Investors were also preparing for crucial central bank meetings and earnings reports from Wall Street giants this week. Tehran reportedly conveyed “written messages” to Washington via Pakistan, outlining its red lines in peace talks, including on its nuclear program and the future of the vital waterway. The White House confirmed that the US president and his team met on Monday to discuss the offer, but spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt declined to state whether Trump would accept the proposal. Iran’s proposed interim deal is said to involve reopening the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 through which a fifth of global oil and LNG typically flows \u2013 in exchange for Washington ending its blockade of Iranian ports. The plan also defers more complex negotiations regarding its nuclear program, a significant sticking point for Trump. Hopes for a deal had been rising heading into last weekend, but Trump dashed them on Saturday by canceling a planned trip by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Islamabad. Iran’s envoy to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, informed a Security Council session that the country would first require guarantees that Washington and Israel would not attack again if it were to offer security assurances in the Gulf. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Iran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz did not meet US demands. “If what they mean by opening the straits is, ‘yes, the straits are open as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,’ that’s not opening the straits,” Rubio told Fox News. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin assured Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that Russia would do everything possible to halt the Middle East war, during their meeting in Saint Petersburg. Oil prices surged by over two percent, with Brent crude topping $111, extending Tuesday’s gains. Stock markets, however, reversed course. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila, and Wellington all closed in negative territory, though Seoul saw a rise thanks to a resumption of the tech rally that has pushed the Kospi to a record high. London, Paris, and Frankfurt retreated at the open. These losses followed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq once again hitting record highs in New York. IG analyst Tony Sycamore noted that Tehran might be more inclined to strike a deal soon, as its aging storage facilities were expected to reach maximum capacity this week. He added that “if forced shut\u2011ins follow, Tehran risks irreversible long\u2011term damage to its reservoirs and a serious hit to future production and revenue streams.” However, he cautioned that while Iran’s latest offer was positive, “it is hard to see the US accepting anything less than a comprehensive deal that both opens the Strait of Hormuz and addresses Iran’s nuclear weapons program.” The Bank of Japan sharply increased its inflation forecasts for the current year and halved its growth projections due to surging oil prices. Officials also refrained from hiking interest rates again, having last done so in December, though observers pointed out a significant split in the decision that could mean rates will rise before the end of the year, which boosted the yen against the dollar. The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and Bank of England are expected to follow suit amidst growing concerns about a fresh spike in inflation caused by the surge in energy costs. Tech giants Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft are also scheduled to report earnings, as are older industrial companies including Ford and ExxonMobil. Key figures at 0810 GMT: West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.5 percent at $98.78 a barrel; Brent North Sea Crude: UP 2.7 percent at $111.17 a barrel; Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 59,917.46 (close); Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 25,679.78 (close); Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,078.64 (close); London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,333.33; Euro\/dollar: DOWN at $1.1694 from $1.1722 on Monday; Pound\/dollar: DOWN at $1.3507 from $1.3534; Dollar\/yen: DOWN at 159.25 yen from 159.39 yen; Euro\/pound: DOWN at 86.57 pence from 86.61 pence; New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 49,167.79 (close).
\n#OilPrices #StockMarket #IranDeal #StraitOfHormuz #TrumpAdministration #CentralBanks #GlobalEconomy #EnergyMarkets #Geopolitics #InflationConcerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Investors were also preparing for crucial central bank meetings and earnings reports from Wall Street giants this week. Tehran reportedly conveyed “written messages” to Washington via Pakistan, outlining its red lines in peace talks, including on its nuclear program and the future of the vital waterway. The White House confirmed that the US president and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}