Hello, this is Katrina Bishop \u2014 usually based in London but writing today from Singapore, where I’ve spent the last two days covering CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE.<\/p>\n
A hot topic at the event was trust \u2014 or lack of it \u2014 in the world today. I asked a number of policymakers and business leaders what they thought should be done about it<\/a>, and their answers were at times surprising, but always (reassuringly) optimistic.<\/p>\n Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan\u00a0stressed the importance of face-to-face interactions, while DBS CEO Tan Su Shan urged businesses to focus on their “trust moat” with consistency and transparency. <\/p>\n Perhaps my favorite response, though, was from Carol Fong, CEO of CGS International Securities, whose advice was simple: “Just be trusting,” and welcome people \u2014 whoever they are \u2014 with open arms.<\/p>\n Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (left) speaks with CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the CONVERGE LIVE event on April 22, 2026.<\/p>\n CNBC<\/p>\n What you need to know today<\/p>\n Investors \u2014 now well accustomed to navigating when (or not) to trust the news \u2014 mostly held their nerve overnight after President Donald Trump said Thursday that Israel\u00a0and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0had agreed to extend their\u00a0ceasefire\u00a0by three weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n It follows a meeting with top U.S. officials in the\u00a0White House<\/a>,\u00a0which Trump said on Truth Social<\/a> had gone “very well.”<\/p>\n The\u00a0temporary truce \u2014 which was originally set to expire after 10 days<\/a> \u2014 gives both Israel and Lebanon some breathing room as diplomatic efforts continue.<\/p>\n Oil markets<\/a> remain jittery, however. The Hormuz Strait remains closed, with Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday saying that he had ordered the\u00a0U.S. Navy\u00a0“to shoot and kill any boat” laying\u00a0mines<\/a>\u00a0in the strategically important waterway. <\/p>\n International benchmark\u00a0Brent crude<\/a>\u00a0rose 0.41% to $105.5 per barrel in Friday trading, while U.S.\u00a0West Texas Intermediate<\/a>\u00a0futures were trading 0.08% higher at $95.93.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, or IEA, told CNBC CONVERGE LIVE that the world is “facing the biggest energy security threat in history<\/a>.” <\/p>\n In Europe, benchmarks were called lower this morning, capping off a downbeat week. U.S. futures<\/a>, meanwhile, were mixed, with Dow futures pointing to a lower open, and S&P and Nasdaq Composite futures in the green. <\/p>\n Asia-Pacific markets were also mixed around lunchtime. Japan’s\u00a0Nikkei 225<\/a>\u00a0rose 0.8% after core inflation<\/a> in the country accelerated for the first time in five months. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s\u00a0Hang Seng index<\/a>\u00a0slipped 0.15%, while the South Korean Kospi<\/a>\u00a0was trading 0.23% lower.<\/p>\n Back in Europe, leaders will meet in Cyprus for the second day on Friday, with the Strait of Hormuz, energy security and the budget top of the agenda. On Thursday, the European Union finally agreed to approve a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan<\/a> to Ukraine.<\/p>\n Also making headlines this morning is DeepSeek, which has released a preview version<\/a> of its long-awaited open-source V4 large language model. The Chinese artificial intelligence startup shook markets in March 2025 when its R1 reasoning model<\/a> outperformed U.S. counterparts, despite being much cheaper to build. <\/p>\n \u2014 Katrina Bishop<\/p>\n