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Signaling diplomatic efforts for resolving the Middle East crisis were on track, Trump said the U.S. bid to guide ships out of Strait of Hormuz had been paused. View More

A man looks at a screen showing global stock market information on the street in Tokyo, Japan.Chris McGrath | Getty Images South Korea's Kospi hit another record Wednesday as Asia-Pacific markets opened higher, tracking Wall Street gains overnight after oil prices dropped and strong earnings lifted investor sentiment.Signaling diplomatic efforts for resolving the Middle East crisis were on track, President Donald Trump said the U.S. bid to guide ships out of Strait of Hormuz had been paused. "We have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said in his Truth Social post. The U.S. military on Monday began guiding commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz under Project Freedom. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday said that "two U.S. commercial ships, along with American destroyers, have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear." West Texas Intermediate futures for June was 1.96% lower at $100.27 per barrel as of 8:03 p.m. ET. Brent crude futures for July declined 1.27% to $108.48 per barrel. South Korea's Kospi advanced 4.50% to scale a new peak, building on its more than 70% gains this year so far, as markets resumed trading following a holiday. The small-cap Kosdaq slipped 0.15%.Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.58% higher.Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 25,860, compared with the index's last close of 25,898.61.Japan stock market trading is closed due to a holiday. Stock Chart IconStock chart icon S&P 500 futures added 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.6%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 30 points, or less than 0.1%.During Tuesday's regular session, the S&P 500 rose 0.81%, hitting a new all-time high and closing at a record of 7,259.22. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.03%, touching a new high and notching a closing record of 25,326.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 356.35 points, or 0.73%, to end at 49,298.25.— CNBC's Sean Conlon and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

President Donald Trump said he is pausing "Project Freedom," the U.S. military's bid to guide commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. View More

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz near Bandar Abbas, Iran, May 4, 2026. Amirhosein Khorgooi | ISNA | WANA | Via Reuters President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is pausing "Project Freedom," the U.S. military's effort to guide commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, one day after the operation began.Trump, in a Truth Social post, said the decision was based in part on "the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement" with Iran.Project Freedom "will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote.Stock futures rose following Trump's announcement, which raised hopes for a peace agreement that would end the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and reopen the economically vital strait.It also represented a surprising about-face from the Trump administration, which just hours earlier had framed Project Freedom as a matter of life or death for thousands of civilian sailors.The Trump administration has said that nearly 23,000 sailors on vessels representing 87 countries have been stranded in the Persian Gulf because of Iran's de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the White House Tuesday afternoon that the goal of Project Freedom is to "rescue" those sailors, who have been "left for dead" by the Iranian regime."Nations from around the world, the overwhelming majority of whom are not even engaged in any military hostilities, are now at risk, not just of losing their cargo, but the lives of their own citizens because of this blockade," Rubio said."They're sitting ducks. They're isolated, they're starving, they're vulnerable, and at least 10 sailors have already died as a result" of Iran's blockade, he said.Trump announced Project Freedom on Sunday evening, saying the U.S. has assured countries whose vessels are stuck due to the war that it will "guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways."U.S. Central Command said Sunday evening that the military would deploy "guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members" to support the operation.Defense and geopolitical experts told CNBC earlier Tuesday they were skeptical that Project Freedom would achieve its goals.Iran, meanwhile, had responded to the U.S. military moves with renewed hostility, putting further strain on an already shaky ceasefire with the U.S.The United Arab Emirates said Monday it was attacked with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones coming from Iran, resulting in three injuries.CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters the same day that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at ships that we are protecting."A South Korean-operated vessel in the Strait of Hormuz also caught fire on Monday. Trump later said that Iran had attacked it.Trump's post announcing Project Freedom seemed to anticipate that the move could undermine diplomatic efforts with Tehran."I am fully aware that my Representatives are having very positive discussions with the Country of Iran, and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all," he wrote. "The Ship movement is merely meant to free up people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Strategy is shifting from passive bitcoin accumulation to actively managing balance sheet to boost bitcoin per share value. View More

In this articleMSTRFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Michael Saylor, chairman of MicroStrategy, speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, US, on Friday, July 26, 2024. The conference is an annual event organized by BTC Media LLC for fans of the original cryptocurrency. Photographer: Liam Kennedy/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Strategy's latest earnings release marks a subtle but meaningful shift in the company's approach to bitcoin: Instead of passively stockpiling bitcoin, it's going to more actively manage the balance sheet to maximize value of bitcoin per share.That's a reversal from the company's longstanding "never sell" strategy, which originated with chairman, founder and bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor – and it comes as the company posts a $12.5 billion net loss in the first quarter due to the slump in the bitcoin price during the beginning of the year."Our ability to sell bitcoin either to buy U.S. dollars or sell bitcoin to buy debt if it's accretive to bitcoin per share is something that we would consider doing going forward," Phong Le, president and CEO of the company, said on the earnings call Tuesday evening.In December, Strategy established a U.S. dollar reserve, which now holds $2.25 billion, to ensure it can meet its obligations to pay dividends on its preferred stock and interest on its outstanding debt. The company has been funding its bitcoin purchases by issuing new equity and debt."We will sell bitcoin when it's advantageous to the company," Le said later on the same call. "We're not going to sit back and just say, 'We'll never sell the bitcoin.' We want to be net aggregators of bitcoin – increasing our total bitcoin, but more importantly, increasing our bitcoin per share because we think that is what is going to be most accretive long term for MSTR."Shares were lower by 3% in after hours trading. Stock Chart IconStock chart iconBitcoin's 2026 price slump Bitcoin per share is an informal metric the company uses to represent how much bitcoin each share of Strategy represents. The higher the bitcoin per share, the more exposure shareholders get over time. Bitcoin per share can change depending on whether the company buys more of the cryptocurrency, issues new shares, or sells bitcoin to manage debt or buybacks.On the earnings call, Saylor compared Strategy to a real estate development company."If you bought land for $10,000 an acre, and you sold it at $100,000 an acre, and then you bought more land with profit ... or if you sold $100,000 an acre to pay some interest expense on debt that you used to buy more land, nobody would say that's bad for the price of real estate, and no one would say that that proves the business doesn't work," he said."Real estate development companies literally exist to buy land cheap and sell it expensively," he added. "We're like a bitcoin development company."As of the end of the first quarter, Strategy held 818,334 BTC for $61.81 billion, accumulated at an average cost of about $75,500 per coin. That accounts for almost 4% of the total bitcoin supply. Year to date it has acquired about 63,000 BTC. The company also highlighted a BTC yield of roughly 9% since the start of the year. This metric measures the growth in bitcoin per share – how much of the crypto the company is holding relative to the number of its shares – over time. BTC yield measures how effectively Strategy converts capital into bitcoin exposure for shareholders. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

AMD's earnings report lands as investors rush into the stock on optimism that the AI boom is just getting started. View More

In this articleMETAAMDFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026.Bridget Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Advanced Micro Devices reported first-quarter earnings Tuesday that topped expectations, while the company's revenue forecast also exceeded estimates as demand soars for chips to power artificial intelligence workloads.The stock jumped about 15% in extended trading. Here's how the chipmaker did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the quarter ended in March:EPS: $1.37 vs. $1.29 adjusted expectedRevenue: $10.25 billion vs. $9.89 billion expectedRevenue climbed 38% from $7.44 billion a year ago, the company said in a release on Tuesday. Data center sales increased 57% to $5.8 billion from $3.67 billion in the same period a year earlier. Net income rose to $1.38 billion, or 84 cents per share in the quarter, from $709 million, or 44 cents per share, a year ago.For the second quarter, AMD said it expects about $11.2 billion in revenue, versus expectations of $10.52 billion, according to LSEG.AMD CEO Lisa Su said in the statement that the data center unit is now the "primary driver of our revenue and earnings growth.""Looking ahead, we expect server growth to accelerate meaningfully as we scale supply to meet demand," Su said. In prepared remarks ahead of the earnings call, Su said the company has "strong and increasing confidence" in its ability to reach tens of billions of dollars in data center AI revenue next year "and to exceed our long-term growth target of greater than 80 percent in the coming years."AMD's stock has been on a tear, more than tripling over the past year, including a 66% jump so far in 2026. While the company has trailed far behind rival Nvidia in the market for graphics processing units (GPUs) to power AI data centers, investors have poured into AMD's stock more recently on optimism that the opportunity is large enough for multiple players. Unlike Nvidia, AMD has long been a leading maker of central processing units, or CPUs, which are enjoying a major renaissance as agentic AI shifts compute needs. AMD shares popped last week when AMD and Intel announced they'll pair up on a new instruction set for x86 CPUs. The new feature, called AI Compute Extensions, aims to increase performance and energy efficiency by boosting compute density by 16 times.The chip industry has faced a global memory shortage because of insatiable AI demand as well as capacity constraints for both manufacturing and advanced packaging, and supply chain challenges due to the war in Iran.That's all contributing to a frenzy in a number of semiconductor-related names. Intel just had its best month ever in April, with shares more than doubling as the company reported first-quarter results that trounced analysts' estimates. Shares of memory maker Micron are up more than 700% in the past year, pushing the company's market cap past $700 billion. In addition to CPUs and GPUs, AMD is also expected to ship its first full rack-scale system for AI data centers, Helios, later this year. It's meant to rival Nvidia's Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems that sell for upwards of $3 million.Both OpenAI and Meta have already signed up for shipments of Helios, marking AMD's system as a viable second option for AI giants and hyperscalers scrambling to secure enough compute.Meta said in February that a multiyear deal with AMD involves deploying up to 6 gigawatts of the company's GPUs for AI data centers and includes use of AI-optimized CPUs.Su said in her prepared remarks that shipments are set to begin in the second half of the year."Together with our previously announced OpenAI partnership, these engagements position AMD as a core partner to the world's largest AI infrastructure builders, with deep co-engineering relationships and multi-year visibility into large-scale deployments," Su said. WATCH: How advanced packaging could be the next big bottlneck for AI watch nowVIDEO15:0715:07How AMD became a chip giant and finally caught IntelTech Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Lucid Group said it will make moves to better align its production with customer demand for its luxury all-electric vehicles. View More

In this articleUBERLCIDFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT The Lucid logo is shown at the Los Angeles Auto show on Nov. 20, 2025.Mike Blake | Reuters DETROIT — Lucid Group suspended its vehicle production guidance for the year as its incoming CEO evaluates the all-electric vehicle manufacturer's business operations, including the potential for lower output of EVs.The company on Tuesday also said it needs to lower its "elevated inventory" of vehicles, which for automakers has historically meant decreasing or idling vehicle production. A company spokesman told CNBC that there is currently no plan to idle its sole U.S. plant in Arizona, but incoming CEO Silvio Napoli said he is continuing to evaluate Lucid's business."An essential objective over time is to build a more cost-efficient company, one that progresses in funding its own growth. That means being rigorous in delivering our commitments," Napoli said Tuesday on Lucid's quarterly results call with investors. "In simple words, this means making clear choices on where to invest and, just as importantly, where not to."Napoli said he plans to review the company's operations over the next several weeks before updating investors on the company's guidance when Lucid reports its second-quarter results at an unspecified date. watch nowVIDEO21:3321:33Inside Lucid’s high-stakes turnaround planTech The company's prior production guidance was between 25,000 to 27,000 units in 2026. Lucid executives said plans for cost-cutting, autonomous vehicles with Uber and Nuro, and the company's "path to profitability" outlined in an investor day in March remain intact.Lucid has produced roughly 3,200 more vehicles than it has sold since 2024, according to its annual production and deliveries. That includes a difference of roughly 2,000 units last year and 2,400 vehicles during the first quarter of 2026.The pulled guidance occurred as the company reported first-quarter results that were in line with preliminary results released by the company a month ago, but that still significantly missed Wall Street's expectations."We ended the quarter with elevated inventory that we expect to convert to revenue and cash as deliveries normalize, while maintaining alignment between production and sales cadence. Our focus is on disciplined execution — driving structural cost improvements, managing capital efficiently, and improving operating leverage as we scale," Lucid CFO Taoufiq Boussaid said in a statement.Here's how the company performed in the first quarter compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:Loss per share: $3.46 vs. a loss of $2.64 expected Revenue: $282.5 million vs. $440.4 million expected The company's revenue increased roughly 20% year-over-year but was far lower than the 87.4% jump analysts were expecting, according to LSEG. The all-electric vehicle maker said a seat supplier issue "significantly affected" deliveries of its crucial Lucid Gravity SUV during the quarter that resulted in a stop-sale of the vehicle due to safety concerns.Boussaid said the seat issue caused a more than $200 million revenue impairment during the first quarter. Lucid produced 5,500 vehicles and delivered 3,093 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026. The automaker, which is heavily backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, said it has sufficient liquidity through the second half of 2027. It ended the first quarter with approximately $4.7 billion, including a recent capital raise and delayed draw term loan provided by PIF.Lucid on Tuesday said production of a new vehicle plant in Saudi Arabia continues despite the ongoing war in nearby Iran. The company said it has not experienced any significant interruptions to the facility other than some delays in shipping.The company also said it is adjusting its production reporting to count vehicles once they complete the company's "factory gating process," which includes vehicles that may not be completely built and are sent to operations elsewhere for completion. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

CNBC's Jim Cramer said the data center and artificial intelligence boom is spreading far beyond tech companies and into nearly every corner of the market. View More

In this articleASMLFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO2:0402:04The AI-led computer economy is far broader than most people realize, says Jim CramerMad Money with Jim Cramer CNBC's Jim Cramer said the data center and artificial intelligence boom is becoming all-consuming, spreading far beyond the tech companies and into nearly every corner of the market."AI is inexorable. It is fierce. And it is making believers fortunes," the "Mad Money" host said Tuesday after all three major indexes closed higher. The market during first-quarter earnings season has been powered by what Cramer called an "explosion of profits" among companies tied to AI and data centers. And the gains are increasingly being seen across a widening group of stocks, he said. To explain the breadth of the trend, Cramer alluded to a framework popularized by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang has described the AI economy as a "five-layer cake" — a stack of interconnected industries all benefiting from the same buildout. At the base is power, the foundation of the entire system. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, and Cramer said that's driving strength in companies like Vistra, GE Vernova, and Constellation Energy. The next layer is semiconductors. "You need the chips," Cramer said, pointing to Nvidia, along with rivals like AMD and Intel. He also highlighted storage and memory players like Western Digital and Micron Technology, as well as equipment makers including ASML and Applied Materials. Above that sits another hardware layer that makes AI systems possible. Cramer pointed to Dell Technologies for servers, Vertiv for cooling technology, and Eaton for electrical equipment. Additionally, he said networking firms like Cisco Systems and Arista Networks and fiber optic cable supplier Corning help stitch the data center together. Backup power providers such as Caterpillar and Cummins help keep the lights on at all times, he added. Next is the AI model layer. Cramer suggested that when he thinks about soaring adoption of AI models, he thinks about the cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure, and Google Cloud that benefit from all that usage. At the top is the application layer, the tools consumers and businesses interact with directly, including services such as ChatGPT, "the interface that started it all," Cramer said. For Cramer, the key takeaway is that the AI boom is no longer a narrow tech story — it's a broad-based economic shift with everything from utilities to industrials to tech "getting hit by a firehose of money.""You have a well-financed revolution that's already making money for the leaders, and now those gains are spreading through almost the entire economy," he said. "Those with S&P index funds will get a piece of the action. Those who pick the right stocks could get it all, because I just gave you the buy list for 2026 and beyond." watch nowVIDEO11:5911:59Jim Cramer talks the broadening of the AI tradeMad Money with Jim Cramer Disclosure: Cramer's Charitable Trust, the portfolio used by the CNBC Investing Club, owns shares of GEV, NVDA, ETN, GLW, AMZN, MSFT and GOOGL. Jim Cramer's Guide to InvestingClick here to read Jim Cramer's Guide to Investing at no cost to help you build long-term wealth and invest smarter Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market.DisclaimerQuestions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Several countries, including the U.S., have a history of using dolphins in conflict areas, though not as weapons. View More

A U.S. Navy-trained dolphin named Ten, seen above on April 12, 2007, discovered an 1800's-era torpedo in San Diego Bay.Don Bartletti | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a briefing Tuesday shut down the idea that Iran could weaponize marine mammals in the Strait of Hormuz as he fielded a question about the potential use of "kamikaze dolphins" in the war with Iran.Experts say the idea isn't as far-fetched as it may seem. Several countries, including the U.S., have a history of using dolphins in conflict areas, though not as weapons."I cannot confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don't," Hegseth said at the briefing, using the term for Japanese pilots who deliberately flew their planes into their targets in World War II.Hegseth's comments came in response to news reports about the possibility. The Wall Street Journal reported April 30 that Iranian officials had said Iran could use "mine-carrying dolphins" to attack U.S. warships. It is not clear whether Iran has that capability.The U.S. Navy Office of Information declined to comment further, referring CNBC to Hegseth's Tuesday briefing. watch nowVIDEO1:5701:57Defense Sec. Hegseth: Ceasefire is not over, we urge Iran to be prudent in actions they takeSquawk on the Street The Strait of Hormuz has been largely blocked during the war, and on Sunday, President Donald Trump announced "Project Freedom," an operation to free ships stranded in the strait since the onset of the conflict. Hegseth characterized the new mission as "separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury," the administration's name for the war the U.S. and Israel began on Feb. 28. He said U.S. forces would not need to enter Iranian waters or airspace to carry out the operation.Fresh attacks this week in the key waterway reignited fears that the impact on the global economy would worsen. Though a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran officially remains in place, Iran attacked the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. said it sank Iranian boats in the strait on Monday."Right now, the ceasefire certainly holds, but we're going to be watching very, very closely," Hegseth said. Dolphins have a long history of military use U.S. Marines with a dolphin trained to search for mines, Port of Umm Qasr, Iraq.AP Since 1959, the U.S. Navy's Marine Mammal Program has trained bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect mines and other underwater threats, conduct surveillance, and locate and recover objects at sea, according to the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, a research and engineering laboratory for the U.S. Navy."Dolphins have been used in [military] exercises all over the globe," said Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at global policy think tank Rand Corporation and an expert on mine countermeasures.During the Vietnam War, the Navy trained dolphins to detect swimmers and divers who were trying to access military facilities, Savitz said. The mammals also played a "key role" in detecting and clearing naval mines from the port of Umm Qasr during the Iraq War in 2003, he said.Dolphins and sea lions are "exceptional" at detecting underwater objects, Savitz said. Sea lions are commonly used to locate and recover objects in "cluttered" waters due to their excellent underwater eyesight, he said, while dolphins use echolocation, or biosonar, to search for naval mines in open water. K-Dog, a bottlenose dolphin, leaps out of the water in front of Sgt. Andrew Garrett during training near the USS Gunston Hall in the Arabian Gulf, March 18, 2003.U.S. Navy | Brien Aho | Reuters Dolphins' biosonar is often more accurate than electronic sonar, according to the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. They "can not only locate objects, but differentiate them with a greater degree of facility than the machines that we've been able to develop for this purpose," Savitz said.The Soviet Navy also trained dolphins for defense during the Cold War, though the unit was transferred to Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, according to an NPR report from 2022, citing an analysis from U.S. Naval Institute News. The Russian military reportedly revived its dolphin program after seizing Ukraine's defense dolphins in 2014 during the annexation of Crimea. In 2022, satellite imagery identified two dolphin pens in the Sevastopol harbor, the analysis found. The 'challenge' of dolphin military efforts The use of dolphins in military operations raises complex questions, experts say — not just about whether countries such as Iran possess trained marine animals, but whether they have developed the expertise to work effectively with them. "It's a challenge for humans to learn how to work best with dolphin capabilities," Savitz said. The question isn't "whether or not the Iranians may have physical animals with some training, but whether the Iranians have trained themselves" to work with the dolphins, he said. Read more CNBC politics coveragePirro reveals new Trump attack evidence; Cole Allen challenges 'suicide precautions'Bard President Botstein retiring after Jeffrey Epstein ties detailedTrump tells Congress hostilities in Iran 'have terminated' at war powers deadlineLutnick gets grilling on Nvidia chip sales to China in Sen. Chris Coons letter Few protections exist for animals in armed conflict although there are some legal strategies based on international humanitarian law that could be used, according to Chris Jenks, a research professor of law at Southern Methodist University.A representative for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals referred CNBC to the organization's general position on military animals. The nonprofit says it "recognizes the value" of animals for military functions but that "animals should not be unnecessarily put at risk or sacrificed in the service of our country.""Military animals should be humanely trained and responsibly maintained, and commitment to the animals' well-being must extend beyond the period of military service," according to the ASPCA's site.Savitz said he has worked with the Navy's Marine Mammal Program "intermittently" for 25 years. He said that "dolphins and sea lions love the program.""They get exercised every day in open waters," he said. "They like the free fish. They like playing with humans. For them, it's a game, just as with drug-sniffing dogs or explosive-sniffing dogs." Savitz said to his knowledge no marine mammal has been harmed during a military operation. "They are living out healthy lives." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Hiring activity increased in March, according to federal data issued Tuesday. However, the Iran war threatens to stall that progress in the job market. View More

A 'now hiring' sign is displayed in a business's window in Manhattan on Jan. 9, 2026, in New York City.Spencer Platt | Getty Images Federal labor market data issued Tuesday suggests the frozen U.S. job market may be starting to thaw — but the economic fallout from the Iran war threatens to stall that momentum, according to labor economists. "Is the hiring recession finally over? There are encouraging signs," Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in an e-mail. "The big concern is the war in Iran could halt that much needed progress in the labor market," she wrote. Job market 'may be stabilizing' The labor market has been in a so-called "low hire, low fire" mode for more than a year, characterized by a low rate of hiring, layoffs and voluntary quits among workers. The result was a frozen market that offered few opportunities to job seekers or new entrants to the labor pool — a stark turnaround from the "great resignation" era of 2021 and 2022, when job openings hit all-time highs and workers left their jobs for new opportunities in record numbers, economists said. However, there have been recent signs of a pickup in activity, likely a byproduct of businesses feeling more certainty about economic policies like tariffs and interest rates, said Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter. watch nowVIDEO2:4402:44Job openings and labor turnover comes in at 6.86 million; new home sales rise to 682,000Squawk on the Street The hiring rate among employers jumped to 3.5% in March 2026 — the fastest pace of hiring in two years and up from 3.1% in February, according to data published Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.When examining the three-month average of the hiring rate, it is "essentially flat from where it entered the year — suggesting it has potentially found a bottom after four years of declines," Matthew Martin, a senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note Tuesday. Hiring also occurred in industries other than healthcare for "the first time in a long time," Long wrote. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageUsed EV sales are surging — how their ownership costs compare to gas carsTrump said $465,000 in retirement savings is 'rich.' Is it?New college grads overestimate starting salaries by nearly $24,000, report findsShould you buy Series I bonds amid higher inflation? What experts sayCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked Hiring was spread across a few industries: Employers in the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector hired 108,000 workers in March, while professional and business services hired 165,000 and accommodation and food services added 124,000, according to the BLS."It looks more and more like the labor market may be stabilizing after a rough year of almost no hiring outside of the healthcare field," Long wrote. Additionally, the quits rate ticked up marginally to 2% in March from 1.9% in February, according to BLS data. Workers typically quit to take new jobs, so economists generally view the quits rate as a rough pulse of their confidence in finding a new gig. Further, while 2025 was the worst year for job gains outside of a recession in more than 20 years, employers added 178,000 new jobs in March, the highest monthly total since 2024, according to a separate BLS report issued in April. "The labor market is heating back up, I'd say," Bachaud said. "We were in this very frozen, stagnant state, and those things are starting to ease and warm back up.""A big asterisk is the impact of the Iran war and how high gas prices are making their way through the labor market," she said. Iran war impact on the job market Premium gasoline prices above $6 per gallon and diesel fuel prices above $7 a gallon are displayed outside of a Shell gas station in West Hollywood, California on April 14, 2026.Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images The ongoing Middle East conflict has triggered an oil-supply shock, raising energy prices broadly. Average U.S. gasoline prices have increased to $4.45 per gallon as of Monday, up from $2.94 per gallon on Feb. 23, just before the war started, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — an increase of about 51% in roughly two months. While it's "too soon to see any negative spillover effects" from the war in the federal labor market data issued Tuesday, higher oil prices threaten to reduce consumer demand by reducing households' spending power, Martin wrote. Additionally, "businesses are likely to pull back further on hiring intentions" due to increased uncertainty and therefore "delay a sustained rebound in the hiring rate," he wrote."The US/Israel-Iran war will test the labor market," Martin wrote. watch nowVIDEO2:3002:30How business leaders see AI transforming workRapid Recap There are also some concerning signs in the job market that slightly temper the optimism, economists said. For example, while the overall U.S. unemployment rate has been relatively low by historical standards, the share of jobless workers who are considered "long-term unemployed" has gradually crept upward. About 25% of jobless workers were long-term unemployed in March, meaning they've been out of work for at least six months, according to BLS data. That's up from a recent low of about 18% in February 2023. "Many unemployed people are facing this low-hire environment, where they're trying to get back into the labor market, and they're just not finding those doors to getting back in," said Cory Stahle, a senior economist at Indeed, a job site. Overall, there are both reasons for optimism and concern for job seekers, he said. The U.S. job market has been able to remain "remarkably stable" despite a number of headwinds, he said.However, "the longer that [war] goes on, the longer that will weigh on the economy," Stahle said. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said he plans to remain a member of the Federal Reserve board after his term as chair expires this month. View More

Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) delivers an opening statement during the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for Chair of the Federal Reserve, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik | Getty Images Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is making a "significant mistake" by staying on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors after his term atop the central bank ends."He's breaking 75 years of precedent. Every time you get a new chairman, the former chairman leaves. That's good news because what you don't want are these philosophies in conflict," Scott, R-S.C., said Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference. "I think for the country and for the Fed, it would be best if he left," Scott said. Read more CNBC politics coveragePirro reveals new Trump attack evidence; Cole Allen challenges 'suicide precautions'Bard President Botstein retiring after Jeffrey Epstein ties detailedTrump tells Congress hostilities in Iran 'have terminated' at war powers deadlineLutnick gets grilling on Nvidia chip sales to China in Sen. Chris Coons letter Powell's term as Fed chair ends May 15. By staying on, he is denying President Donald Trump a majority on the board, on which Powell could serve until 2028.A spokesperson for the Fed declined to comment on Scott's remarks.His choice to stay on the Fed board comes as Powell and Trump have clashed in the last year over the president's calls for lower interest rates. Trump has floated the idea of firing Powell, and his administration launched an investigation into cost overruns in the Fed's ongoing building renovations and related testimony to Congress by Powell.Powell announced last week he plans to stay on the board for an indefinite period while the probe continues."I've said that I will not leave the board until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality, and I stand by that. I'm encouraged by recent developments, and I'm watching the remaining steps in this process carefully," Powell said.After suffering setbacks in a federal court, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped her criminal probe into Powell, referring the investigation to the Fed's inspector general. This move helped clear a political roadblock that threatened the nomination of Powell's successor, Kevin Warsh.Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a pivotal vote on the Senate banking panel, had vowed to withhold his support for Warsh unless the Trump administration dropped its probe into Powell. Tillis ended his block in April after the criminal investigation was dropped. The committee advanced Warsh's nomination last week. The full Senate is expected to vote on Warsh as soon as next week.Scott has said he did not believe Powell had committed a criminal act and said in March that he hoped the criminal investigation "goes away."On Tuesday at the Milken Institute, Scott said of Powell's decision to stay on, "I do think maybe he's poking the president in the eye a little bit." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The Cabinet also decided to refer alleged irregularities in thermal power projects to the Central Bureau of Investigation. View More