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Here's your midday brief for Thursday, March 12th.

I'm Pierre Bienname for the Wall Street Journal.

In his first official message as the new supreme leader of Iran,

Mostaba Hamine said today that the country will keep the Strait of Hormuz,

a crucial oil route, closed.

Attacks on ships have grown over the past day.

In his written message, he also raised the possibility of opening new fronts in a war that the International Energy Agency said is causing the biggest ever disruption to oil supply.

The U.S. trade deficit declined in January, continuing a volatile run for America's trade balance.

The Commerce Department says imports declined by less than 1% from the previous month, while exports grew by 5.5%. That yielded a deficit of $54.5 billion,

down a quarter from a big monthly deficit in December. A big increase in sales of gold to

overseas buyers drove that jump in exports. And Honda says it expects to lose up to $15.7 billion

as it re-evaluates its electric vehicle strategy. Honda said it's decided to cancel the launches

and development of certain models in response to a slowdown in the North American EV market.

The Japanese automaker expects to swing to its first annual loss in decades

as a result. Rival carmakers have also pulled back from EVs. Many Americans are reluctant to buy them.

Heads up, an artificial intelligence tool helped us make this episode by creating summaries that were

based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor. We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast.

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