Donald Trump says "go in and annihilate them" while weighing escalation of the conflict

On Sept. 17, President Donald Trump told Axios he was close to deciding whether to escalate the conflict or end it. The war started Feb. 28; a temporary pact reached in June later failed, violence has grown, and American warships still block Iranian ports. JPMorgan Chase has discarded its projection for the conflict after the economic thresholds its strategists thought would force a settlement were crossed without one. Brent crude stood at about $105 per barrel, the nationwide pump price was $4.4386 per gallon, and the yield on 10-year U.S. government debt rose past 5%. The International Energy Agency reported that August Gulf production losses surpassed 10 million barrels per day and forecasts a worldwide supply decline of 5.7 million barrels per day this year. JPMorgan has no scenario for how the war concludes, leaving Trump’s decision a key unknown.