CNBC Daily Open: Trump goes alone in the Iran war — as allies spurn requests to join

U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on March 11, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. President Trump is traveling to Ohio and Kentucky today to highlight two local businesses.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images

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			Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today_

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

_U.S. allies seem to be caught between Iranian attacks and criticism from the U.S. president, with investors also focused on events in the AI space and the Fed’s upcoming rate decision. _

What you need to know today

“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” The first part of that African proverb seems to characterize U.S President Donald Trump’s strategy against Iran — after allies spurned his requests to join the Middle East war.

Trump slammed the NATO alliance over their reluctance to get involved in the conflict, saying they were making a “foolish mistake” and asserting that the U.S. does not need any help with its ongoing military operations.

U.S. allies in the Gulf have been at the receiving end of the conflict they are not directly involved in, with Iran sharpening attacks against the United Arab Emirates, targeting its energy infrastructure.

As the conflict escalates, cracks are starting to show in Trump’s own administration. On Tuesday stateside, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent announced his resignation, saying Iran had never posed a threat to the U.S.

Away from the war, tech is back on investors’ minds after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that open-source autonomous AI agent platform OpenClaw was ‘definitely the next ChatGPT.’

The chief of the most valuable company in the world also said that Nvidia was preparing to provide its H200 processors to some customers in China. “We have received purchase orders, and we’re in the process of restarting our manufacturing,” Huang said. Nvidia has now got clearance from both the U.S. and China to sell the H200.

Further on the tech front, OpenAI is focusing employee and investor attention on its enterprise business as the artificial intelligence startup gears up to go public, potentially by the end of the year, CNBC has learned.

In an ironic framing of events, political America is looking to go fast and alone, while tech America is looking to go far and together.

— Lim Hui Jie

And finally…

The Fed issues its latest interest rate decision Wednesday. Here’s what to expect

The Federal Reserve has little choice but to stay on the sidelines this week as it navigates a mix of complicated and conflicting forces playing out in the U.S. economy.

Markets are pricing in a near-zero chance that the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee will be cutting at this meeting — or any other in the near future. Futures pricing suggests policymakers won’t consider easing until at least September, more likely October, and even then just a single cut this year.

— Jeff Cox

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