For plastics-makers in the US, it’s the best of times. For companies that sell anything that requires plastic, it’s among the worst.

Asian, Middle Eastern, and European producers of petrochemicals have all been negatively affected by the Iran war, which has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz. American chemical companies are benefiting from new relevance and income, since they use cheap natural gas that isn’t dependent on the Strait.

Meet The Plastics

While all petrochemicals are impacted, two in particular are experiencing a hazard of new fortunes:

• Polyethylene, a soft, flexible material used in sandwich bags, detergent bottles, food service gloves, and more. Dow Chemical CEO Jim Fitterling said of the company’s US production capacity, “Everything that we’ve got running is going to be flat out for the rest of the year.” Dow also raised the price of polyethylene by 30 cents per pound this month.
• Polypropylene, a harder, denser substance used in auto parts, takeout containers, bottle caps, and medical supplies. Agustin Izquierdo, CFO of the multinational LyondellBasell, which has headquarters in Houston, TX, told investors recently, “The material from the Middle East is trapped in the region, so this gives an opportunity for North America to actually start exporting polypropylene.” As the Wall Street Journal noted, its stock is up 84% so far this year, after two years of decline.

But the rest of the US economy doesn’t find these developments so fetch. The cost of doing business for companies that make plastic consumer goods and that rely on plastic packaging is rising. Jay Foreman, the CEO of toymaker Basic Fun!, told the Wall Street Journal, “In the short run we’ll take the hit, but no doubt, at some point it will affect consumers.”

Zoom out: Even if the Strait of Hormuz opened up immediately, analysts said it could take up to nine months for shipping and production of petrochemicals to return to baseline. And even then, “critical industries like fertilizer production” will likely get resupplied first, according to the WSJ.—HVL

President Trump extended deadline for Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz by 24 hours. A deadline Trump set for Iran to reopen the critical waterway last month was supposed to go into effect today. But in a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump wrote, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He followed it up with another message a few hours later that said, “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” The Associated Press reported that its sources said diplomats from Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan are working behind the scenes to help the US and Iran find common ground. In the meantime, a spokesperson for Iran’s central command said in a statement, “If attacks on civilian targets are repeated, the next stages of our offensive and retaliatory operations will be much more devastating and widespread.”

Second airman missing from downed F-15E safely rescued. US officials announced late Saturday that the weapons system officer who went missing following the crash of an F-15E jet deep in Iranian territory on Friday was recovered after “one of the most challenging and complex [rescue missions] in the history of US Special Operations,” according to a senior official who spoke to the New York Times. The injured officer climbed a 7,000-foot ridgeline and took cover in a crevice to evade detection until the CIA could locate him. Once they did, they also launched a deception plan to confuse the Iranians. The mission involved 100 Special Operations forces and was led by members of SEAL Team 6. Everyone who helped in the officer’s search effort was also safe and accounted for.

UCLA wins its 1st NCAA women’s basketball championship. The Bruins defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks 79–51 in the title game yesterday. It’s the UCLA women’s basketball team’s first national title since it won the AIAW championship in 1978 (the NCAA took over the postseason tournament in 1982). It was also the first championship win for coach Cori Close, who assembled the winning team through high school commitments and portal player transfers. Close was mentored by legendary UCLA men’s coach John Wooden for 17 years, until he died in 2010. Following the win, she said, “All year we’ve been saying the talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling.”—HVL

For investors, women’s sports are one of the hottest tickets in town. Since 2022, investments in women’s sports teams have grown about 227% annually, on average, according to consulting firm McKinsey. And, like that new pair of school shoes your parents used to buy for you, there’s plenty of room for growth.

The fan in the arena. Financial backers are interested because fans are interested, breaking more records than Disco Demolition Night:

• Last year, the WNBA broke its single-season attendance record with a month left to spare.
• Last month, a record 63,000 fans showed up to a National Women’s Soccer League game in Denver.
• On Saturday night, a Professional Women’s Hockey League game sold out Madison Square Garden.

The money has followed: McKinsey projects that the US women’s sports market will generate about $2.5 billion in annual revenue for rights holders by 2030. That amounts to 16% annual growth, which is roughly triple that of men’s sports, per Reuters.

According to McKinsey, the current NWSL media rights deal is worth 40 times what the previous one was. And the new WNBA deal will bring in more than triple what its prior agreement did. With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that WNBA players made revenue sharing one of their biggest priorities in recent collective bargaining talks.

Big picture: Despite its recent growth, McKinsey estimates revenue from women’s sports makes up less than 2% of the total US sports market.—BC

We’ll get some fresh inflation data: The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index (PCE), will get an update on Thursday. But keep an eye on Friday, too, when the consumer price index (CPI) report for March will be released, offering a look at how prices fared once the Iran war started. What will the Fed think of all this? We may get some insight on Wednesday, when the minutes of last month’s policy-setting meeting will be released.

It’s a major week for golf: Wake up and smell the azaleas. Or, if you’re not into flowers, wake up and smell the pimento cheese sandwiches. The Masters, golf’s first major tournament of the year, tees off on Thursday in Augusta, Georgia. The field is stacked, but Scottie Scheffler is the odds-on favorite to be wearing the green jacket when things wrap up on Sunday. If you want to watch all four rounds in person, it’ll set you back more than $26,000 on the secondary market, per Golf.com.

Everything comes to an end: March Madness officially concludes tonight, when UConn and Michigan will face off for the NCAA men’s basketball championship. If you like your madness more scripted, the fifth and final season of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys debuts its fifth and final season on Wednesday, and HBO Max’s Hacks’s…fifth and final season starts on Thursday. Then, on Sunday, season 3 of Euphoria will premiere. HBO Head of Drama Francesca Orsi told Deadline it’ll likely be the final season.

But wait, there’s more:

• The 49th White House Easter Egg Roll is today. The first annual “Eat Chinese Food Because Now You Can’t Stop Thinking About Egg Rolls” is tonight.
• Delta and Constellation Brands report earnings (and how the Iran war may have impacted them) on Wednesday.
• The third estimate of Q4 GDP data will be released on Thursday, after an eventful second estimate last month revised the US economy’s growth rate down from 1.4% to 0.7%.
• Orthodox Easter is this Sunday.

Homes are grayer than ever, and not just because millennials painted them that color. According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, the median US home is a record 44 years old, faded wallpaper and all.

That’s a lot of old pipes, wires, roofs, and water heaters that need fixing. And all of those repairs can be expensive, especially as maintenance costs rise. From 2022 to 2024, structural repair costs increased about 14% in real terms, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. And those homes aren’t getting any younger, especially with people reluctant to give up lower interest rates on their current mortgages.—BC