Investors try to stay ahead of Trump’s Iran moves
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iran’s top military leadership dismissed Donald Trump’s claims that the Islamic republic was ready to make a deal, the US president appears to make abrupt policy pivots based on swings in oil prices, and the EU’s trade commissioner says time is running out to stop the World Trade Organization from fading into irrelevance. Plus, how worried should investors be about the caps on redemptions at private credit funds?
Mentioned in this podcast:
Iran’s military leaders dismiss Donald Trump’s deal claims
Iran war tests Donald Trump’s tolerance for ‘pain’ in oil market
Meta and Google liable for social media harm to children’s mental health in landmark US case
WTO risks sliding into irrelevance, EU trade commissioner warns
Private credit’s game of footsie is getting riskier
Ares limits withdrawals from $10.7bn private credit fund
Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts
Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Henry Larson, Victoria Craig and Sonja Hutson. Our show was mixed by Kelly Garry. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s Global Head of Audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, March 26th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:08.8 | Investors are having a hard time keeping up with Donald Trump, and two big tech companies were found |
| 0:13.7 | liable for harm to children's mental health as a result of social media. Plus, a look at the |
| 0:18.6 | guardrails that might address worries over private credit. |
| 0:22.4 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:34.1 | There was more back and forth yesterday about what kind of negotiations are taking place between |
| 0:38.6 | the U.S. and Iran. Washington presented Tehran with a 15-point plan to end the war, and U.S. President |
| 0:45.0 | Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic was ready to make a deal. But then Iran's top military |
| 0:49.9 | leadership forcefully dismissed the claim that they're talking. Now, Trump's been making a lot of bold statements like this since the start of the war. They swung wildly from escalating the conflict to signaling the end of the war as near. And oil investors have been trying to stay ahead of all this. Here to tell us more as the FTs George Steer, he covers the U.S. markets. Hi, George. Hello. So, George, do me a favor. |
| 1:11.8 | Walk us through what's going on with Trump, oil prices, and the war in Iran. |
| 1:16.5 | So since the war began on the 28th of February, we've noticed a pattern, and traders have noticed this too. |
| 1:23.1 | Trump tends to intensify his threats against the Iranian regime over weekends when oil markets are closed |
| 1:29.7 | and then hint at impending peace. |
| 1:32.9 | He does that basically when Brent and WTI are going crazy as they have done since the war began. |
| 1:38.3 | And actually we saw that as recently as this week, right? |
| 1:42.7 | Well, yeah, on Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. had held productive talks with Iran. |
| 1:51.4 | The Iranians denied that, but 15 minutes before his post, we noticed an unusual spike in trading activity around oil derivatives. |
| 2:00.7 | Investors had placed bets worth about $600 million |
| 2:03.3 | at $649 in the morning, usually quite a period in the market when nothing else is happening. |
| 2:10.5 | That has kind of fueled suspicions that people are making suspiciously well-time bets ahead of big White House proclamations, |
| 2:19.7 | especially post a lot of very successful polymarket bets on when the US might invade Iran |
| 2:25.3 | and Venezuela. |
... |
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