London (AFP) – European and US stocks mostly traded lower on Tuesday despite oil prices retreating from recent highs as investors weighed the prospects for increased tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Hopes for easing Middle East tensions were dashed at the weekend when US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s offer for a seven-day truce, sending oil prices sharply higher on Monday. But prices reversed course after Trump said he expects talks with Iran to continue, as well as reports that considerable volumes are continuing to flow from the region.
“Crude oil’s slide to $91 a barrel reflects growing hopes that Middle East tensions can ease, while the restoration of Saudi pipeline flows is helping offset disruption through the Strait of Hormuz,” said IG analyst Axel Rudolph. The benchmark US crude contract WTI was trading around $91 per barrel on Tuesday while its international equivalent, Brent crude, was above $104 per barrel. Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said oil prices were also “reacting favourably to a report that oil exports out of the Middle East hit a post-war high.”
Wall Street’s main indices were lower in late morning trading, with sentiment hit by data showing US consumer confidence plunged sharply in September to a level not seen since 2014. In Europe, London and Paris both finished in the red, but Frankfurt ended the day with a small gain. Oil prices still remain elevated, however, and government bond yields are trading at multi-year highs, contributing to losses on some Asian stock markets Tuesday.
Officials in Tehran have privately expressed pessimism about making a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before US midterm elections in just five weeks, Bloomberg News reported sources as saying. The waterway is key to the world’s oil and gas deliveries and is now central to the US-Iran conflict, particularly with the Iran-backed Houthis seizing Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, another vital shipping lane. The situation is keeping global inflation high, pushing the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank to raise interest rates earlier this month.
US inflation and jobs data this week will help signal whether the Fed hikes again in October, an outcome already likely according to prices in the US Treasuries market. Expectations of more rate increases are supporting the dollar, in turn weighing on gold, which is priced in the US currency.
Australia’s central bank raised its key interest rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 percent on Tuesday in a bid to tackle fallout from elevated oil prices. It added that the rise of artificial intelligence was driving up technology costs. OpenAI said Monday that it would not release its newest artificial intelligence model, known as Astra 6.1, after internal testing by the ChatGPT-maker revealed it did not meet safety standards. It comes as leading artificial intelligence executives prepare to meet at the White House on Tuesday with Trump as Congress calls for stronger industry oversight.
In other company news, shares in the fast-fashion giant Shein plunged almost 14 percent at one point in Hong Kong after it released disappointing earnings. It was the firm’s first report since listing at the start of the month following a high-profile $1.7 billion initial public offering. Shein’s share price has now fallen more than 35 percent since its first day of trading.
– Key figures at around 1530 GMT –
New York – Dow: DOWN 0.6 percent at 51,168.47 points
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,659.87
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 26,770.58
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 10,636.71 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 8,027.33 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 25,399.21 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 65,481.27 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 24,523.57 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,830.45 (close)
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.8 percent at $104.46 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.1 percent at $91.59 per barrel
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1329 from $1.1367
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3204 from $1.3252
Dollar/yen: UP at 157.67 yen from 157.42 yen on Monday
Euro/pound: UP at 85.82 pence from 85.78 pence
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© 2024 AFP
