Oil prices swung up and down as Wall Street pointed to losses before the market opened after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a warning to Tehran.
Oil prices were also volatile as Wall Street pointed to losses before the market opened on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that “time is running out” on U.S.-Iran talks to permanently end the Iran nuclear deal. war Stalls.
Before the opening bell, S&P 500 futures were down 0.3% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.4%. Nasdaq futures edged back 0.2%.
Oil prices briefly rose more than 1% overnight after Trump warned Iran on social media that “the clock is ticking and they better move fast or they’ll have nothing” after a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has Set deadline for Iran Then it fell back, so investors remained cautious about the market situation. Strait of Hormuz and how it affects global energy flows, including oil and gas. The strait remains mostly closed, and the United States has imposed its own measures see blocked It has been in an Iranian port since last month.
A drone attack on a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend heightened concerns that the conflict could escalate.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 6 cents to $109.20 a barrel. Before the war with Iran broke out in late February, it was trading at about $70 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 31 cents to $105.11 a barrel.
“The risk of another escalation is increasing,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note. While shipping activity around the strait has also increased over the past week, they said, “that could change soon.”
The two also noted that oil markets were reacting to the lack of tangible results from the Iran war following last week’s war with Iran. Highly watched summit Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in Beijing even as the White House said the United States and China agreed the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.
Given its economic ties with Iran, U.S. officials had hoped Beijing could use its influence to help broker a peace deal and reopen the strait. Trump said in an interview last week that Xi Jinping told him that China “Want to help” Negotiate an end to the war. So far, it’s unclear how Beijing will do this.
There will be little economic data released this week, but several major U.S. retailers and chipmaker and artificial intelligence leader Nvidia are due to release their latest financial results.
Target, Home Depot and Walmart all report first-quarter results later this week. Last week, the government reported that Americans Reduce expenses April as Natural gas prices rise promoted iran is Leaving them with less money to spend on non-essentials. Still, Americans did continue to spend last month, thanks in part to more generous government tax rebates.
Economists, however, worry that spending will fall sharply in the coming months as rebates run out and consumers continue to contend with gasoline prices that have risen more than 50% since the war began in late February.
Dominion Energy shares surged more than 14% in premarket after the company announced a merger with NextEra Energy, another East Coast energy giant. The all-stock deal, valued at about $67 billion, was triggered by growing demand for the power needed to run data centers.
Elsewhere in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at midday, Germany’s DAX was up 0.2% and France’s CAC 40 was down 0.8%.
During Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1% to 60,815.95 points, with technology-related stocks leading the decline. Last week it hit an all-time intraday high of over 63,000 points.
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield surged to 2.8%, its highest level since the late 1990s. Rising energy costs have raised expectations for rising inflation as the Bank of Japan gradually raises interest rates, part of a broader shift toward higher yields. A week ago, the yield was about 2.55%.
The Seoul Composite Index rose 0.3% to 7,516.04 points after falling earlier in the day. The index topped the 8,000-point mark for the first time on Friday, supported by buying in technology stocks driven by the artificial intelligence boom, but later fell partially as investors took profits.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.1% to 25,675.18 points. The Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.1% to 4,131.53 points after China’s economic data for April was weaker than expected.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 1.5% to 8,505.30 points.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.7%, while India’s Sensex fell less than 0.1%.
