5 Things to Watch on
March 23, 2026

Markets are up more than +1.8% in premarket trading after President Trump announced a five-day delay to threatened strikes on Iranian power plants, pulling back from a weekend ultimatum that had rattled investors. Trump described U.S.-Iran discussions as "very good and productive," though Iranian officials quickly denied any contact with Washington, portraying the move as an American retreat. Oil swung sharply on the news, while gold pared losses but stayed lower, having erased all its 2026 gains amid fears that sustained energy-driven inflation could keep the Fed on hold.

Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is developing a personal AI agent to help him retrieve information faster and reduce reliance on management layers, reflecting a broader company-wide push to flatten structure and accelerate decision-making. AI adoption has spread rapidly through META's workforce, with personal agents and a Claude-powered "Second Brain" tool gaining traction internally, as AI usage has become a factor in employee performance reviews amid reports of a potential 20%+ headcount reduction.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) plans to invest $1.8B in Japanese insurer Tokio Marine Holdings (TKOMY), acquiring an initial 2.5% stake through its reinsurance unit National Indemnity, with potential to grow to 9.9% via open-market purchases. The deal also includes collaboration on reinsurance and potential acquisitions, marking BRK's latest expansion in Japan following its well-known stakes in the country's five largest trading houses. The investment continues the strategy Buffett began six years ago of building long-term exposure to Japanese financial and industrial conglomerates.

OpenAI is offering private-equity firms a guaranteed minimum return of 17.5% to join a joint venture aimed at deploying its AI tools to hundreds of portfolio companies, far exceeding what Anthropic has offered with no such guaranteed return. The structure is designed to absorb high upfront deployment costs and ease financial pressure on both companies ahead of potential IPOs. At least two PE firms declined to participate, citing concerns over economics and long-term profit potential.

Synopsys (SNPS) has risen +3% premarket after Elliott Investment Management built a multibillion-dollar stake in and plans to push for operational and financial improvements, according to reports. Elliott sees room for SNPS to boost sales and expand margins more in line with peer Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), as SNPS revenue growth has lagged expectations and shares are down -11.0% YTD. SNPS noted its opportunity and product roadmap have never been stronger following its $35B acquisition of Ansys in 2024.