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Federal Reserve policymakers are monitoring the conflict with Iran for its potential impact on inflation and consumer prices, as energy prices have jumped since the outbreak of hostilities.

Oil prices briefly surged over $100 a barrel amid fears of supply disruptions caused by the conflict with Iran, which threatens to stem the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. 

Gasoline prices at the pump have also risen for consumers since the outset of the conflict, which could push inflation data higher and complicate potential interest rate cuts by Federal Reserve policymakers.

New York Fed President John Williams said last week that while there is uncertainty over the impact of the war on the U.S. economy and inflation, past instances in which oil prices surged didn’t lead to a fundamental shift in the outlook.

AMID IRAN WAR, PRESIDENT TRUMP SUGGESTS SHORT-TERM OIL PRICE SPIKE IS ‘SMALL PRICE TO PAY’ FOR PEACE

New York Fed President John Williams said the central bank will have to wait and see how the Iran war will impact energy prices and inflation. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Nobody can be sure how long this will last or the broader implications… Past experience has shown that movements in oil prices that we’ve seen so far don’t fundamentally shift the economy, but we’ll wait and see,” Williams told reporters after a conference hosted by America’s Credit Unions.

He noted that the war with Iran is “one of those developments that can hit both of our mandated goals in a kind of opposing way in the short term – raise inflation and maybe slow global growth,” but added that the transmission through financial markets had been “reasonably muted.”

Williams added that interest rate cuts will “eventually” be warranted if inflation eases in line with his expectations.

GAS PRICES SURGE AS IRAN CONFLICT RATTLES GLOBAL OIL MARKETS, PUSHING US CRUDE ABOVE $90

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the Middle East conflict has caused him to question his forecast for one interest rate cut this year. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said at an event hosted by Bloomberg last week that “it’s just too soon to know what imprint this has on inflation and for how long.”

Kashkari also told Bloomberg that he’s now less confident about his original forecast for one interest rate cut this year, saying that “with the geopolitical events, we need to get a lot more data in.”

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said in the text of a speech to be delivered Friday that “I do not see an urgency for additional policy adjustments” and intends to take a “patient, deliberate approach as appropriate” as she considers her outlook for inflation, jobs and rate cuts.

US WEIGHS ASKING CHINA TO CURB RUSSIAN, IRANIAN OIL PURCHASES

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said the Middle East hostilities are a source of considerable uncertainty for the economic outlook. (Vanessa Leroy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“My baseline features a still-uncertain inflation picture, with continued upside risks,” Collins said, adding that “this, combined with recent evidence suggesting a relatively stable labor market, in my view argues for maintaining policy rates at their current, mildly restrictive levels for some time.”

Collins added that in her outlook, “considerable economic uncertainty remains, exacerbated by recent geopolitical developments like the hostilities in the Middle East.”

The Fed’s monetary policy panel, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), will hold its next meeting to determine interest rate policy on March 17-18.

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The market expects the FOMC will leave interest rates unchanged at their current target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, with the CME FedWatch tool showing a 97.4% of no cut in March.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Benjamin Mayo
Leerink Partners LLC, Research Division

I thought it would be maybe helpful to start since Todd is relatively new to the organization joining in a time of change and you’ve been at other places in your career. I wanted to hear kind of observations around some of the strengths and weaknesses that you’ve identified within either the company operations, the finance functions. And maybe we’ll just start there.

Todd Young
Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Yes. I joined Acadia 4 months ago, right at the end of October. So still new, getting used to being on the services side of health care grew up on the product side, including at Acadia Pharma, which has created a little confusion as I joined Acadia Healthcare.

Overall, the company is in a really good spot from a market positioning standpoint. The demand for our services continue to grow, and we’ve got a nice diversified business across both the acute inpatient, specialty inpatient, residential as well as the outpatient business with our opioid replacement therapy, what we call CTC. So I think all of those give us a really good spot to drive growth from.

Overall, I mean, the organization is very pleased that Debbie Osteen is back as CEO. Debbie joined us back in mid-January. And so her history in the industry and her proven track record of operating facilities is really something that’s breathed fresh life into the employee base and

Roger James Hamilton
Founder, CEO & Director

Good morning, and welcome to the Genius Group Investor Call. I am Roger James Hamilton, the Founder and CEO of Genius Group. And I’m joined today by our CFO, Gaurav Dama. We also have Shah Hamza here, who is operating our slides. And Shah, if you want to just share the slides, we’ll make sure everyone can see these as we go. And we’re going to get started.

So first of all, today, we’re presenting our 2025 full year results alongside our plans for 2026. We’ll be walking through our 3 business units: Genius School, Genius Academy and Genius Resorts and also our Genius City development, our Bitcoin Treasury strategy, current legal cases, our share count and our guidance for the year ahead.

So moving on to the next slide. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that this call contains forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated. And for a full discussion, please see our most recent filings with the SEC.

We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events occurring after this call. And during the call, we will also reference non-IFRS financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and pro forma revenues. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in the press release and slide deck, which we are also issuing this morning. Both documents are available on our Investor Relations website at irgeniusgroup.net, where you can also access our Form 20-F, which we are also presenting today for

As gas prices surge while the U.S. wages war against Iran, President Donald Trump suggested in a Sunday Truth Social post that the short-term rise is a “small price” for peace.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” the president declared in the post.

Americans have been facing rising gas prices at home as the U.S. attacks the Islamic nation..

CRUDE OIL PRICES EXCEED $100 A BARREL AS WAR IN IRAN DISRUPTS PRODUCTION, SHIPPING

President Donald Trump monitors military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran on March 2, 2026. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The AAA national average price for a gallon of regular gas is $3.478 as of Monday, significantly higher than average one week ago of $2.997.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., highlighted rising fuel prices amid the war in a Sunday post on X, and said that “waging war costs American taxpayers about $1 billion per day,” asserting, “This isn’t America First.”

TANKERS TO RESUME NORMAL MOVEMENT IN MIDDLE EAST IN ‘A FEW WEEKS’ AT WORST, ENERGY SEC SAYS, ENDING OIL SURGE

Rep. Thomas Massie questions Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2026. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Trump, an outspoken critic of Massie, is backing challenger Ed Gallrein in the Republican primary in Massie’s congressional district.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for the president to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help tackle the price surge.

TRAVEL IS ABOUT TO GET MORE EXPENSIVE AS IRAN CONFLICT SPARKS JET FUEL CRUNCH

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer speaks to the media at the U.S. Capitol on March 3, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

TRAVEL IS ABOUT TO GET MORE EXPENSIVE AS IRAN CONFLICT SPARKS JET FUEL CRUNCH

“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists for moments exactly like this,” Schumer said in a statement. “When wars and global crises disrupt energy markets, the United States has the ability to act, but President Trump and his administration are refusing to do so. Trump should release oil from the SPR now to stabilize markets, bring prices down, and stop the price shock that American families are already feeling thanks to his reckless war.”

Unknown Attendee

All right. Welcome to the Global Consumer and Retail Conference. Please welcome Levi Strauss and Paul, over to you.

Paul Lejuez
Citigroup Inc., Research Division

Thank you. It’s Paul Lejuez, Citigroup. Thanks, everybody, for joining. And with me, CFO of Levi, Harmit Singh. I really appreciate you being here. I know that you might want to start with just some quick opening remarks, just to make sure we get that out of the way, and then I’ll dive into some questions.

Harmit Singh
Executive VP & Chief Financial & Growth Officer

Paul, thanks for having us. Yes, my opening remarks were largely — given the fact that we are in a quiet period, we’re closing our first quarter of ’26. I’m not going to get into current trends, latest financial outlook. In my remarks, I’m essentially going to reflect what we talked about in Q4 ’25 in the results late in January, we will be reporting results early April.

But overall, we had a very strong year in ’25. We’re entering ’26 with momentum. Our guidance reflects it. The company is transforming into more of a denim lifestyle company. And I’d say our past was denim bottoms. Our future is more denim lifestyle. I’m happy to talk about the new, what I call a very different addressable market going forward. Overall strategies are working.

Our strategy is all about first, being brand-led, Super Bowl was a good example of brand demonstrated the strength and momentum being DTC first. Our DTC margins are growing, our DTC business is

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has sent oil prices soaring and has prompted G7 leaders to consider the potential release of emergency oil reserves to provide relief to consumers facing higher gasoline prices.

Gas prices have risen in response to the rapid increase in oil prices, with the national average price of gas rising from $3 a gallon last week to $3.48 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA data. Oil futures have surged over 48% in the last month after trading in the range of $60-70 a barrel during February to over $95 on Monday, when futures prices were briefly above $115 before declining.

French finance minister Roland Lescure on Monday told reporters after a meeting of G7 finance ministers that leaders “are not there yet” on deciding whether to conduct an emergency release, as there aren’t current supply problems in the U.S. or Europe.

“What we’ve agreed upon is to use any necessary tools if need be to stabilize the market, including the potential release of necessary stockpiles,” Lescure added.

AMID IRAN WAR, PRESIDENT TRUMP SUGGESTS SHORT-TERM OIL PRICE SPIKE IS ‘SMALL PRICE TO PAY’ FOR PEACE

Rising oil prices can prompt an increase in the gasoline prices paid by consumers. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Western economies develop strategic oil reserves in response to the 1970s oil crisis, with stockpiles like the U.S. government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve serving as a backstop to address disruptions in the energy market that would otherwise harm the economy or imperil national security.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and FOX Business contributor, said that the “mere mention” of strategic releases was enough to pull oil prices down off of their highs, as such releases of reserves “would ease markets’ concerns of tightness of supply.”

“Historically, releases from the strategic reserve, especially in coordination with other countries, have always been successful in cooling down fear in the market place,” Flynn said. “The market has to be convinced that the transportation of that oil is going to be safe, because even if you release oil from the reserve, it’s still going to take time to get to its destination, such as the refineries.”

G7 FINANCE MINISTERS TO DISCUSS EMERGENCY OIL RESERVE RELEASE AMID PRICE SURGE: REPORT

The U.S. and its G7 partners are considering potential releases of emergency oil reserves to ease the market turmoil. (Reuters/Todd Korol)

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told FOX Business that he expects “countries in the G7 will be forced to release oil reserves to show their public that they are taking some action to mitigate the rapid rise in prices.”

He added that he anticipates the releases will occur within the next two weeks if the conflict hasn’t reached a resolution by that time.

“Whether or not the release will have an impact will depend on if the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to impact oil tanker loadings and if additional oil infrastructure is damaged.”

CRUDE OIL PRICES EXCEED $100 A BARREL AS WAR IN IRAN DISRUPTS PRODUCTION, SHIPPING

Oil tankers have faced the threat of attack from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a decline in shipping traffic. (Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed)

How much could reserve releases impact gas prices?

The Treasury Department in 2022 analyzed the impact of SPR releases carried out by the Biden-era Energy Department in response to oil disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on gas prices. 

The U.S. released 180 million barrels from the SPR over six months in 2022, while International Energy Administration partners released an additional 60 million barrels.

It found that the U.S. SPR releases alone lowered gas prices by a range of $0.13 to $0.31 per gallon, whereas the oil reserve releases done by the U.S. in tandem with IEA partners had a larger effect by reducing prices $0.17 to $0.42 per gallon.

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The findings of Treasury’s analysis were similar to those from a 2017 study by Richard Newell and Brian Priest, who found that a U.S. only release would lower gas prices by $0.33 per gallon while releases by the U.S. and IEA partners would yield a larger reduction of $0.38 a gallon.

Reuters contributed to this report.