In their fourth day of fighting, with no end in sight, ripples from the Israeli-Iranian conflict are beginning to rock global supply chains. Some oil tanker owners and managers have paused offering their vessels for Middle Eastern routes as they assess the risks, fueling concerns over export flows from the region. The stability of shipping in and around the Middle East will be closely watched by markets in coming weeks.

The region is home to about a third of the world’s oil production, and major exporters such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have little room to divert exports should shipping be affected. Navigation signals from more than 900 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf went awry over the weekend, creating confusion in the shipping chokepoint as the fighting intensified

Meanwhile, the United Nations nuclear watchdog convened an emergency meeting to assess Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, along with their disruption on oversight of the Islamic Republic’s stockpile of near-bomb grade uranium. Experts assess that Tehran’s vast nuclear infrastructure has been hobbled but isn’t destroyed. 

The conflict between Israel and Iran has shaped the Middle East for decades. It was largely on a low boil as the two sides attacked each other — mostly quietly and in Iran’s case often by proxy — while avoiding a full-blown war. Now that it’s entered into a hot phase, world markets are faced with charting new territory. --Jonathan Tirone

What You Need to Know Today

Kering shares surged as the owner of the struggling Gucci fashion label prepares to name the chief executive officer of Renault as its next CEO in a bid for a turnaround. Luca de Meo will be appointed to the job in the coming days, people familiar with the situation told us. The company is expected to split the jobs of CEO and chairman currently held by Francois-Henri Pinault. De Meo’s shift comes at a challenging time for the luxury industry, which has been buffeted by the threat of US tariffs and a demand slump in China.

On his first day as CEO, Stefan Bollinger told staff at Julius Baer Group Ltd. that they shouldn’t be afraid to speak up and reach out to him if there was anything that needed changing. He received more than 1,000 emails. The response underscores the mood at a storied firm that has been tarnished by a series of scandals — and which Bollinger, a two-decade veteran of Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs Group, was brought in to fix. Within weeks of taking over in January, he cut back most of his management team and introduced a co-head structure for several management roles, another Goldman-style innovation.

Offices of Julius Baer Group Ltd. in the Altstetten district of Zurich, Switzerland.  Photographer: Pascal Mora/Bloomberg

Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden threw his weight behind calls for the European Union to issue joint debt to fund defense spending and measures to tackle climate change. Common borrowing by the EU’s 27 members remains a controversial topic, with nations including Germany broadly opposed, but Frieden said he’s in favor if the cash raised is used to fund the massive military buildup underway on the continent, as well as the green transition.

The Bank of England is facing pressure to push ahead with more interest rate cuts after a week of woeful data showed the UK economy and labor market buckling under the weight of tax increases and US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Policymakers meet this week in the wake of a series of figures suggesting that inflationary pressures are in retreat. Market bets show the odds of a summer rate cut doubling this month, with two reductions by the end of the year now almost fully priced.

Airbus landed an order for as many as 77 aircraft from Saudi Arabian lessor Avilease, kicking off dealmaking at the Paris Air Show. The jet lessor, backed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, agreed to acquire 30 Airbus A321 single-aisle jets, with options for 25 more, as well as 10 A350 freighters plus 12 options. After typical industry discounts, the order could approach $8 billion in value, based on estimates from consulting firm Ishka.

Developers have struck a deal with lenders including a hedge fund to end a decade-long impasse over an historic Venetian hotel, paving the way for a €200 million ($232 million) restoration. Italian developer and asset manager COIMA and Abu Dhabi’s Eagle Hills have agreed to buy legacy debts with a nominal value of €54 million held against the Grand Hotel des Bains in Venice, according to a statement today.

In January, as the 2025 World Surf League Championship Tour kicked off on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, Brazilian Italo Ferreira waited for what felt like an eternity to ride a single wave. After a two-day weather delay, the area’s signature big barrels remained elusive, forcing surfers to compete in subpar conditions. A few weeks later, Ferreira, the sport’s first Olympic gold medalist, paddled into lake-flat water at the tour’s second stop, but here the waves turned on in seconds with the press of a button. His decisive victory and dizzying aerials were stunning, but so was the setting: under stadium lights in the desert of Abu Dhabi.

Adrian "Ace" Buchan at Wave Park, which is located outside of Seoul, South Korea. Source: Aventuur

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

For Your Commute

Despite his vast riches, newspaper heir Samuel Irving “Si” Newhouse Jr. didn’t count for much in midcentury New York. The son of a self-made magnate who’d been publicly dismissed as a “journalist chiffonier”—a ragpicker—he was a new-money Jew, stymied in society by a city stratified by race, religion and generational wealth. So when his father bought the enfeebled lifestyle publisher Condé Nast, Newhouse began “to grasp the social possibilities uniquely available to him as the newly minted heir to Vogue,” writes Michael Grynbaum in his new book