Good morning. On Fortune’s radar today:

- Trump says Iran war will end “pretty soon” with impending deal.

- Markets: Mixed reaction to possible peace deal.

- Yes, United and American Airlines can be merged. Here’s how.

- Netflix: Reed Hastings bows out — and no, it wasn’t the Warner deal.

- Jamie Dimon sounds private-credit alarm again. Goldman shrugs.

- Low unemployment claims are “hard to believe” given the circumstances.

- New “Misery Index” ranks the worst countries to live in.

THE MARKETS

Peace breaks out — and traders cash in

S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.18% this morning and were rising steadily on news that the U.S. war with Iran may be approaching an end. The index closed up 0.26% yesterday for a second straight record high at 7,041.28.

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Surprisingly, global markets did not react with universal joy. Indexes were mixed in Europe and down in Asia. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.18% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was flat before lunch. China’s CSI 300 declined 0.17%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.55%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.75%. The only exception in the East was India’s Nifty 50, up 0.46%.

- Traders may have already taken their gains and are selling on the news. After all, “European equities [are] up just over 10% from the March 23rd low,” Bank of America’s Sebastian Raedler told clients in a note this morning.

- “Markets have been unwilling to price in [Trump’s] assertion in the absence of confirmation from alternative sources,” UBS’s Paul Donovan warned.

- “There has been a little bit of derisking globally over the last 24 hours, but markets remain broadly optimistic about the direction of travel,” Jim Reid and the folks at Deutsche Bank said in their morning email.

ONE BIG THING

United + American? The merger that just might fly

American Airlines already ranks as the world’s largest carrier by passengers flown, and United stands fourth; at their current sizes, the combo would be twice the size of both second-place Delta and number-three Ryanair on the global stage. The new behemoth would be by far the most dominant in the annals of U.S. air travel. Although that would present a seemingly straightforward antitrust challenge, industry insiders who talked to Fortune’s Shawn Tully say the tie-up is by no means impossible. The reason: The Trump Administration’s attraction to grand gestures that remake wide swaths of the economy.

IRAN

Trump says he has a deal to end the war

President Trump said Iran has agreed to hand over its uranium and stop its nuclear enrichment program, presaging an end to the war if a peace deal can be reached, the BBC says. Iran did not comment. The war was going “swimmingly” and “should be ending pretty soon,” Trump said. A new round of U.S.-Iran talks is expected this weekend.

The unanswered question right now is how much of this is Trump’s wishful thinking and how much is real. Pakistani diplomats are actively shuttling messages between Washington and Tehran, Al Jazeera reports: “The signs are all there.”

- Bonus peace deal: Lebanon and Israel reached a 10-day ceasefire starting today. This “may have been a historic day for Lebanon. Good things are happening!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.

- Strait talk: The U.K. and France will host a meeting of 40 countries to discuss ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz today.

- Iran has demanded stablecoins to allow ships to exit the Gulf, according to Chainalysis.

- The Rich Starry—a sanctioned oil tanker Fortune has been tracking in the Strait that was turned back by the U.S. Navy—is in the same spot it was yesterday, off the coast of Iran. Follow its progress here.

AAAAND … SCENE!

Reed Hastings exits Netflix — and Sarandos swats down palace-intrigue theory

Reed Hastings, the 65-year-old cofounder and former CEO of Netflix, said on Thursday he won’t stand for reelection to the board in June, ending a 29-year run at the company he created in 1997. He gave shoutouts to co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos, who took full control of Hastings’s executive role in January 2023. The stock fell 9% on the news. So is Hastings’ departure related to Netflix’s failed attempt to buy Warner Bros? Absolutely not, said Sarandos: “Sorry for anyone who was looking for some palace intrigue here, not so.” Fortune’s Amanda Gerut has the details.

The world holds its breath: Trump says Iran war will end ‘pretty soon’ as uranium deal is in sight