April 7 Member Morning Report: Trump Threatens to "Eliminate" Iran; U.S. Private Credit Continues to "Explode"

1、【Trump Threatens to “Take Out” Iran】At today’s press conference, Trump threatened to “take out” Iran and again warned that if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz before Tuesday, the U.S. will bomb every “power plant” in that country. Trump also criticized NATO allies for failing to support the United States in its military actions. According to Iran’s official media, earlier Iran rejected the U.S. ceasefire proposal and insisted on permanently ending the war.

2、【Israeli Airstrikes Hit Tehran Airport and the South Pars Energy Hub】Israel carried out attacks on Iran’s capital, Tehran, striking aircraft and infrastructure across multiple airports, including the city’s main domestic airport—the Mehrabad Airport. In addition, several other independent airstrikes forced the petrochemical plants in Asaluyeh to shut down, including parts of the South Pars natural gas complex. South Pars is the production and export hub for most of Iran’s natural gas. In response, Iran issued a stern warning, saying that if strikes on non-military sites continued, it would carry out “more destructive” attacks.

3、【Humans Reach the Farthest Deep Space From Earth】Four astronauts aboard NASA’s “Artemis II” mission spacecraft have now reached deep space approximately 406.7k kilometers from Earth, officially breaking the record set in 1970 by “Apollo 13,” and becoming the farthest humans from Earth ever. The spacecraft has already orbited to the far side of the Moon; the massive celestial body will block radio signals, causing a brief interruption in communications between the crew and Earth.

4、【U.S. Private Credit Continues to “Chain React”】After investors tried to redeem more than 11% of fund shares in the first quarter, Barings Private Credit was forced to impose a quarterly 5% redemption cap. Because investors have grown concerned about the safety of the underlying loan assets, redemption requests have surged recently, making this asset management firm the latest private credit fund to implement limits on capital withdrawals.

5、【AI “Ignites” Apple’s App Store】Apple’s app store (App Store), which had been quiet for years, is now seeing a major “explosion” driven by artificial intelligence. According to the latest data from market research firm Sensor Tower, in the first quarter of 2026, the number of new apps launched on Apple’s App Store worldwide surged 84% year over year, reaching 235,800 total—continuing and amplifying the strong rebound trend that began in 2025. This record-breaking growth pace has completely reversed nearly a decade of decline on the App Store—from 2016 to 2024, the number of new apps added had fallen cumulatively by 48%. AI-assisted tools represented by Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex enable non-professional developers to generate usable apps using only natural-language prompts.