Good morning. Treasury boss Scott Bessent wants you to stop worrying about the stock market. Donald Trump schedules a call with Vladimir Putin. And Queen Charlotte requests the pleasure of your company at Netflix’s latest money spinner.  Listen to the day’s top stories.

Relax! US Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he’s not worried about the recent equity downturn. “Corrections are healthy,” he told NBC. Traders still don’t seem convinced. Futures indicate stocks are in for another rough day. And even though valuations of big technology companies have fallen from lofty heights, buyers aren’t interested.

Speaking of tech, Baidu unveiled Ernie X1, a new AI model it says excels in logic, dialog and complex calculations. Oracle is accelerating talks on a deal to run TikTok’s US operations, Politico reported. Vice President JD Vance told NBC he expects an agreement before the April 5 deadline. And chuck out those charging cables—Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 “Air” looks set to foreshadow a move to slimmer models without charging ports. 

Donald Trump said he’ll speak with Russia’s Vladimir Putin tomorrow in his push for a deal to end fighting in Ukraine. Some 25 allied leaders agreed to tighten restrictions on the Russian economy to add to the pressure. Elsewhere, Trump ordered military strikes on sites controlled by Yemen’s Houthi militants. Defense chief Pete Hegseth vowed they’d be “unrelenting” until the group stops shooting at vessels in the Red Sea.

On home soil, the Trump administration said it arrested and expelled hundreds of alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, even as a federal judge ordered a halt to some deportations. The move comes after El Salvador offered the use of its infamous prison built specifically to house gang members.

Deep Dive: DEI by Stealth

President Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025.  Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Donald Trump’s executive order dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is making waves at international companies in Europe, Asia and beyond—but only on the surface.

• Companies from Roche to Nissan have backpedaled on DEI policies in the US but the Swiss drugmaker says it has no plans to change its inclusion efforts elsewhere and the Japanese car manufacturer has left its international websites untouched.
• It’s a balancing act. Few companies want to put their head above the parapet in the US, especially those with lucrative government contracts at risk, but complying with international diversity regulations is also non-negotiable. One solution—just don’t mention it.

The Big Take

Illustration: Jinhwa Jang

A decade after being engulfed by a controversy that culminated in multiple enforcement actions, Wall Street’s infamous dark pools are touting an even more opaque way to trade. So-called private rooms are gated venues that take the core benefit of dark pools—the ability to hide big equity deals so they won't impact prices—and add a layer of exclusivity, specifying exactly who can partake in any trade.

Opinion

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI. Photographer: Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg

Tech giants should stop trying to build godlike “artificial general intelligence,” Parmy Olson writes. A more worthwhile aspiration would be narrower and more concrete—such as building systems that reduce medical diagnostic errors or cutting energy grids’ carbon emissions.

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