HONG KONG: Oil prices fell along with stocks Wednesday as investors assess the chances of US-Iran peace talks after Donald Trump extended his ceasefire at the eleventh hour but kept his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in place. With the two-week truce in its final hours, the US president said he would push the deadline back indefinitely following a request from mediator Pakistan and stressing the need to give Tehran&#39;s &quot;fractured&quot; leadership time to form a proposal. He had previously indicated he would not extend the truce and warned he would resume bombing the Islamic republic when it expired. &quot;I have...directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their (Iran&#39;s) proposal is submitted,&quot; Trump wrote on social media. The decision not to carry out fresh attacks on Iran but continue to prevent its ships from passing through the Strait -- a major sticking point between the rivals -- left traders awaiting clearer developments. The fate of peace talks in Islamabad was hanging in the balance, with a White House official saying Vice President JD Vance would not travel Tuesday as previously planned, pending the submission of an Iranian proposal. Tehran has said it will not attend because of what it said were unreasonable US demands, while the semi-official Tasnim news agency said there was no prospect of officials going at present. Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, said: &quot;The US and Iran may be trying to shore up leverage and playing a game of who blinks first. &quot;Whatever the outcome, the suspense in the interim may see risk appetite being curtailed but when either side blinks, risk proxies could rally.&quot; Both main oil contracts edged down, though they fluctuated in early trade, having risen around three percent Tuesday. Equities were mostly in the red following another down day on Wall Street. Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul and Wellington dropped, with Shanghai flat. Tokyo, Taipei and Wellington rose. Traders have been struggling to find direction this week after Tehran said Friday it would allow ships through the Strait of Hormuz -- which it had effectively closed since war began on February 28 -- before pulling back a day later, citing the US blockade and seizure of a ship. Donald Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire by harassing vessels in the waterway, the transit passage for about one-fifth of global oil. The developments sent crude swinging wildly, though they have held below $100, while equity markets have been less volatile on lingering optimism the two sides will eventually reach a deal to end the seven-week conflict that has hit the global economy. &quot;With markets surging amid optimism that the war is soon going to end, and the Hormuz Strait to open, markets are now more cautious,&quot; wrote Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at FOREX.com. &quot;If there&rsquo;s no deal, I would imagine that oil prices could climb back above $100, which would likely invite pressure on equities.&quot; Investors are also keeping tabs on the confirmation hearing by senators of Kevin Warsh, Trump&#39;s pick to replace Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell, whose term ends next month. Warsh insisted he would not be controlled by the president as he fielded questions on his assets and central bank independence during his confirmation hearing. The former Fed governor emphasised his commitment to &quot;ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy remains strictly independent&quot;, adding he would &quot;absolutely not&quot; be Trump&#39;s puppet. Trump, since his return to office last year, has severely criticised Powell for not slashing rates more aggressively, and told CNBC on Tuesday he would be disappointed if the new chair did not swiftly lower borrowing costs. - Key figures around 0230 GMT - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $89.38 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $98.31 a barrel Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 59,653.56 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 26,191.13 Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 4,084.94 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1747 from $1.1749 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3513 from $1.3511 Dollar/yen: UP at 159.27 yen from 159.25 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.94 pence from 86.96 pence New York - Dow Jones: DOWN 0.6 percent at 49,149.38 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.1 percent at 10,498.09 (close)

Business

Oil prices and stocks fell as investors weighed uncertain US-Iran peace prospects after Trump extended the ceasefire but kept the Hormuz blockade, leaving markets cautious over talks, oil flows and conflict risks.

Oil, stocks fall as traders weigh outlook after Trump extends truce

HONG KONG: Oil prices fell on Tuesday while stocks rose on lingering hopes for a deal to end the US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as Tehran said it had not decided whether to attend peace talks. With the end of a two-week ceasefire approaching, the White House said Vice President JD Vance was ready to return to Pakistan for fresh negotiations to end a conflict that has sent crude soaring and revived inflation fears. However, the Islamic republic&#39;s position remained uncertain as it accused Washington of violating their fragile truce through its blockade of the country&#39;s ports and seizure of a ship. Crude plunged on Friday after Tehran said it would allow ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which had been effectively closed since the war began on February 28. But the commodity rebounded on Monday as Iran closed the waterway again, citing the blockade and seizure. Donald Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire by harassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the transit passage for about one-fifth of global oil. The US president said the blockade would not be lifted until an agreement had been reached. &quot;THE BLOCKADE, which we will not take off until there is a &#39;DEAL,&#39; is absolutely destroying Iran,&quot; Trump said on social media. &quot;They are losing $500 Million Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run.&quot; He told PBS News that Iran was &quot;supposed to be there&quot; at the talks in Pakistan. &quot;We agreed to be there,&quot; he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired &quot;then lots of bombs start going off&quot;. He separately told Bloomberg News it was &quot;highly unlikely&quot; he would extend the truce. Based on its start time, the truce theoretically expires overnight on Tuesday, Iran time, although in his comments to Bloomberg Trump said the end was Wednesday evening Washington time. The Middle Eastern country&#39;s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said &quot;Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit&quot;. &quot;We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the last two weeks we have been preparing to show new cards on the battlefield,&quot; he wrote on X. Still, investors remained largely upbeat that the two sides will eventually come to a deal that will reopen the strategic strait. US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate and Brent both fell more than one percent Tuesday. - Seoul record - Seoul led equity market gains thanks to a resumption of the tech rally that had pushed the Kospi to multiple records before the war, climbing 2.7 percent to hit a fresh record high. Tokyo and Taipei were also well up, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Wellington, Mumbai and Bangkok also advancing. London and Frankfurt rose while Paris was flat. That came even after a down day on Wall Street, where the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite retreated from Friday&#39;s record closes. Asia had opened &quot;with a gentle lean into risk as signs Iran may join talks with the US offer a pathway, however narrow, toward easing tensions ahead of the ceasefire deadline&quot;, wrote SPI Asset Management&#39;s Stephen Innes. &quot;Trump&#39;s remark that a ceasefire extension is &#39;highly unlikely&#39; if no deal is reached has effectively put a clock on the market. &quot;However, traders recognise the playbook. Hard deadlines and firm rhetoric often soften as negotiations evolve, but the presence of a timeline still sharpens positioning and raises the stakes around each headline.&quot; And Michael Brown at Pepperstone said it was &quot;now in the interests of both sides -- the US as public support for the war dwindles, and Iran given the primary objective simply of &#39;survival&#39; -- to bring the conflict to an end&quot;. &quot;Viewed through that lens, all the punchy rhetoric and headline noise that we continue to hear is largely geared towards obtaining negotiating leverage, as opposed to re-escalating the conflict,&quot; he added. In company news, Japanese arms firms enjoyed healthy buying after Tokyo said on Tuesday it would ease decades-old export rules, paving the way for the sale of lethal weapons overseas. The policy shift, which ends Tokyo&#39;s self-imposed restraint on the sale of lethal arms, comes as it seeks to enter the international arms market, hoping to bolster national defence as well as boost economic growth. Fujitsu climbed 2.4 percent, NEC added 3.7 percent and Mitsubishi Electric was up 0.9 percent, while Mitsubishi Heavy gained 0.4 percent. - Key figures around 0810 GMT - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.8 percent at $88.01 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.1 percent at $94.40 a barrel Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.9 percent at 59,349.17 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,487.48 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 4,085.08 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 10,624.90 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1773 from $1.1786 on Monday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3520 from $1.3535 Dollar/yen: UP at 158.94 yen from 158.88 yen Euro/pound: UP at 87.09 pence from 87.07 pence New York - Dow Jones: FLAT at 49,442.56 (close)

Oil prices fell and stocks rose on hopes the US-Iran war could end and the Strait of Hormuz reopen, despite uncertainty over talks, ceasefire expiry and continued tensions over blockades, shipping and threats of renewed fighting

Articles tagged with "World"

Oil, stocks fall as traders weigh outlook after Trump extends truce

Oil prices dip, stocks rise on lingering Iran peace hopes