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 After two weeks of fighting, the one clear winner to emerge from the regional war engulfing parts of the Middle East seems to be Russia. Moscow rushed to load crude onto tankers to take advantage of soaring oil prices triggered by Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. A tariff waiver courtesy of Donald Trump, whose administration is under growing pressure over spiking gasoline prices, now permits buyers to purchase those barrels without fear of sanctions tied to the Kremlin's 12-year war on Ukraine.  The Kremlin could see further sanctions easing from the White House if flows of Middle Eastern crude through the strait don't fully resume. With the chances of a near-term ceasefire appearing remote, the US-Israeli war with Iran has presented Vladimir Putin with a lifeline for his country's wavering economy. European leaders, for their part, slammed the US for retreating on sanctions as the Kremlin continues to pound Ukraine's cities. Trump's waiver is already helping to clear the flotilla of idling tankers full of Russian crude, while the surge in buying has helped push prices for Russia's key export blend to a record high. The easing of sanctions on Indian refiners led a number of tankers that were heading for the Strait of Malacca to steam back toward India, while others leaving the Red Sea are sailing toward refineries along India's west coast. —David E. Rovella What You Need to Know TodayBrent Crude settled around $100 a barrel on Monday with US crude around $93 as plans to tap emergency reserves took shape. The US president meanwhile continued to repeat his calls for help to open the Strait of Hormuz to traffic while announcing a delay to his April meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. As the war entered its 17th day, Iran struck new targets across the Persian Gulf, hitting a key UAE oil hub. The UAE oil-export terminal of Fujairah suspended loadings temporarily after a drone strike on Monday—the second attack in as many days. Dubai also briefly halted flights at its main airport and said some Emirates departures would be canceled because of a fire at a fuel tank that it said was caused by an Iranian drone. Surging oil prices since the start of the war—up more than 40% in the past two weeks—have in turn pressured US gas-pump prices, a critical pain point for American consumers. The average cost of a gallon of gas has risen each day since the conflict began. Trump over the weekend and on Monday veered between threats of intensified strikes on Iran, promises of a longer war, declarations of victory and back again. Reaction to his calls for assistance from traditional US allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz has ranged from caution to ambivalence—if not outright rejection. Meta Platforms is to pay as much as $27 billion over the next five years for access to artificial intelligence infrastructure from cloud provider Nebius Group, a so-called neocloud that operates data centers and has a strategic partnership with Nvidia. The bad news for employees of Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant is that, according to a report by Reuters, thousands of them may end up paying for his AI expansion with their livelihoods. Wall Street cheered the news of mass dismissals, sending Meta stock up 2.3%. A Brazilian court barred the government of the country's capital city from using real estate assets to help shore up its bank, adding another complication for a lender that's been trying to fill the hole caused by transactions with the failed Banco Master. A Brasilia judge ruled the local government cannot transfer public real estate assets to Banco de Brasilia, one of the solutions proposed to help bolster finances at the bank. The decision complicates a plan to address bank liquidity after the fallout of the financial scandal. Banco de Brasilia previously bought assets from Banco Master that authorities said were fabricated, and tried to purchase Banco Master last year in a deal that was ultimately rejected by the central bank. What You'll Need to Know TomorrowFor Your CommuteMore from BloombergEnjoying Evening Briefing Americas? Get more news and analysis with our regional editions for Asia and Europe. Check out these newsletters, too:
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