Iran calls for ‘full-scale war’ but behind the scenes a peace proposal might reopen the Strait of Hormuz—if Trump can stomach it

Good morning. On Fortune’s radar today:

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Ackman talks to Fortune about his war against socialism.

Markets: Ignore the bombs, look at the numbers.

Peace plan would give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Wall Street is skeptical about Trump’s new tariffs on Canada.

Anduril working with D-Wave Quantum on missile shields.

Incoming: El Niño supply shock.

Inside KitKat’s stolen chocolate caper. 

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Bill Ackman: How a short-seller became a culture warrior

Most people have hobbies or interests. Bill Ackman has obsessions. The same relentlessness that built the activist investor’s reputation as a scourge of corporate excess—and, to critics, a bully spoiling for a fight—has increasingly been on display to his 2.5 million followers on X.

In recent years, Ackman has become more ideological, expanding his crusades into cultural and academic realms.

His style isn’t for everyone. The financier Carl Icahn, Ackman’s longtime nemesis, famously denounced him as a self-righteous crybaby. More recently, former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers said Ackman’s call to publicly release the names of student protesters was “the stuff of Joe McCarthy.”

Now—Ackman told Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts—American capitalism itself needs to be rescued. Ackman worries that the tradition of celebrating hard-won success is being displaced by a politics of envy. Too many people, he argues, fail to understand that the American Dream is built upon free-market gumption.

“When I grew up, if a guy in my neighborhood got a Corvette, no one resented the guy,” he observes. “We want to get back to that version of America, where people admired people’s success, as opposed to AOC basically saying, ‘If you’re a billionaire, you either committed fraud or you stole from people.’ ” Read the whole thing here.

Wall Street is ignoring the war and betting on peace instead

U.S. futures were up this morning following broad rises in the markets of Europe and Asia. Even Bitcoin seems to be showing signs of life—it’s now above $66K per coin. The price of oil stayed above $88 per barrel but traders seem to be looking at Q2 earnings, which have come in above expectations so far. They may also be looking through the chaos of the war with Iran to a new proposal to end the conflict in the Gulf, currently being considered by President Trump.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.55% this morning. The index gave up 0.19% yesterday. 

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was up 0.35% in early trading and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.29% before lunch.

Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was up 3.56%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 3.26%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.21%. China’s CSI 300 was up 3.06%. 

Brent crude was $88 per barrel this morning.

Bitcoin was at $66K this morning and has risen 2.82% over the last month.

It’s too early to get excited about Q2 earnings, but analysts are getting excited anyway. “Only 10% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings so far, but sales growth and earnings growth have both come in better than expected based on........

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