“Trading doesn’t just reveal your character, it also builds it if you stay in the game long enough.” ― Yvan Byeajee

1. Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz — Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said. Trump on Tuesday morning urged other countries to launch their own operation to wrest control of the strait from Iran, blaming countries like the U.K. for not joining the U.S.-Israeli mission against the Islamic Republic.
2. Trump Tries to Sell Americans on War in Iran’ — In a 20-minute address from the White House, Trump said he still aims for a diplomatic agreement to end the war. But in the meantime, he vowed to hit Iran “extremely hard” in the coming weeks and pummel the country “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” The Strait of Hormuz, the war’s most notable flashpoint, would “open up naturally” once the war ended, Trump claimed. “They’re going to want to be able to sell oil,” Trump said of Iran, “and the gas prices will rapidly come back down, stock prices will rapidly go back up.” Trump’s decision to deliver the prime-time speech reflected a desire by his advisers to explain the war’s objectives and tamp down concerns that the conflict would become one of the “forever wars” that the president campaigned against.
3. Blue Owl Investors Seek to Pull $5.4 Billion From Two Private-Credit Funds — Investors in two of Blue Owl Capital’s biggest private-credit funds asked to pull out some $5.4 billion in the first quarter, adding to the growing stream of capital leaving the once-hot corner of Wall Street.
The redemptions amounted to 22% of Blue Owl Capital’s giant $36 billion private-credit fund and 41% of a separate technology-focused fund. Such large redemptions are dangerous for investment firms like Blue Owl because they threaten the key driver of their share prices: the amount of money they manage and collect fees on. The firms built their funds to withstand prolonged bear markets, but outflows may continue for months or even years.
4. Trump Administration Unveils Up to 100% Tariff on Branded Drugs — The 100% tariff will apply to patented imported pharmaceuticals from companies that haven’t committed to invest in the U.S. and haven’t entered into “most favored nation” agreements to match their U.S. prices to the lowest they charge in other developed countries, a senior administration official said Thursday. But the full 100% tariff might apply to only a few drugmakers or none at all. If a company pledges to invest in U.S. drug manufacturing in the coming years, its tariff rate will fall to 20%, the senior administration official said. The company would have to complete the factory by the end of President Trump’s term in the White House, the official said, or tariffs could be increased.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: