Public Markets 3h Briefing
×Last updated: March 17, 2026, 7:30 PM ET
Geopolitical Tensions & Energy Markets
Crude oil largely maintained its advance bloomberg.com as the ongoing Middle East conflict intensified following confirmation from Iranian state media regarding the death of Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a key pillar of wartime leadership bloomberg.com. This geopolitical escalation is already sending energy shocks rippling through Asia bloomberg.com, forcing nations to take drastic action, while the potential for further disruption remains high, as a U.S. move against Iran’s Kharg Island export hub could cripple its resource profits nytimes.com but risk spiking energy prices globally. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains substantially paralyzed, contributing to oil closing above $100 wsj.com, even as Asian stocks positioned for modest gains bloomberg.com amid general investor caution.
Corporate & Regulatory Developments
Prudential Plc’s new business profit grew, driven by expansion in the Hong Kong and China markets, prompting the insurer to announce an additional $1.2 billion stock buyback bloomberg.com. Separately, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler floated the idea of scaling the frequency of corporate disclosures based on a firm’s size, as the regulator evaluates potential changes to earnings report mandates bloomberg.com. In the tech sector, Microsoft reshuffled its AI team structure to better focus on Copilot development and model research following role changes for scientist Mustafa Suleyman ft.com, while Nvidia has restarted manufacturing AI chips for China ft.com after securing American licenses for a flood of recent orders.
Fixed Income & Monetary Policy
Bond traders are scaling back aggressive bets against Fed cuts bloomberg.com as economic growth worries build, suggesting a slight pivot away from the most hawkish positioning seen earlier this year. This sentiment mirrors the action in gold, which held steady near $5,000 bloomberg.com as markets attempted to balance the Federal Reserve’s expected rate-cut trajectory against persistent inflationary risks stemming from the Middle East. Meanwhile, Australia’s bond market sales boom is lagging behind U.S. and European peers since the Iran war began, as the conflict fuels inflation and pushes local borrowing costs to some of the highest levels in the developed world bloomberg.com.
Mining, Retail & Media
BHP announced Brandon Craig as its new chief executive ft.com, succeeding Mike Henry, as the world’s largest mining company navigates commodity cycles. In retail, Alimentation Couche-Tard recorded higher profit wsj.com, logging quarterly earnings of $757.2 million, up from $641.4 million year-over-year. In entertainment, the recent Oscars telecast saw viewership slide 9% to 17.9 million total viewers nytimes.com, marking the first viewership drop since 2021 and following similar declines seen at the Grammys and Golden Globes nytimes.com.