Here's your morning brief for Friday, April 10th. I'm Daniel Bach for the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is racing to contain Israel's expanding war in Lebanon as the U.S. prepares for high-stakes talks with Iran this weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said direct negotiations with Lebanon would begin toward a lasting peace

and disarming Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. But he also said Israel would continue striking Lebanon

until security is restored in northern Israel. That message came after a phone call with President

Trump yesterday. A U.S. official told the journal Trump was concerned that the fighting

could undermine the ceasefire and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. With the critical

waterway still largely blocked, Japan's government plans to release an additional 20 days' worth

of oil reserves starting in early May. Japan relies on the Middle East for more than 90% of his crude oil imports.

And to ease the blow to businesses and consumers, the prime minister said Japan expects to

secure more than half of its oil procurement through alternative sources next month.

And we're exclusively reporting that the White House has warned staff about placing bets on the Iran war in futures markets. The email from the White House management office came the day after President

Trump announced a sudden pause and strikes on Iran. About 15 minutes before Trump posted the news

on social media, a flurry of trading activity kicked off with more than $760 million worth of

oil futures contracts changing hands in less than two minutes.

The White House confirmed the warning, but there is no evidence of leaks or that anyone within the

administration is using inside information for well-timed bets. We should note Polymarket has a data

partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Asian markets ended the day cautiously upbeat, with European stocks eking out gains.

U.S. stock futures are looking for direction of head of this morning's CPI print due out at 8.30 a.m. Eastern.

And we've got a lot more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News

podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever

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