Thursday, April 9, 2026…4:10 PM ET
[4:00 PM ET closing prices for stocks; 3:50ish for commodities and bonds.]
Tale of the Tape at the gas pump, nationwide averages, courtesy of AAA.
Fri., Feb. 27…regular gas $2.98…diesel $3.75
Thurs. Apr. 9…reg. $4.16…diesel $5.68…13 cents from all-time high….
After posting to social media that an Iranian delegation is set to arrive in Islamabad tonight for negotiations with the U.S., Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, deleted the post.
Wednesday night, President Trump posted:
NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!! President DJT”
What the hell?
Later Wednesday night, 11:46 PM…President Trump on Truth Social:
“All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!”
Next conquest?
Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have killed “dozens” of Hezbollah fighters in its “expanded” ground military operation in southern Lebanon over the past week.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 182 people were killed in Wednesday’s massive assault on the country. The 1,500 figure from above was prior to Wednesday.
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire. Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif, who mediated the talks, maintains it was.
Vice President JD Vance sought to play damage control on Wednesday afternoon, calling it a “legitimate misunderstanding” in remarks to reporters.
“I think that the Iranians thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise,” he said. “That said, the Israelis as I understand it…have actually offered to frankly check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful.”
Israel hardly “checked” itself Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Iran made a rare reference to sea mines at the Strait of Hormuz, with the Ports and Maritime Organization announcing two designated safe routes for vessels entering and exiting Hormuz, state-run Nour News said early Thursday.
Despite rhetorical exchanges between the warring sides, there were signs the ceasefire agreement was largely holding, with a notable decline in attacks across Arab states in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. equity markets opened marginally lower Thursday, but then shortly before noon, ET, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he has agreed to direct talks with Lebanon.
“In light of Lebanon’s repeated calls to open direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed the Cabinet yesterday to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The negotiations will focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon.
For some reason, the markets thought this was exceptionally good news and rallied anew, while oil fell from the $102 level on WTI in the morning to $95 less than two hours later.
But then Netanyahu said Israel is continuing to strike Hezbollah and won’t stop until the security of communities in northern Israel is ensured.
“There is no ceasefire in Lebanon,” he said.
Oil rallied back a little, but stocks held their gains.
Today’s personal consumption expenditures index data was all as expected, so not market moving, plus it was for February, pre-war.
But tomorrow, we get potentially market-moving news on consumer prices since it’s for March and war impacted.
Dow Jones +275…+0.6% [48185]
S&P 500 +41…+0.6% [6824]
Nasdaq +187…+0.8% [22822]
Oil (WTI) $99.10…Brent $97.20
Gold $4795
Silver $75.70
Bitcoin $72,115 [4:00 PM ET]
U.S. 2-yr. 3.78%
U.S. 10-yr. 4.28%
Japanese 10-yr. 2.37%
Check out my Week in Review, Friday, at about 4:30 PM ET.
Brian Trumbore
