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Good morning. Today is Thursday, March 31st, and I'm your host, Rina Schirbel. Our top stories today.

Crude Sink 6%, SEC downplays imminent agreement, and new reports says Apple and Meta got duped by hackers.

Leading today's news, the Biden administration is weighing a plan to release about 180 million

barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in what would be the

largest release from stockpile since it was created in 1975.

W.T.I. Crude Futures tumbled 6.7% on the news, while Brent Futures fell 7.3%.

The coming SPR decision would likely see 1 million barrels released daily over the course of six months, though analysts are

still debating its benefits and whether it would put a dent in the inflationary

forces seen in our current environment. Kevin Book, energy policy analyst at Clearview Energy Partners, said,

stocks of strategic oil have a limit and flows of commercial oil do not.

Flows that stop are a bigger problem than strategic stocks can solve over time.

The White House could make the announcement at 1.30 p.m. on Thursday when President Biden gives

a speech aimed at lowering gas prices at the Penny from a week earlier, but up from 287 a year ago.

OPEC Plus is also scheduled to meet today, but it is expected to stick to plans of boosting

production by another 400,000 barrels a day in May despite U.S. pressure to pump more.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency has called an emergency ministerial meeting for Friday

to discuss oil supply and coordinate a global

release by other countries. Washington has released oil from the SPR roughly

two dozen times but most of them have been on a small scale, about 100 million barrels, and in the wake of

local disasters or emergencies. However, over the past six months, the Biden administration has

...