US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told a press conference on Friday that the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will last as long as necessary. According to Hegseth, the United States is in no hurry to lift the embargo.
“We have all the time in the world,” Hegseth told reporters.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Ali Bahrein according to which the US must end the blockade of Iranian ports if the country wants to continue negotiations on a ceasefire. According to Bahrein, the United States should be more realistic if negotiations can ever be started.
In the United States, Wall Street opened in several directions on Friday.
The Dow Jones index opened down 0.4 percent.
The broad S&P 500 index was slightly up 0.2 percent shortly after the start of trading.
The technology-focused Nasdaq, on the other hand, opened up 0.7 percent. The strong results of technology stocks raised the price of the Nasdaq on Friday. The Nasdaq index is making its fourth consecutive weekly gain.
The chip maker is rocketing
Chip maker Intel’s the stock jumped up as soon as trading started. Intel’s share was up 24 percent after the stock markets opened. In advance trading, the share could rise by as much as 31 percent.
The share price rose to its own record high of $83.96.
The reason for the increase was the significantly better than expected first quarter figures published by the company on Thursday.
Intel’s operating profit (non-GAAP) increased to 1.7 billion dollars at the beginning of the year from 690 million dollars in the comparison period a year ago. Analysts’ forecast was $412 million.
The company’s turnover in the first quarter was 13.6 billion dollars, while analysts had expected a turnover of 12.4 billion dollars.
Intel estimates that the company’s turnover will rise to 13.8–14.8 billion dollars in the second quarter of the year.