SOTS 2nd Hour: Strait Talk w/Fmr. Defense Sec. Esper, Citi Wealth CIO, & Goldman Earnings Takeaways 4/13/26

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Sara Eisen (1:04)

Good Monday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla and David Faber. We are live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. President Trump's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, slated to take effect right now. We will talk about that development in this weekend's Pakistan negotiations with former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Plus, the chairman of Sunoco with us to discuss the war's ongoing impact on gas prices and the impact on consumers, and much more on Goldman Sachs' post earnings move as the conference call continues this hour with the stock down almost 4 percent.

Carl Quintanilla (1:37)

First, so let's get some breaking housing data. It's just crossing and Rick Santelli has it for us. Rick.

Rick Santelli (1:43)

Yes, indeed. And this is existing home sales for the month of March. And do remember, March's post conflicts and interest rates, especially those affecting mortgages, was a bit on the rise. We're expecting a number slightly over 4 million seasonally adjusted annualized units come in on the light side. 3.98 million, 3.98 million seasonally adjusted annualized units. That is definitely sequentially lower than 4.13 million in the rear view mirror and definitely less than a 4.05 expected. That equals where we were in June of last year, right on the nose. To find a lower rate, you would have to go back to all the way back to September of 24, CEP of 24 So this is a disappointment, but there might be some silver lining here with interest rates moving up a bit, impacting negatively existing home sales. We do expect inventories to rise a bit and that could help out in the future when potentially rates normalize and the conflict ends. Carl, back to you.

David Faber (2:45)

All right, Rick, thank you very much. The US is set to begin blockading Iran's ports beginning this hour after ceasefire talks failed to yield a breakthrough over the weekend. Our Megan Casella has the latest from Washington. Morning, Megan.

Megan Casella (2:57)

Good morning, Carl. That's right. That naval blockade is set to take effect at 10 a.m. Eastern and US. Central Command has said it will apply to all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports. CENTCOM saying in a Sunday statement that the blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. President Trump then added on True Social that the US. Navy will also intercept any ships that pay a toll to Iran. And then, guys, we got a few more details this morning from a note the US military sent to seafarers, which was seen by Reuters, including that any vessel entering or exiting the blockaded area will be subject to interception, diversion and capture. But the note said the US will not be impeding neutral traffic to or from non-Iranian destinations. That said, the Iranians will be blocking that traffic. An Iranian military spokesperson reportedly saying in response to the US actions that if Iranian ports are threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman will be safe. President Trump guys described it this way. He said, there will be a time when we'll have them all come in and all come out, but it won't be a percentage. It won't be a friend of yours like a country that's your ally or a country that's your friend. It is all or nothing. That's about the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and through the Gulf. So essentially a move here to ramp up the economic pressure on Iran to get them back to the negotiating table to try to ensure that they're not able to only allow the traffic that benefits them and to cost Iran's economy likely hundreds of millions of dollars a day in lost exports. So now guys, the question will be what it looks like in practice and what it means for the global economy as well.