Here's our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand with news the week has ended on a sour note, and it looks likely the quarter will too. Data expected next week isn't likely to boost anything. And the geopolitical mess looks like it could get even worse and more protracted.
Of equal worry is that the NZ Government seems to be just going through the motions regarding the fuel risks, not taking it seriously. There is lots of 'hopium' being smoked in Government circles, expecting the issue to just fade as quickly as it came.
Unlike the pandemic though, firms are not restraining themselves on price 'adjustments', ensuring they don't get stranded this time around. So we are very likely to see a surge of inflation far higher than the pandemic surge. You may recall, the CPI rose +20% between February 2020 and December 2023, with almost all of that coming from September 2022 onwards. We wont get that early two year restraint this time.
Elsewhere, in the US the updated University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index fell sharply in March from February. It is now near the record lows at the end of 2025, with declines spanning all age groups and political affiliations. Households with middle and higher incomes, as well as those with stock wealth, experienced the steepest drops in confidence. The US war on Iran and the resulting uncertainty and volatility is driving the bad mood. The short-term economic outlook reported by this respected survey plunged -14%.
Meanwhile, uncertainty is keeping US oil bosses from investing in new North American oil drilling. They remember the pandemic spike with no fondness, and are trying to avoid the "value destruction" that followed that. They are happy to take the higher profits now without any effort or risk than invest upfront in new drilling and risk a sharp pullback. That view probably applies worldwide.
China has reacted to new US anti-trade measures aimed at them, starting new probes of its own aimed at the US. None of this augers well for the upcoming Xi/Trump summit, and anyone hoping for an easing of tensions then may need to reassess. The US policy actions all seem designed to provoke, so reactions from the Chinese should be no surprise. This is not a path to calmer trade tensions.
Profits at China’s industrial firms rose +15.2% in February from a year ago and the best start to the calendar year since 2022. A lot of this was driven by private enterprises (+37.2%), although listed companies saw only weak growth, and some foreign companies suffered retreats. SOE profits rose a modest +5.3%.
Taiwanese consumer sentiment has taken a hit, like everywhere else, now its lowest since January 2023.
Singapore and Malaysia released February PPI data overnight and both retreated, for Singapore its fifth straight decline, for Malaysia its 13th. But in both basis, March is unlikely to show the same direction.
India bank loan growth is remaining high, up +13.8% from a year ago in their March 29, 2026 report.
India has rolled back petrol taxes to ease local strains on households. Vietnam has done the same. So have Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Sweden,
The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.44%, up +4 bps from yesterday, up +5 bps from a week ago. The key 2-10 yield curve is steeper at +51 bps (-7 bps). Their 1-5 curve is steeper at +29 bps (+3 bps) and the 3 mth-10yr curve is now at +74 bps (+2 bps). The China 10 year bond rate is up +1 bp at 1.82%. The Japanese 10 year bond yield is up +11 bps at 2.38% and that is a 29 year high. The Australian 10 year bond yield starts today at 5.13%, up +6 bps from yesterday and a fifteen year high. And the NZ Government 10 year bond rate starts today at 4.80%, up +4 bps and its highest in nearly two years.
Wall Street is retreating again, with the S&P500 with down another -1.5% and heading for a weekly loss of -3.0%. Overnight, European equity markets were lower between Frankfurt's -1.4% fall and London's -0.1%. Yesterday Tokyo dipped -0.4% but is up +1.7% for the week. Hong Kong firmed +0.4% on Friday to be up +0.7% for its week, and Shanghai rose +0.6% for a weekly gain of +0.2%. Singapore was up +0.2%. The ASX200 dipped a minor -0.1% for a weekly gain of +2.8%. The NZX50 slipped -0.3% on Friday for a weekly loss of -0.4%.
The Fear & Greed index remains in the 'extreme fear' zone today as it was last week.
The price of gold will start today up +US$128 from yesterday, now at US$4511/oz, but down -US$62/oz from a week ago. Silver is up +US$2 at just under US$70/oz, little-changed for the week.
American oil prices are up another +US$4 at just over US$98.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is up +US$3.50 at just on US$111.50/bbl. A week ago these prices were very similar. Ship transit traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, already low, has dried up again. Even Chinese ships can't pass now, even empty ones.
The Kiwi dollar is -20 bps lower against the USD from yesterday, now at 57.5 USc, down -90 bps for the week. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 83.6 AUc. We are little-changed against the yen. Against the euro we are -10 bps lower at just on 49.9 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today down -20 bps at just on 61.4, down -70 bps for the week.
The bitcoin price starts today at US$66,207 and down -3.9% from this time yesterday, down -4.9% for the week. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at just under +/- 2.9%.
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83 Comments
NZD weakening, oil rising, risk sentiment falling.... pretty textbook combination really
Not much mystery in it
The Market see's extended boots on ground, budget blowouts, inflation and higher interest rates. That's a bad combination.
US10Y over 4.40% is a bad sign here. The is the last thing NZ needed. Equities crash not help NZ Consumer confidence.
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/us-stocks-fall-on-prospect-o…
The Nasdaq Composite slumped 2.2 per cent on in New York, as hopes for a near-term ceasefire between the US and Iran faded. Oil topped $US113 a barrel after Iran said Israel bombed two steel plants, a power plant and nuclear sites. Volatility spiked higher.
“I think that the market has begun to price in the worst-case scenario over the past two days,” BCA Research’s Marco Papic said on X. “We are not yet at the point of maximum pain.” He said the S&P 500 could fall another 5-10 per cent and the US 10-year note yield could rise another 30-50 basis points.
Bond yeilds surging world wide.
More and bigger mortgage rate hikes are comming down the pipe.
A momemts silence for the 1 million stranded asset boomers, who were all promised untold riches from property, as the once thronging, property investor rooms, are now like deserted tumble weed towns.
All the hopium fades to a distant memory......
2012 to 2015 home prices are the near future. BACK TO THE FUTURE time!
Still, get the free oldie Waiheke trips, while this rort lasts!
Thats a massive leap from bond yields to a million coordinated sellers
Yeah. Probably nothing.
If we didnt have such a persistent trade imbalance we could be Japan....
Interesting angle on price restraint in the early 2020s. The data suggests a different story.
- Import prices reduced in 2020/21 but lower costs were not passed through to prices - this looked like 'restraint', but profit margins surged from 2020 to late 2021
- Look at the sales, expenditure, and margin of our biggest sector - wholesale as an example
- In 2022, import prices pushed up and companies either showed restraint (i think supermarkets did as a resut of profiteering accusations) or maybe they just didn't adjust prices quickly enough
- As RBNZ hiked interest rates through 2023 and 2024, NZ businesses were hit by reducing sales and profits in real terms, but they slowly increased profit margins through late 2023 and 2024 - another classic example of the economy refusing to conform to reckonomics textbooks
- Incidentally, if you look at that last graph you can see the economy cease its descent in late 2025 - but this was driven by increased sales enabling businesses to restore profits. There was zero sign of any tick-up in jobs (which only stopped falling year-on-year in Feb 26).
- My view is that the apparent recovery would have petered out in early 2026 - profits extracted, debts paid down, and very little investment in expansion is not a recipe for labour market expansion. Obviously, all bets are off now!
Thanks Jonny. Always rely on you for some solid analysis. :-)
Jonny, any thoughts on the track of the NZ economy for the rest of this calendar year? Massive injection of uncertainty, rational for firms to profit maximise? Freeze wages, hiring, capex? One downside, no avgas, can’t escape the crunch?
Depends on the war. On the current trajectory
Short term government stimmie to tide over a recession
Medium term large govt investment in reshoring to try and mitigate how upside downsie world trade will be.
"reshoring"?
Are we talking about the same country? NZ? The only thing our puritan neoliberal overlords are interested in reshoring are devaluing electronic digits from the sale of yet another asset.
The offshoring globalisation game only works with free and open global trade. At some level we will re-nationalize some of what's gone.
You are dreaming, our business landscape is dominated by offshore corporates, they will never heavily invest in NZ.
Our gentailors wont even build capacity.
I'm saying the government will have to bankroll a decent part of it.
You're still looking at things with a December 2025 lens.
I'm not arguing reshoring shouldn't be done, but it will require a total cleanout of the current ideological, quasi religious, siloed thinking bunch of drones we currently suffer. It's a different world now. It never was the world neoliberalism attempted to construct by ignoring physics, limits and biology.
Yup. Much rethinking will need to be done.
I think of recent purchases, a bearing for a tow behind mower, there was Jap - high price - chinese and india about same, german up there maybe above jap - no NZ product or aussie
You cannot onshore this type of thing until you need too... and by then its too late
Just remember fiscal stimulus during an inflationary recession will force inflation/interest rates higher. So isn’t always the best move even though the intent seems good.
I think much of the linear economic theory we use for inflation will be out the window.
My view is that the world is entering a period of instability. China has run rings round the west - using economic and trade strategy, and coercion / incentives to secure access to the minerals, materials, skills, and energy sources it needs for the rest of the 21st century. The US is trying to catch-up by killing and bombing countries into giving them what they want. This could be the new normal - maybe just not this overt.
NZ needs a strategy that is more about onshoring and self-sufficiency in energy, IP, materials, skills, finance etc, and less about selling more milk powder, kiwifruit and over-priced holidays to the world.
Anyway, the current (and next) Govt will put their head in the sand, double down on stupid, and fail to capitalise on the latent potential of our little island - we have so many advantages - our distance from disaster, natural resources, water, strong institutions etc. And, without a plan, the next year will look grim - as Govt and the central bank try and play a new game via the old rules. Prices go up - increase cost of debt, fuel gets expensive, ration by price. So, higher unemployment and falling further behind our peers it is.
I'm not sure how any government would make a serious long term plan in the next 6-12 months.
All Governments have assiduously avoided making any plans for the last 40 years, that has turned out well hasn’t it
It's turned out how it does for a mature developed economy. I.e coasting on its laurels. There's no sense of urgency, so we can just chill, for we are inherently lazy animals once our basic needs are met. And they have been more than met for quite some time.
That might be about to change, and with more motivation should come more action.
The serious focus should be on energy security. Period. Scrap the LNG, invest in solar and storage so we don't rely on large scale infrastructure investment that will arguably never be paid off by the taxpayer. This is a very real reminder of the reliance on fossil fuel distillates and the fragility of international trade. WE must analyse our weaknesses, and invest in our future that is less reliant on the rest of the world giving us gratuities and energy.
Most hermit kingdoms are poorer though. We'd be a lot poorer walking away from fossil fuels overnight also.
This is also why most of us have "jobs" instead of being homesteaders.
Now is the time to build personal capability , ie solar , own firewood, wood splitter, decent axes , water tanks, maybe an EV if you have enough solar etc, vege garden if rural a bull and a few beef heifers etc etc.
Get a stock of a few chainsaw chains, spare chain saw, spare water supply parts etc etc
I would try to move away from gas hobs to induction.
Choose new products considering your ability to fix them yourself.
Choose new products considering your ability to fix them yourself.
That'd be an older product then, adding serviceability to a product adds to cost and manufacturers would rather you throw something away and buy a new one.
I agree sometimes the best buy is second hand...
Sounds highly inflationary as all those things require local labour input costs
The whole thing is highly inflationary.
The price of plastic has doubled in the last week or so.
"There is lots of 'hopium' being smoked in Government circles"
Well in all fairness, their election campaign was basically "Vote us, we're not labour". Could have stood a gorilla holding a "I'm not Labour" placard and he would have been voted by landslide.
Hence all the dead rats tacked onto policy no one bothered to notice!
David S seems to like the green shoot industry.
"India has rolled back petrol taxes to ease local strains on households. Vietnam has done the same. So have Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Sweden"
So the opposite of what's required to conserve black gold then. Understand India, as they're paly with Iran, but the others should know better!
The lower income countries are a bit stuck as the fuel increases relative to income is pretty high. Without cheap fuel their economies will shut down fastest first.
Sweden seems a bit of an outlier.
That's where credit is due our government. A compensatory payment is a better option.
Except the only reason they're not doing it is cause labour did and would again.
Agree that’s the much better option
"This is nuts, when’s the crash — AI cow collar edition"
https://www.ft.com/content/a299f667-8448-45e7-a040-17091f9139b7
firewalled whats the summary?
this ? https://gizmodo.com/peter-thiels-cowgorithm-powered-cattle-collar-compa…
nz companies in this space..
In the last couple of days I wrote about reducing my fuel consumption by reducing my cruising speed to 90kph. Saving 14% over 250km. That took my consumption from 8.7lt/100km (over 3000km) to 7lt/100km.
That lead to pondering trading in my 2019 manual diesel ute for a hybrid. When I looked around, hybrids seem to be in the 4-5lt/100km consumption range. I live 45km from nearest main shopping town, 100km from nearest city. Typical windy, hilly rural road for coastal southern Hawke's Bay.
I've concluded that for utility and capital cost efficiency, I'm better to keep the ute and treat the throttle like glass. I haven't got plugin charging capacity at home.
Is that a reasonable conclusion
Most of the plug in hybrids charge off a standard 10amp or even 15 amp connection, they have small batteries compared with full on EV.
The depreciation you'll suffer will buy a lot of diesel.
Why haven't you got charging capacity at home? You can charge an EV with a three pin plug, it's just slower.
Anything ev or hybrid is a multi year investment
So id recommend holding onto your money for at least 12 months to see what the world looks like then.
Don't go hybrid. Go fully electric. Hybrids still use quite a bit of petrol and of course cost a fortune to maintain compared with BEV. We are an all EV family and have saved thousands over the last few years.
I don't think it's black & white. Depending on the model, Toyota hybrids use between 4.0-5.5 litres of fuel per 100km, there's currently no RUC to pay, and servicing is cheaper than a lot of EV brands. Some of the EV brands are really taking the piss with their servicing requirements (required to maintain the factory warranty). It seems like the servicing requirements are mostly to keep the dealerships happy with the recurring revenue they're used to. On the other hand, a new Toyota hybrid has capped price servicing of $320 per year.
To those who responded thank you.
Right tool for the right job.
Ev as shopping cart for 90% of trips
Ute for heavy tasks
Mate got a BYO Shark, impressive but lets see in 5 years
Wish someone would bring out something useful like a single cab chassis for a flat deck! These glorified shopping carts are nothing more than vanity projection.
I've still got an old Mitsi L200. Interested?
Could be. Would I be trading up or down from my '91 Courier with 320k on the clock?
279000kms. RUC to 282000kms. Moved from LSB to town so has to be sold sometime. Might have slightly larger motor than Courier. 2.5L?
he lives on 300sq m in city but needs a ute.....
mmmm meanwhile i use my car as a ute...on 150,000 sq m
465sqm but point acknowledged:-)
That sort of vehicle would be a weight carrying commercial one, which is a tenuous proposition for electric.
By the time you've got 150kg of Missus in the passenger seat, another 150kg of kids in the back seat, along with 100kg of Chips, Fanta and frozen peas from Thailand in the tray, don't reckon there'd be much difference?
Don’t let your missus see that comment.
That's occasional use and in cities not really that long a distance.
Single cab flat decks are way more of a commercially minded machine expected to drive around all day often with up to a tonne in the back. Concrete mixers, gravel, stacks of gib, timber etc.
Most commercial EVs are still sitting at around 200ks range, and that's without being fully loaded (and the load ratings are smaller than a diesel equivalent). We probably need batteries with 3-4x today's density and a lower cost before there'd be some real traction in this segment.
Fair enough Pa1nter but to be honest in my situation, a battery flatdeck would be perfect. Chuck a bit of fencing gear in the back, head off down the farm. Into town maybe once a fortnight, pick up a sling of Fert, pallet of seed, or calf feed. Whizz a few bales of wool down to the buyer. The sort of stuff costing an arm and a leg to get delivered. Oh yeah, though the spring I take a load of plants down to the farmers market, back up, drop the sides and I'm all set up. Charging with my solar array and I'm not worried about brilliantly conceived war plans by reality TV egomaniacs.
Exactly Palm, all I want is a fully electric ute about like a Susuki with a flat deck. So I can put the dogs on the back where I can't smell them. Be able to go to town and other properties in reasonable comfort. And like you we are off the grid so in effect it's almost free'
Just get a Japanese Kei truck. Cheap, run off smell of oily rag.
They do make such things electric in China, cheap, but you'd potentially struggle to get them road legal here.
Mine is a crew cab flat deck. Had a wellside....horrible
I bought a BYD Sealion 6 extended range. I think I get about 120-150kms on a charge, and it csn charge to full overnight on a 3-pin plug. I haven't put fuel in since Jan 15. I have a cheap power overnight plan.
Honestly I wish I had just gone full EV. I would drive more than 400kms in a day literally never.
It is really nice to drive. Lovely features. Interior great. I guess costs half what an ICE does to run.
I had a non financial motive too - it feels great to use a lot less fossil fuel on errands. I've wanted to do this for years and didn't have the means, so when I did I just went for it.
Didn't really consider depreciation. I figured if the battery loses half its range it would still be a normal PHEV.
Middle east is out of drone interceptors, these next weeks iran will attack remaining gas plants, power grids and fertiliser etc plants and aluminium smelters, if the US was ever tempted to use tactical nukes, this will be the time
Apparently, the US is almost out of advanced weaponry as well and it will take about five years to rebuild their stockpile.
Peter Z reckons you have to write off the last 50 years investment in infrastructure across the middle east before its over...
Hence the option of a large glass parking lot starts to become desirable, or even the 200km above the Straight.
The US have pedigree here
As Saudi water plants power plants fertiliser, gas fields get hit, with no defence left, they will beg the USA to finish Iran
A nuke may sully all the oil, and they need the oil...
Apparently, the US is almost out of advanced weaponry as well and it will take about five years to rebuild their stockpile.
Its a story that seems too well known, I doubt they could not put up a decent fight around Taiwan.
To protect a naval invasion you need air superiority, I think they could still wipe out any chinese air power in the first 20 days.
The US has withdrawn it's modern gear from the Wanaka air show.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/wanaka/militaries-pull-out-warbirds-over-…
Great quote from Queenstown Lakes District Mayor John Glover
"I can wholly understand why the American military may not have the capability to come to Wānaka at Easter,".
During the 2003 USA invasion of Iraq the US deploy approx 50k marines.
According to U.S. Department of War (.gov) data, a total of 4,432 U.S. military personnel and Department of Defense civilians died during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2011). Of these fatalities, 3,491 were classified as hostile deaths and 941 as non-hostile, with over 31,993 wounded
Estimates of Iraqi deaths directly caused by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent conflict range from roughly 150,000 to over 300,000 violent deaths.
I have seen a few very disturbing videos from inside invading tanks, complete with stereo systems and Nivarna playing as hunded's where killed. Years earlier when the Iraq/Iran war raged from 1980 to 1988, 500k died between iraq and iran
I do not think Trump wants to invade all of Iran, just a 600-1000km long border allowing a 200km barrior to the sea.
I suggest the death rate to USinvaders could be 1-2k, its a price Trump is prepared to pay, I also suggest that by the time he rolls troups to that island, there will be few still alive on the island to put up a fight... he will flatten it first. he can re open it later, right now he needs tankers flowing past it.
Few understand the US dominance at war and logistics.
If you do not take out the garbage you end up with North Korea.
Banzai ! Place your bets......
That was the USA of a former time. No longer has the industrial base. No longer has the shared vision and integrity. My bet; TACO.
I do not think Trump wants to invade all of Iran, just a 600-1000km long border allowing a 200km barrior to the sea.
Trump thought he could do a quick deal.
Now he doesn't know what to do, because every day he wakes up not really considering what happened yesterday, and how it relates to today.
"I do not think Trump wants to invade all of Iran, just a 600-1000km long border allowing a 200km barrior to the sea."
IMO, the craziest statement of the entire week on ICNZ...
Even ground forces deployed in the millions will not win this war against Iran.
All it would lead to is the slaughter or maiming of every soldier that sets foot on Iranian soil, and a humanitarian disaster for yet another 100 million plus innocent citizens in the region.
A suicidal invasion like this would also greatly increase the chances of nukes being deployed by the US/Israel, and result in most of West Asia being turned into molten glass...............................
And then a mere few lines later, even this was eclipsed by...
"Few understand the US dominance at war and logistics."
It's tragic to witness this kind of US imperial hubris entrenched and parroted in the narratives here in ICNZ.
Talk like this is the brand of supportive chutzpah and cognitive dissonance that will only serve to help escalate this war, and cheerlead the nutjob evangelical rapturist nutjobs within the US and Israel to deploy the Sampson Option... when they inevitably lose this war with Iran.
Even more tragic is the fact that the TPTB, the plutocrats that remain in the shadows who orchestrate these wars, have no intention of winning them anyway.
Their desire is perpetual global war, general chaos, and terrorism that they can profit from, and to try to justify the existence of their network's global multi-trillion-dollar MIC, and war machine.
The Orange Orangutan in the Oval Office has no clue what the grand plan of the global elites is.
He is merely the useful, morally bankrupt, and insatiably greedy idiot, who assists in their global agenda, whilst trying to save his own arse - and all at the expense of potentially millions of innocent victims in a hot WW3.
Talks about cognitive dissonance
Doesn't use the same level of appraisal of Russia doing the same thing 4 years ago.
PEPE ESCOBAR... quoted...
"So this is the major take-away of the Epstein Syndicate war on Iran. Russia and China reach the Holy Grail: energy dominance and a gold-backed yuan settlement that bypasses the petrodollar to Kingdom Come.
For all practical purposes, the architecture set up by the “indispensable nation” since the 1990s is showing structural cracks for everyone to see, with global markets updating every possible model variation in real time.
It’s as if the Persians had reinterpreted Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and Kutuzov (the conqueror of Napoleon) into a whole new hybrid. And as a bonus, accomplishing in only three weeks what years’ worth of summits could not.
The petrodollar is on the way out. Alternative payment systems are up and running. And the Global South is watching in real time how the Empire of Endless Bombing can be brought to a standstill by a decentralized war of attrition engineered by a sovereign nation with one-fiftieth of the imperial defense budget.
Multipolarity won’t be born by suits reading papers in executive rooms. Multipolarity will be born in the battlefield, under fire, against all odds."
https://sovereignista.com/2026/03/26/pepe-escobar-new-world-busy-being-…
..............................................
Of course, this will be immediately jumped on by the self-appointed "Editor-in Chief of IRNZ comments", who must literally sleep on site and suffers from one of the most acute cases of MOAT cognitive dissonance that I have ever witnessed.
This is cluelessness on such a level that there is always knee-jerk fervour to deny the Russian Federation of the right to protect their border, and as such their security, sovereignty, and ultimately their entire civilisation. As such, this ends up being support of a bunch of neo-Nazi's that have been holding Ukraine to ransom since before WW2.
How on earth could any Kiwi, with even a smidgeon of a moral compass (or brains), explain to previous generations how they now choose to side with a genocidal Stepan Bandera-inspired bunch of Nazis?
Previous generations fought with the Russians in WW2 in desperation to stop the German Nazis taking over Europe, and half of the globe as well - and, for crying out loud, you choose to side with these genocidal lunatics.
I am sick to death of arrogant pseudo-intellectuals who ignore history, parrot Western imperial MSM narratives, and consequently end up assisting TPTB who have always utilised a Nazi element in their campaigns of perpetual global terror.
I will continue to call fools like this out, and I make no apology for doing so. People of this ilk are totally clueless as to who the real enemy even is. They end up assisting in the orchestration of these forever wars.
Highly skilled Russian diplomacy is one of the last hopes left for humanity to avoid potentially another 100-million-plus ME bloodbath.
Russia actually has a huge amount of skin in the game. As in, around 2 million Russian diaspora, including their families, who moved to Israel from the Soviet Union.
Putin is very mindful of this, and he remains extremely keen to help in any negotiations that could avoid yet another AAZ-inspired humanitarian disaster.
It could well be too late because this war is already in full escalation mode.
This is no surprise to me, as the West is so riddled with phobias that it ends up disguising the very solutions that were right under our noses all along.
most acute cases of MOAT cognitive dissonance that I have ever witnessed.
Every other day, you seem to uncover a worst example of anything you have ever seen. Twice in this page alone.
If you smell pooh everywhere, it's probably on your shoe.
Post truthism at its worst.
https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/why-all-eyes-are-on-the-strait-of…
now red sea under threat
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/asx-set-to-slide-as-houthi-s…
“Markets will be increasingly concerned about not just the Strait of Hormuz being closed indefinitely, but also now the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb in the Red Sea,” said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.
About 9 per cent of global seaborne trade passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
Anything America says about the progress of the war is bullshit and jellybeans.
Let us know when there's a ceasefire or peace agreement, or Iran stops lobbing munitions at its neighbours.
Trump is burning through some expensive gear. Suppose it's not coming out of his pocket though.
US planes smouldering on Saudi base.
I reckon the US munitions have use by dates....
The US appears to have learnt nothing from the Ukraine conflict.
Although if much of their military leadership have had to become lackies to the Trump Whitehouse, rationale and sensible doctrine will be out the windows.
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