Iran Continues Attacks; Trump Delays Xi Summit

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1:31Stop searching for files and finally get everyone on the same page. Do that. Do that. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Good morning. I'm Karen Moscow. And I'm John Tucker. Here are the stories we're following today. Well, John, the rise in oil comes as Iran steps up attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East operations were suspended at the Shah Natural Gas Field in the United Arab Emirates after a drone strike while an Iraqi oil field and key Emirati port were also targeted by Iranian drones and missiles.

2:15Begin more with Bloomberg Middle East Managing Editor-Owner Ant. The single most important thing about this attack is that it was the first time Iran successfully attacked an upstream asset in the UAE. An upstream asset is an energy facility that produces oil or gas. That's why yesterday's or this morning's attack on the Shah gas field near Abu Dhabi's border with Saudi Arabia was especially important. And it is the second significant attack targeting a gas facility in the Middle East. And Bloomberg's owner, Oz, says the strikes further hamper the outlook for global energy supplies as the war enters its third week.

2:58And current oil has risen more than 40 percent since the war began. There has been a near complete halt of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. As heard right here on Bloomberg Radio, President Trump reiterated his appeals for help from other nations to secure the strait. We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours. We get less than 1 % of our oil from the strait. And some countries get much more. Japan gets 95%. China gets 90%. Many of the Europeans get quite a bit. South Korea gets 35%. So we want them to come and help us with the strait. And during that same news conference, President Trump said in a private conversation, a former president expressed regret about not attacking Iran.

3:49For 47 years, no president was willing to do what I'm doing, and they should have done it a long time ago. It would have been a lot easier. There's no president that wanted to do it, and yet every president knew. I've spoken to a certain president, who I like actually, a past president, former president. He said, I wish I did it. I wish I did, but they didn't do it. I'm doing it. President Trump declined to name the president. The Associated Press is reporting representatives for the four living former presidents, three Democrats and one Republican, said none have been in touch with President Trump recently.

4:24President Trump is delaying his summit with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. He was scheduled for it later this month. Heather Conley is a former deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in the George Bush administration. This is a big decision. Certainly the president has been looking forward to this visit to Beijing. the policy preparation that's gone into place. But I think the White House completely understood that the optics would be terrible as a war is raging. American servicemen and women are in harm's way while he is being feted in Beijing. So I think this is a really big deal that it's been postponed.

5:03But again, I think it's correct. The president needs to stay laser focused on a conflict that's spreading by the day. Heather Conley, a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, speaking with Bloomberg Balance of Power. President Trump's visit to China will be the first by a U.S. leader in nearly a decade. Well, John, President Trump says he wants to finish the war in Iran before turning his attention to Cuba. The New York Times reports the U.S. has told Cuba that for meaningful progress to be made in negotiations, the country's president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, must step down.

5:38President Trump told reporters yesterday that America will take control of the country in some form soon. Taking Cuba. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba. Taking Cuba in some form, yeah. Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth? They're a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. And the president spoke as Cuban officials said they would begin allowing more investment from Cubans living abroad as part of a broader effort to bolster the state-dominated economy. And on the backdrop of the war in the Middle East, Federal Reserve officials, they start their two-day policy meeting today.

6:18Let's get a preview from Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett. The meeting comes amid rising oil prices and how that will affect the Fed's inflation outlook. Eric Rosengren is the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. I would highlight that even before the war, the committee was quite divided. So there was a significant subset of individuals that were very concerned about inflation and a somewhat smaller subset that were worried about the fragility of the labor market. Federal Reserve policymakers are widely expected to hold interest rates steady while also putting out new forecasts for their outlook for inflation and growth.

6:57In New York, Charlie Pellett, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Charlie, thank you. Well, futures, they are lower this morning ahead of the Fed's two-day meeting, and it comes a day after the S &P 500 posted its best day since February. The index snapped a four-day losing streak and rose 1%. And in company news, NVIDIA predicting that its flagship AI processors will help generate$1 trillion in sales through 2027. The CEO, Jensen Wong, made the forecast during his speech at the company's annual product event. And NVIDIA, as you know, today, we're the only platform in the world today that runs every single domain of AI across every single one of these AI models in language and biology and computer graphics, computer vision and speech.

7:44NVIDIA's architecture is fungible for all of that. And we're incredible for all of that. NVIDIA's Jensen Wong also announced plans to push deeper into central processing units and introduced new semiconductors. Shares of NVIDIA, which rose 1.7 % yesterday on the announcement, a little changed in pre-market trading. And John, we have this programming note. Markets may close on Friday, but the world does not. And that's why we're bringing you a new live radio and TV show. Bloomberg this weekend is looking beyond the daily headlines to the bigger themes driving politics, business and culture. Join David Gurra, Christina Ruffini, and Lisa Matteo for smart conversations and in-depth interviews that help make sense of the week that's been and what comes next.

8:27Get Bloomberg This Weekend Live, Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, TV, and the Bloomberg Business App. And that brings us to 508 on Wall Street. Time for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Thank you very much, John. Extreme weather stretching from New York to Texas has been causing travel troubles at airports across the country. Nearly 5 ,000 flights were canceled on Monday, straining airports already under pressure. The partial government shutdown now in its fifth week has left 60 ,000 TSA agents without paychecks.

9:07Workers have been calling out sick in record numbers. Long security lines continuing to plague spring break travelers as frustration grows among TSA officers. Cameron Cochums represents hundreds of airport workers as the Idaho Regional Vice President for the American Federation of Government Employees. It's affected us mentally. It's affected us emotionally. It's affected us financially. People don't know when their next paycheck is going to be. They don't know how to pay their rent, how to pay their family bills. Cameron Kochams, lead transportation security officer at the Boise Airport. A Utah jury has returned a verdict for a woman charged with killing her husband.

9:48We, the jury, unanimously find that the defendant, Corey Richens, is guilty of aggravated murder. Judge Richard M. Razek read the verdict of the five counts against Corey Richens. Prosecutors aimed to drive home their argument that Richens killed her husband for his money. Authorities say Richens slipped five times a lethal dose of a synthetic opioid into a cocktail that she made for her husband, Eric Richens, leading to his 2022 death. Richens later self-published a children's book about grief to help her sons and other kids cope with the loss of a parent. President Trump's attempts to pass voter ID legislation will be debated on the Senate floor.

10:31The legislative push, which President Trump has argued would secure wins for Republicans in November, comes on the heels of a Trump administration-driven redistricting effort. Democrats warned the bill would make it harder for millions of citizens to vote. Global News 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg John. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in Dan Schwarzman. Venezuela rallies from a 2-1 seventh inning deficit to beat Italy 4-2 to advance to its first ever final of the World Baseball Classic to face the United States.

11:07Venezuela sends Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound tonight while the U.S. counters with Nolan McClain. The NCAA tournament officially getting underway tonight in Dayton, Ohio with the first two first four matchups as the University of Maryland-Baltimore County faces Howard in the Midwest region while Texas battles NC State in the West region. Tip-off for Game 1-6.40 Eastern Time, Game 2 following at 9.15. Big games in the NBA last night with the Lakers knocking off the Rockets in Houston 100-92. Celtics getting 41 points from Jalen Brown in a 120-112 home win over the Suns, while the Hawks beat the Magic 124-112.

11:40That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this. Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Smart Talks with IBM. I recently sat down with IBM's chairman and CEO, Arvind Krishna, and I asked him, how can companies use AI to its fullest potential to create smarter business? My one advice to them, pick areas you can scale. Don't pick the shiny little toys on the side. For example? If anybody has more than 10 % of what they had for customer service 10 years ago, they're already five years behind. If anybody is not using AI to make their developers who write software 30 % more productive today, with the goal of being 70 % more productive.

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14:17Coast to Coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius XM, and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. And good morning. I'm Karen Moscow alongside John Tucker. It is day 18 of the Iran War, and Gulf Arab nations are coming under renewed missile and drone fire from Iran, which has been targeting regional oil infrastructure and vowing not to relinquish its stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Israel also launching new strikes on Iran and Lebanon. And we want to talk more about this with Dan Williams, Bloomberg Middle East reporter in Jerusalem.

14:56Dan, good morning. So as we said, it looks like Iran is stepping up attacks on some key energy sites. What's the latest there? Hi, good morning. a very fast-moving situation on day 18 of this war. It's not even three weeks old, but it really is a dizzying set of developments, some of which appears to have been anticipated by the United States and Israel, some perhaps less anticipated when they launched this war on February 28th. The latest, freshest reports now is that the Israelis attacked overnight a safe house in Tehran, a long-distance airstrike which killed the commander of the besiege, that is the all-volunteer militia in Iran that's helped the Iranian state enforce security and crack down on protests.

15:47Going back years, the besiege has a pretty colored reputation for its tactics. And I imagine this killing, if confirmed, will be very much welcomed by the Iranian opposition. It might be a measure intended to help bring them out to the streets in what the US and Israel hope will be a organic internal toppling of the regime. Meanwhile, the Iranians have been focusing their tax on energy assets, especially among Gulf Arab neighbors. The UAE has been suffering pain, both when it comes to a depot for offloading oil onto ships and also a field for gas and sulfur exports west of Abu Dhabi in the desert.

16:31It's feeling this on almost a daily basis is a cascade of attacks that are definitely being felt in the world energy markets and are making Gulf Arab neighbors calculate the cost of this war, which is unprecedented in very many respects. Yeah, we're also hearing Israel has been going further into Lebanon as it continues to fight its fight against Hezbollah. So are we continuing to see that as well? And really, how long can this drag on for Israel? How are its defenses looking? Well, to hear Israeli leaders tell it, just like the Americans, they're in this for the long haul. They're in this to get the job done.

17:10The cost calculation is obviously different. The United States is on the other side of the world. It's mainly feeling this at the gas pumps. It's mainly feeling this in terms of a backlash of American popular opinion against the war, against the president, including among some elements of his own party who voted men in the hope he would draw down U.S. involvement in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, at least militarily. In Israel, meanwhile, there is strong popular support for this war. Most Israelis see it as the culminating point of a two and a half long war on many fronts that began with that Hamas attack from the Gaza Strip.

17:50Hamas being a member of an array of Iranian-backed assets and allies throughout the region who share as a common cause, preaching and hoping for and working toward the ultimate destruction of Israel. But as you noted, there is a second front for Israel in this war in Iran, and that is against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has long been a very potent ally of Lebanon on Israel's northern border. Now the Israelis are saying after Hezbollah reignited that front by firing on Israel a couple days into this Iran war, the Israelis are saying they plan to establish what they're calling a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

18:28That would effectively mean a long-term displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians from the area. The Israelis apparently hope to leverage this not only in order to prevent Hezbollah from threatening frontline Israeli villages in the north, but also to pressure the Lebanese government into finally carrying out a long-promised crackdown internally against Hezbollah and disarming it. This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m. Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen.

19:07You can also listen live each morning starting at 5 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York, Bloomberg 99.1 in Washington, Bloomberg 92.9 in Boston and nationwide on Sirius XM channel 121. Plus, listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces. And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's the latest news whenever you want it in five minutes or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow. I'm John Tucker. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to Start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak.

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