Main by morning: Trump may end war without supply decision, gold rises

US President Donald Trump is ready to end the US military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains partially closed. Gold rose on this background, although persistent geopolitical risks and expensive energy limit its growth potential. About these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of March 31.

Donald Trump is ready to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains partially closed, sources told The Wall Street Journal. This means maintaining Tehran's control over the key route and postponing the operation to unblock it to a later stage.

According to the assessment of the US presidential administration, an attempt to open the strait now would prolong the conflict beyond the planned 4-6 weeks. The US intends to limit itself to weakening Iran's navy and missile capabilities and switch to diplomatic pressure, if necessary transferring the task to allies, the newspaper points out.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the regulator sees no signs of problems spreading from the private credit market to the entire financial system, despite the correction and possible investor losses, Yahoo Finance reports. According to him, the Fed is monitoring the ties with the banking sector, but there are no signs of a systemic crisis yet.

Against the background of outflows after the deal on the merger of two Blue Owl Capital funds broke down last year and concerns about the impact of AI on software companies, the pressure on the market has increased. At the same time, the Fed considers the current rate policy to be sufficient to weather the oil shock, and the impact of tariffs on inflation to be temporary.

Gold on March 31 rose 2.4% to $4619 per ounce amid signals from the Federal Reserve about a pause in rate hikes and reports about Donald Trump's willingness to end the war with Iran without opening the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg writes. This supported demand for protective assets and strengthened hopes for de-escalation of the conflict.

Additional support for the precious metal was given by the decline in bond yields after the statements of Jerome Powell. However, the market still does not put into quotations the probability of recession and a serious slowdown in the economy, although geopolitical uncertainty and the risk of rising energy prices may continue to pressure the metal in the short term, the agency notes.

Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel has raised $1 billion for its Nxtra Data data center business from funds Alpha Wave, Carlyle and Anchorage Capital, valuing it at about $3.1 billion, CNBC reported. The funds will be used to scale infrastructure across India.

The deal reflects a global boom in data center investment amid rising AI loads, the channel points out. Major players like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have already pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars in Indian cloud infrastructure, and the country's authorities are boosting India's appeal with tax incentives, hoping to establish it as a key hub.

Delaware Judge Kathleen McCormick rejected Elon Musk's request that she recuse herself, but decided to transfer three cases related to the billionaire to other judges to avoid further controversy, CNBC writes. Musk accused her of bias because of her alleged endorsement of a LinkedIn post (McCormick, according to Musk, put a reaction to a post that talked about a court verdict that could cost Musk more than $2 billion for defrauding Twitter investors), but the judge said it was due to possible suspicious account activity.

McCormick had previously invalidated Musk's $56 billion compensation package to Tesla for 2018, which caused the conflict. But despite her refusal to recognize bias, the judge found the transfer of cases to her colleagues appropriate amid increased attention to the trial. Two cases involving Musk and Tesla are still pending in Delaware state court, CNBC recalls. One concerns Tesla's director compensation, and the other is a consolidated lawsuit by the company's shareholders, who claim Musk breached his fiduciary duties to Tesla by launching a potential artificial intelligence competitor, xAI.

- Japan's broad Topix index was down 0.9 percent on March 31, while the Nikkei 225 was down 1.4 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 index also lost 0.3 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 3.2 percent and the Kosdaq was down 4.2 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.5 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.7% and futures on the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.6%. Exchange-traded contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.8%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor