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Daily Update — April 6, 2026

Reviewing CERAWeek 2026; AI in Telecom; and Measuring Direct Lending

Today is Monday, April 6, 2026, and here’s your curated selection of Essential Intelligence on global markets from S&P Global. Subscribe to be notified of each new Daily Update.

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Energy Transition & Sustainability

Reviewing CERAWeek 2026: Convergence, competition, and concerns about TSA wait times

 

CERAWeek anchored its 2026 theme around the title, "Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics," when the event hosted more than 12,000 participants in Houston this March. A palpable tension — unrelated to the energy event itself — also permeated this year's conference as travelers tried to time their departures for Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport with enough cushion to account for multi-hour TSA wait times.

 

CERAWeek Executive Director Naki Mendoza joins EnergyCents hosts Hill Vaden and Sam Humphreys to discuss some of the biggest takeaways from CERAWeek 2026.

Artificial Intelligence

Listen: Next in Tech | Ep. 261: Mobile World Congress Review

 

Telecom has expanded significantly to deliver the latest technology, with AI and its latest applications positioned to be the next stage in its evolution. This was evident at the 2026 Mobile World Congress (MWC), held March 2‒5 in Barcelona.

 

In this episode of the “Next in Tech” podcast, S&P Global analysts Raul Castañon-Martinez and Rich Karpinski joined host Eric Hanselman to unpack key themes from the MWC, where AI permeated everything from network operations to consumer devices. Castañon-Martinez pointed to mobile network operators shifting their business model from consumer to enterprise, going beyond connectivity and selling consumer devices to providing more sophisticated solutions to address enterprise pain points. Karpinski highlighted that, with many operators aiming to be the AI service provider of choice, there are some real opportunities for the telco industry to play a role in the AI ecosystem, including through AI-driven network automation, service assurance in internet-of-things devices and energy optimization.

Private Markets

Measuring Direct Lending: Building Transparency in Private Credit Markets

 

The private credit market is forecast to expand to about $4.5 trillion by 2030 from an estimated $2.28 trillion at the end of 2025, with direct lending emerging as the dominant strategy. Direct lending refers to loans provided directly to companies by private and public investment funds, including business development companies. These privately negotiated loans, which are typically extended to middle-market and sponsor-backed companies, offer floating-rate income and structural protections for lenders.

 

Initially a niche allocation, direct lending has become a core segment of corporate credit. As a result, the need for consistent, transparent and rules-based measurement has become more urgent. Historically, investors have been confronted with limited availability of standardized loan-level information, the absence of investable or benchmark-quality indexes, and limited visibility into risk composition and structural characteristics, among other data constraints. To address these challenges and increase transparency, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Lincoln International launched the S&P Lincoln Senior Debt Index Series, which aims to provide a systematic measure of the fair-value performance of direct lending investments across the US and Europe.

In case you missed it

  • The energy and utility sector is experiencing rapid and widespread AI adoption, with full integration reported for generative AI at 35% of companies, followed by agentic AI at 27%, rules-based AI at 24% and pattern recognition at 23%, according to a survey by 451 Research from S&P Global Energy Horizons.
  • The war in the Middle East is expected to result in weaker credit conditions globally in the next 12 months, even as the most intense phase of the conflict is projected to ease in April, according to an S&P Global Ratings commentary.
  • A new Hong Kong marine war-risk pool is expanding insurance coverage options for shipowners transiting high-risk areas, with room for further growth as the war in the Middle East restricts shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz.

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