
Rethinking DC-DC Converters for Modern Electronics
At the center of the new
design is an improved version of a widely used component known as a DC-DC
step-down converter. These converters are found in nearly all electronic
devices and serve as a critical link between power sources and sensitive
circuits. Their job is to take a high incoming voltage and reduce it to the
exact level needed for safe operation.
In data centers, electricity
is often distributed at 48 volts, while GPU processors typically require much
lower voltages, usually between 1 and 5 volts. Efficiently managing this large
voltage drop has become increasingly challenging as computing systems grow more
powerful and compact.
Limits of Traditional Power Conversion Technology
More
This new chip could slash data center energy waste
| ScienceDaily
Journal Reference:
Jae-Young Ko, Wen-Chin B.
Liu, Patrick P. Mercier. A hybrid piezoelectric resonator-based DC-DC
converter. Nature Communications, 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-70494-0
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
“Contrariwise,' continued Trump, 'if it was so, it might be; and
if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”
With apologies to Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
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