Markets are down sharply in premarket trading, down more than -0.9%, as Iran formally rejected a U.S. proposal to end the ongoing conflict. Iran outlined five conditions for ending hostilities, including a ceasefire across all regional fronts, war reparations, and formal recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. The country is also moving to codify toll collection on Hormuz transits, a chokepoint carrying roughly a quarter of global oil trade, with fees already being informally charged at up to $2M per vessel.
Google's TurboQuant Sparks Memory Stock Selloff
Alphabet's (GOOGL) TurboQuant, a compression method claiming to reduce LLM memory requirements by 6x, triggered a broad selloff with SK Hynix and Samsung falling -6% and -5% in South Korea while Micron (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) dropped in U.S. trading. Cloudflare (NET) CEO Matthew Prince called it "Google's DeepSeek," though analysts were more measured, noting the moves are largely profit-taking after a +200-300% run in memory stocks, with SemiAnalysis arguing efficiency gains ultimately drive demand for more powerful hardware rather than less.
Trump Names Top Tech CEOs to Advisory Council
Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle (ORCL) Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, and Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang are among 13 executives appointed by President Trump to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The panel will focus on emerging technology's impact on the American workforce and will be co-chaired by White House AI and crypto Czar David Sacks. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su and Google (GOOGL) co-founder Sergey Brin were also named, with up to 24 total members expected.
Jury Finds Meta and Google Liable in Social Media Addiction Case
A Los Angeles jury ruled that Meta Platforms (META) and Google (GOOGL) induced addictive behavior in a plaintiff who began using social media as a child, in what is being called a landmark case. The jury awarded $3.0M in compensatory damages, with META responsible for 70% and GOOGL the remainder. Tiktok and Snap (SNAP) had settled prior to trial. Punitive damages are still being considered, and META said it is evaluating its legal options.
USPS Seeks 8% Fuel Surcharge as Iran War Drives Oil Prices Higher
The U.S. Postal Service is seeking regulatory approval for a temporary 8% fuel surcharge on Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select products, effective April 26 through January 2027, as oil prices have surged over +40% since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began. FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) have already raised their own fuel surcharges, with USPS noting its proposed charge remains less than one-third of what competitors currently impose.
