London (AFP) – Oil prices dropped further Thursday after US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart signed off on a deal to end four months of war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to tanker and cargo traffic. Optimism that operations will in due course return to pre-war levels in the strait, a global energy chokepoint, helped lift market sentiment with Wall Street some two hours into trading. The Dow had added just 0.4 percent, but both the broader-based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added north of one percent as stocks pushed back following steep falls the previous session after the US Federal Reserve raised its inflation forecast and projected higher US interest rates this year.
“Politics and economics are front and centre for markets,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. “The US and Iran have signed an initial deal to end the war, causing oil prices to fall further,” he said. But the Fed’s hint at a rate increase “took the market by surprise and caused a wobble” on Wall Street and elsewhere, he added. Kevin Warsh, the new Fed chief, has vowed to “deliver price stability” after chairing his first policy meeting, even though Trump has repeatedly called for lower rates.
“Persistently high prices are a burden for the American people,” he said after the meeting, which followed an interest rate hike by the European Central Bank last week. “The thought of a hawkish Fed policy and higher interest rates weighs heavily on risk appetite,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. For Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst with Forex.com, “the Fed is basically signalling a readiness to respond should inflationary pressures re-emerge.” He added: “Should lower energy costs continue to filter through to inflation data, policy makers may ultimately find sufficient justification to keep rates unchanged for an extended period rather than resume tightening.”
Crude futures slid around two percent on Thursday after a deal aimed at ending the US-Israeli conflict with Iran that restricted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in energy prices. But “the latest ECB and Fed decisions showed that policy makers do not necessarily rely on the idea that lower oil prices will immediately cool inflationary pressures,” Ozkardeskaya said.
There was little momentum on the main European markets, meanwhile. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed down 1.04 percent, with the Bank of England widely expected to keep its main interest rate on hold despite elevated inflation. The oil majors in particular notably lost ground. Frankfurt and Paris both ended around 0.4 percent in the green, in contrast.
In Asia, Seoul surged more than two percent and ploughed past 9,000 points for the first time thanks to a fresh surge in chip titans Samsung and SK Hynix as the AI boom continues apace. Tokyo, meanwhile, finished above 71,000 points for the first time.
– Key figures around 1550 GMT –
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.5 percent at $77.55 a barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.8 percent at $74.67 a barrel
New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 51,691.39 points
New York – S&P 500: UP 1.0 percent at 7,494.38
New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.4 percent at 26,382.22
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.0 percent at 10,399.70 points (close)
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 8,467.98 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 25,026.80 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.7 percent at 71,053.49 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.6 percent at 23,924.81 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 4,090.48 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1474 from $1.1494 on Wednesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3230 from $1.3282
Dollar/yen: UP at 161.09 yen from 160.71 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 86.65 pence from 86.53 pence
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© 2024 AFP
