Wheat Spread Blows Out As Drought Chaos Plagues America’s Breadbasket Hard red winter wheat (HRW) futures widened to their largest premium over soft red wheat (SRW) in more than two years as severe drought intensified across key breadbasket regions in the Great Plains and Midwest. This means traders are pricing in weather impacts and tightening expectations for higher-protein wheat supplies. It is important to note that HRW is a […]

The High Man In The Castle By Michael Every of Rabobank The world is again waiting to see what comes out of US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan as the two-week ceasefire deadline looms. Again, it’s a binary outcome: war, with threatened strikes on bridges and power plants in Iran, then perhaps regionally, and an extended closure of Hormuz; or peace, and energy and key goods flowing again. The markets have decided peace will be the […]

US Pending Home Sales Rebound Off Record Lows, Despite Rising Mortgage Rates After rising in February, US Pending Home Sales were expected to continue to improve in March (+0.5% MoM) but – despite apparently rising mortgage rates – sales rose 1.5% MoM (even with February revised up to +2.5% MoM). This dragged pending home sales up to +1.8% YoY (to the highest level since Nov 2024)… Source: Bloomberg …extending its bounce off […]

Watch Live: Kevin Warsh Faces Democratic Fire In Contentious Senate Confirmation Hearing For Fed Chair President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Banking Committee today at 10:00 a.m. ET for his confirmation hearing – his first public test in the high-stakes process to become the next chair of the central bank. The hearing, set to take place in the […]

Texas Electricity Demand Could Quadruple Due To Soaring Data Center Demand: ERCOT Peak demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory could more than quadruple to 367,790 MW by 2032, driven primarily by data centers as well as other large load customers, the grid operator said in a preliminary forecast published Wednesday and noted by Utility Dive. Source: ERCOT ERCOT, which serves most of Texas, set […]

Trump Demands Iran ‘Release These Women’ As World Tensely Awaits 2nd Pakistan Talks, US Navy Boards Another Vessel Summary Neither side wants to appear ‘weak’ by flying to Pakistan first without the other side having already clearly committed. Trump warns: ‘Expect…bombs’ & urges Tehran “release women” said to be on death row. Iran has informed Pakistan it is sending a delegation, but still no sign or confirmation that […]

Scammers Demand Crypto From Stranded Ships In Strait Of Hormuz: Report Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, Fraudulent actors posing as Iranian authorities have reportedly sent messages to shipping companies whose vessels remain stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, demanding payment in cryptocurrency for safe passage. On Monday, maritime risk company Marisks issued a warning saying unknown groups had contacted […]

DHL CEO Warns Prolonged Energy Shock Could Push Global Economy To “Tipping Point” DHL Group CEO Tobias Meyer warned Bloomberg TV earlier this morning that a persistent Gulf energy shock could morph into broader trouble for the global economy. “Well we have seen this before, that you have recognized by consumers as having an impact that sparks broader discussion, the real economic implications for people. Now, this hasn’t happened […]

Trump Invokes Defense Production Act To Sign Energy-Related Directives Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump on April 20 invoked the Defense Production Act to issue a series of memorandums focused on strengthening coal supply chains, ​natural gas transmission, and ​liquefied natural gas capacity. Trump also signed memos aimed at boosting domestic petroleum production, enhancing grid […]

“We’re On Borrowed Time”: Vitol LNG Chief Warns Of Coming Food Price Shock Pablo Galante Escobar, the head of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Vitol, warned the audience at the FT Commodities Summit earlier today that the “world is on borrowed time” and that the Gulf energy shock will develop into a food crisis unless LNG flows resume through the Hormuz chokepoint. “We are on borrowed time. Every day this trade remains closed and […]

US Employment Additions Accelerate As Retail Sales Soar In March BofA’s (almost) omnipotent analysts forecasted a stronger than expected retail sales print this morning as tax refunds trump surging gas prices… BofA credit/debit card spending data suggests stronger retail sales than estimates (consensus 1.4% headline, 1.4% ex auto, 0.2% control group) despite surging gas prices, driven by higher YTD tax refunds […]

US Futures Resume Rally As Iran Optimism Returns The optimism that helped list the S&P on 11 of the prior 12 days, and the Nasdaq on 13 consecutive days until Monday’s modest pullback, is back – because one can apparently draw the same exact event for 3 weeks now – and sending US equity futures higher again on signs that Iran will attend talks with the US, while the US president said it’s “highly unlikely” that he’d […]

Europe’s EV Sales Jump 51% As Iran War Sends Gasoline Prices Soaring By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com, Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe’s key automotive markets surged by 51% in March as the Iran war pushed gasoline prices to multi-year highs, data published by research firm New Automotive and trade association E-Mobility Europe showed on Monday. A Tesla charging on a street in Amsterdam More than […]

IMO Draws Up Hormuz Evacuation Plan For 800 Ships Trapped In Gulf Tanker traffic through the Hormuz chokepoint remained muted as of Tuesday morning, with maritime movement still far below pre-US-Iran conflict levels. The ship backlog in the Persian Gulf has now swelled to a staggering 800 vessels, underscoring the scale of the disruption, while the International Maritime Organization is reportedly drawing up evacuation plans for […]

How The Iranian Regime Destroyed Its Economy… Long Before The War Authored by Daniel Lacalle, As negotiations edge towards a ceasefire, Tehran is trying to blame the country’s economic collapse on the war and foreign pressure. Yet the data tell a different story: Iran’s economy was already structurally broken before the war. Years of ideological policymaking, institutionalised corruption, and the militarisation of the […]

Data Centers Drove Half Of All Growth In US Electricity Use In 2025 Global electricity demand rose by 3% in 2025, with growth nearly triple compared to the 1.3% increase in total energy consumption, as data centers and electric vehicles continued to push power use higher, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Monday. Overall global energy demand growth slowed to 1.3% in 2025, slightly below the previous […]

‘Highly Unlikely’ US Will Extend Iran Ceasefire, ‘Lots Of Bombs Will Go Off’ If No Deal: Trump Summary Trump says ‘highly unlikely’ will extend ceasefire if deal not signed in Pakistan. Pakistan PM Sharif reportedly asked US & Iran, pressing for another 2-week extension. President Pezeshkian cites “historical distrust” and states on X: “they seek Iran’s surrender. Iranians do not submit to force.” Vance intends to […]

“Use The Momentum”: The EU Moves To Destroy The Last Vestiges Of National Sovereignty Authored by Jonathan Turley, The defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary last weekend was celebrated by many who saw the former president as establishing single-party rule in his central European nation. The irony is that this claimed victory for democracy may fuel the establishment of a global governance system that is neither democratic nor […]

Gaza Needs Over $71BN In Next Decade If Enclave Hopes To Recover: New UN Report More than $71 billion will be required over the next decade to recover and rebuild Gaza following the brutal Israel-Hamas war, according to a new report. Hamas leadership has been largely decimated, though the group has yet to be completely disarmed, and there are still calls within the Israeli government among some hawkish officials to simply conquer […]

Ukraine Seeks To Import African Migrants To Fill Labor Shortage After 100s Of 1000s Dead Or Wounded At The Front Via Remix News, Volodymyr Zelensky’s head of his Presidential Office in Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, has announced plans to import migrant laborers from Africa. Essentially, this entails Ukraine establishing new laws for the legal entry and residence of foreign workers. The government will introduce a new list of […]

Russia’s Tuapse Refinery Attacked 2nd Time In Days, While Battling Oil Spill Into Black Sea There’s been yet another major attack on Russia’s major Black Sea energy hub and port of Tuapse, after just a few days prior a drone wave had unleashed a fire so big it cold be seen from space, given the over 100-mile smoke plume that had spread over the Black Sea.  In this latest overnight Ukrainian assault reported Monday, the drone […]

The US Demanded That Europeans Accelerate Their Transition To ‘NATO 3.0’ Authored by Andrew Korybko, This might be the US’ final warning before it takes drastic action to punish those who continue to reject Trump’s demands. Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby gave an important speech at mid-April’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group in which he urged the Europeans to step up their transition to something that he […]

Iranian Woman Arrested In LA, Charged With Helping Iranian Regime Sell Drones Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Federal officials arrested an Iranian woman at the Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night for allegedly brokering weapons for the Iranian regime, officials said Sunday. (Left) Shamim Mafi is arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly trafficking arms on behalf of […]

China To Import Record Amount Of US Ethane As Iran War Chokes Off Naphtha, LPG Supplies One year ago, in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, there was a flurry of discussion over who is more reliant on whom: the US on Chinese rare earth materials, or China on US ethane output (see “Chinese Plastics Factories Face Mass Closure As US Ethane Supply Evaporates” and “Who Blinks First? China May Exempt Tariffs On […]

Iraq’s Ruling Pro-Iran Bloc Races To Choose PM, While US Rejects Main Candidates Via The Cradle The US has suspended all funding and security coordination with Iraq, and shipments of dollars the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), until a new Baghdad government acceptable to Washington is formed, Saudi state-owned Al-Hadath reported Monday. The US is also conditioning continued security cooperation on the disclosure of those involved in […]