Trump Calls for Iran De-escalation; Oil and LNG Jump

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1:25Do 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, President Trump is pressing for a de-escalation of attacks on Middle East energy assets after Iranian and Israeli strikes on major gas hubs jolted global markets. Hours after Israel carried out a strike on a key gas field in Iran, Iran retaliated by hitting energy infrastructure in the Gulf, causing damage to the world's largest liquefied natural gas export plant.

2:11We get more from Bloomberg Middle East correspondent Jumada Persechi in Dubai. Yesterday evening, while Qatar managed to successfully intercept four incoming ballistic missiles, one of them did manage to penetrate and to cause, quote, extensive damage. This is per a press release that was put out by Qatar Energies. And that word, that description, extensive damage, is what is impacting global markets today. Clearly, this is one of the most important consequential export facilities in the world, which accounts for about 20 percent of the world supply of LNG. So the response from the Gulf states in the last 24 hours has been one of extreme anger.

2:51And that's Bloomberg. Middle East correspondent Yamana Bersetchi on a post on social media. President Trump said that neither the U.S. nor Qatar was involved in the Israeli operation targeting the Iranian field. He called on the Islamic Republic to act with restraint. And again, the escalation having a ripple effect across the energy markets. As we said, the price of Brent crude is up to$115 a barrel and European natural gas up 24 percent this morning. Dan Mortau covers the energy markets for Bloomberg. Now we're not talking about, okay, once the straight is open, we'll get things rolling again in a matter of weeks.

3:28When we're talking damage to these facilities, I mean, we're talking now potentially a matter of months that production could be offline. And, you know, we won't know the details for a little while here, but traders are going to start pricing in that risk of longer and larger supply outages. And that's going to be a big problem for the global economy. That's Bloomberg's Dan Marta, again noting that European benchmark futures jumped as much as 35 percent, pushing LNG prices to more than double their pre-war levels. Well, John, Bloomberg News has learned the FBI is investigating whether Joe Kent, who resigned his position as a top counterterrorism official this week in protest of the Iran war, improperly shared classified information.

4:08Sources say the investigation precedes Ken's resignation on Tuesday, but it comes as the Justice Department has undertaken multiple investigations over the last year into political foes of President Trump. And Fed Chair Jay Powell says it's too soon to know the impact of surging oil prices on the U.S. economy. He says the central bank won't cut rates again until inflation cools. And as heard right here on Bloomberg Radio, Powell talked about the impact of the war on inflation. We don't know how big these effects are going to be, and I don't want to characterize them in any way. Of course, people are already seeing gas prices.

4:42Gas prices are up almost a dollar a gallon. We hope that isn't for a long period of time, and of course people will feel that, but I don't want to speculate about what that might mean because, honestly, that would sound like I have some idea of what's actually going to happen, and I don't think anybody really does. Well, the Federal Reserve yesterday decided to leave rates unchanged for a second straight meeting. And in a more surprising move here, John Powell also commented on the ongoing investigation of the Fed by the Department of Justice. Powell says he won't be resigning as a member of the Fed's Board of Governors for now.

5:15I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality. And I would refer you to the statement that was in the Fed's brief that you all have seen. And I won't have anything more for you on that. And Powell's term as chair expires in May, but he could remain on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee as a governor. The Fed chief also said he would continue to serve as chair if his successor, Kevin Warsh, is not confirmed by the end of his term. And the Middle East war, the backdrop of a key meeting in Washington today. Japan's prime minister is going to meet with President Trump.

5:49Let's get more from Washington and Bloomberg's Amy Morris. Prime Minister Sanae Takeuchi says her upcoming visit with President Trump is going to be a challenge. Trump criticized Japan for rebuffing his demand for warships to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. Takeichi ruled out deploying naval assets to the conflict zone, citing Japan's tight constitutional limits. Her trip to Washington is seen as a test of her leadership on the world stage. World leaders will be watching how she manages the fallout from President Trump's request. In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Amy, thank you.

6:24Staying in Washington, Oklahoma's Senator Mark Wayne Mullen faced tough questions from senators at his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Rand Paul scolded Mullen for publicly applauding a neighbor's assault on Paul a couple of years ago. And here is this exchange between Paul and Mullen. Haven't heard the word apologize. Haven't heard the word regret. Haven't heard I misspoke and it was heated and I made a mistake. I haven't heard any of those words. Sir, actually, it wasn't heated, and I'm not apologizing for pointing out your character. Good, good. So you're jolly well fine, and you want the American public and the people up here to vote, the mayor may not vote for you, to know that you supported the felonious violent attack on me from behind.

7:06I did not say I supported it. I said I understood it. Mullen must pass a majority vote from the committee before proceeding to a floor vote in the Senate. Paul said he opposes Mullen's nomination. And let's turn to the markets now, Karen, where futures lower following yesterday's sell-off on Wall Street. All three indexes dropping at least 1.4 percent in yesterday's session. Shares of Micron Technology, they're down more than 4 percent. The largest U.S. maker of computer memory chips beat earnings estimates, but warned that it'll need to spend heavily on production to meet burgeoning demand. In Europe, John, HSBC is considering deep job cuts over the coming years as part of a bet on AI.

7:46Bloomberg has learned CEO George El Heddery is in talks about cutting 10 % of the bank's workforce. James Wilcock has the story from London. El Heddery is on a mission to streamline Europe's largest bank. He's already cut thousands of jobs. Now Bloomberg understands HSBC's CEO is in talks to shrink its back office headcount by as much as 20 ,000 people. The bank declined to comment on the story, but it's one of the first signs about how AI could radically reshape Wall Street. Bloomberg Intelligence forecast as many as 200 ,000 positions in global finance could cease to exist in the next three to five years as banks look to robots instead.

8:29In London, James Wilcock, Bloomberg Radio. All right, thanks, James. And programming note, markets may close on Friday, but the world doesn't. That's why we're bringing you a new live radio and TV show. Bloomberg this weekend looking beyond the daily headlines to the bigger themes driving politics, business, and culture. Join David Cura, 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. Get Bloomberg this weekend live Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. Eastern on Bloomberg Radio TV and the Bloomberg Business app.

9:08and it brings us to 509 on wall street time to 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 the director of national intelligence tulsi gabbard dodged questions about the severity of the threat posed by iran in senate testimony gabbard declined to say whether she thought iran represented an imminent nuclear threat to the u.s as the white house has claimed She was questioned by Georgia Democratic Senator John Ossoff. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that, as the White House claimed on March 1st, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?

9:48Yes or no? Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment. You won't answer the question. need. D &I Chief Gabbard admitted a conclusion from her written testimony that Iran's uranium enrichment program had been obliterated in strikes last year. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says Democrats are willing to jeopardize travel to further their agenda. The DHS shutdown has caused TSA employees to miss paychecks. According to TSA data, nearly 10 percent of workers called in sick Wednesday. It's now been over a month since the start of the partial government shutdown.

10:30Jill Dianovich is a TSA agent and union representative. While she is still showing up to work, she described what would make her stop showing up. What would make us stop is that we are just financially unable to do so. We're already getting to that point, actually. Our call-outs have been going up, up, up since last week when we actually missed that first full paycheck. We don't have the fuel to continue coming to work at this point. TSA agent Jill Deanovich fears the Senate going on recess next week. Democratic lawmakers have stormed out of a closed door briefing on the Jeffrey Epstein files by Justice Department leaders.

11:06The lawmakers say they will push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case. Global News 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr. This is Bloomberg. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in Dan Schwarzman. The NCAA Tournament Field is 64 tipping off this afternoon after Miami of Ohio knocked off SMU 89-79, while Prairie View A &M beat Lehigh 67-55 in the final two first four matchups. Top overall seed, Duke begins its quest for a national championship as the Blue Devils face Siena in Greenville, South Carolina.

11:44One Another number one seed in action today is Michigan battles Howard. Lakers have now won seven straight as L.A. beat the Rockets 124-116 to win both ends of a two-game series in Houston. In other action, the Celtics dominated the Warriors 120-99. The Thunder beat up on the Nets 121-92, while the Nuggets were stunned at Memphis 125-118. Shohei Otani in good form making his spring training pitching debut, striking out four while hitting 99 miles per hour. That'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.

12:22I 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. Yeah. So we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it.

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15:24Coast 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, and President Trump is pressing for a de-escalation of attacks on Middle East energy assets after Iranian and Israeli strikes on major gas hubs jolted global markets. Posting on social media, the president also pledged the U.S. would massively blow up the entirety of the world's largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again. We want to get the latest on the war now with owner Ant, Bloomberg's managing editor for Middle East and North Africa.

16:05Owner, thanks so much for being with us this morning. We want to talk about these latest strikes, including one of the world's largest LNG plant. How significant is this? This is quite significant. As you said, the Ras La Fan complex is home to the world's largest LNG plant. Qatar itself is one of the top three LNG exporters in the world. Obviously, it had already stopped exporting the fuel due to the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the war began. And during the first week of the war, in fact, the first few days of the war, it had already stopped producing the fuel because of some strikes.

16:42But yesterday marks an escalation, well, attacks overnight into Thursday marked an escalation in Iran's war tactics. It said that it would retaliate against all Gulf nations hosting Arab and American energy companies after its own prized South Park gas field did come under attack by Israel on Wednesday. And Ras La Fan, or Qatar's LNG plant, was not the only one that was targeted by Iran overnight into Thursday. We have seen similar attacks on two refineries in Kuwait, a gas and oil field in the UAE, and a couple of refineries, as well as other important energy assets in Saudi Arabia. So Iran's attacks have been broad, and they've targeted many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf overnight.

17:39All right. Well, you also mentioned Israel's attack on South Pars, and Trump is making it clear that the U.S. was not involved in that attack. Is it important that he try to distance himself from that? Yes, it says a lot about what may be going on behind the scenes, because the first public messaging coming out of Israel was that the U.S. was indeed informed and had the approval for yesterday's attack on South Parse. But following Iran's outsized reaction and its pledge to attack all these Arab countries, And in fact, the fact that it adhered to that pledge and did end up attacking Ras Lafhan, where its attacks resulted in extensive damages.

18:25We've seen Mr. Trump coming out almost immediately and saying that that attack by Israel was not done with the U.S.'s knowledge, nor was that of Qatar. It would not happen again. And it also asked Iran to act with restraint and threatened to attack the South Pars with greater force if Iran continues its strikes on Qatar's LNG infrastructure in particular. And with only about 30 seconds, seems like we're even further away from a possible end, doesn't it? No, it doesn't feel like there's going to be any relief from this war anytime soon. We are seeing a continuation of attacks in both directions, both from Iran and the U.S.-Israeli alliance on the 20th day of the war.

19:32Mornings 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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