Top stories by morning: Trump will pull ships out of Strait of Hormuz, GameStop wants to buy eBay

US President Donald Trump is launching an operation to remove ships from the Strait of Hormuz amid a war with Iran, warning of a forceful response if he intervenes. China orders companies to ignore US sanctions for the first time, heightening the risk of financial conflict ahead of talks between the two leaders. On these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of Ma 4.

Donald Trump said the US will launch Operation Project Freedom (Project Freedom) to withdraw civilian ships stranded by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid a war with Iran, CNBC reports. The goal is to ensure the safe exit of ships from countries not involved in the conflict and restore freedom of navigation through the key route that carries about 20% of the world's oil.

The Pentagon said the operation would involve warships, aircraft and about 15,000 troops. It is unclear how Iran will react and when the strait will be fully opened: Trump called the mission humanitarian, but warned that any intervention would be met with force amid protracted negotiations.

GameStop has offered to acquire eBay for about $56 billion, offering $125 per share at a premium of about 20% to the market, Reuters reports. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has said he is willing to take the deal directly to shareholders if eBay's board is skeptical, and has already raised about 5% in the company. He expects to cut eBay's costs by $2 billion a year and turn the combined company into an Amazon competitor.

The deal looks unusual: GameStop is almost four times smaller than eBay in terms of capitalization, and the financing involves large debt and outside investors, the agency points out. Cohen has already secured about $20 billion in support from banks and is allowing sovereign wealth funds to participate. He intends to lead the combined company despite GameStop's ongoing problems and eBay's more stable position.

Anthropic is finalizing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other investment firms to sell AI tools to private equity fund portfolio companies, The Wall Street Journal reports. Hellman & Friedman will also be key participants.

According to sources, Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman will each invest about $300 million, while Goldman Sachs will invest about $150 million. The deal has not yet been officially confirmed, the newspaper points out.

China has ordered its companies not to comply with U.S. sanctions against five refiners linked to Iranian oil, triggering the 2021 "blocking measures" mechanism for the first time, Bloomberg reports. Beijing effectively nullifies the restrictions domestically and allows the companies to seek compensation from those who comply, calling the sanctions illegal.

The step increases the risk of conflict with the United States and may affect banks working with the companies caught under the restrictions, the agency points out. The decision was Beijing's toughest response to Washington's financial pressure and may affect the upcoming talks between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Bloomberg notes.

Chinese developer of robotic hands Linkerbot plans to double its valuation to $6 billion in its next funding round after recently raising funds at a $3 billion valuation, Reuters writes. The company, with participation from Ant Group and HongShan Group, controls more than 80% of the global market for high-precision robotic hands and intends to ramp up production to 10,000 devices per month.

Investor interest in humanoid robotics is surging in China, and Linkerbot is betting on replicating complex human skills through its own data platform, the agency points out.

- Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed due to holidays.

- The Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are buried due to holidays. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 1.5%.

- Korea's Kospi adds more than 4%. MSCI's broad index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan rises more than 3%.

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

- Futures on the S&P 500 rose by 0.1%, futures on the Nasdaq Composite - by 0.4%. Exchange contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.1%.

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