{"id":12593,"date":"2026-05-06T11:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/06\/oil-prices-ease-and-markets-rally-as-trump-works-towards-deal-with-iran-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:16:53","slug":"oil-prices-ease-and-markets-rally-as-trump-works-towards-deal-with-iran-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/06\/oil-prices-ease-and-markets-rally-as-trump-works-towards-deal-with-iran-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices ease and markets rally as Trump works towards deal with Iran – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Oil prices have fallen sharply and stock markets rose as Donald Trump<\/a> touted \u201cgreat progress\u201d towards a \u201cfinal agreement\u201d with Iran.<\/p>\n

The US president said he would briefly pause his \u201cProject Freedom\u201d operation<\/a> escorting ships through the strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supplies but has been blockaded by Iran since late February, triggering a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n

Trump said he was stopping the efforts for \u201ca short period\u201d so he could finalise a deal with Tehran but added that his blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> would remain in place.<\/p>\n

The news sent Brent crude oil \u2013 which had jumped as much as 6% earlier this week on the latest attacks in the Middle East \u2013 tumbling 9% to just above $100.<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

The crude price had been falling on Wednesday morning, and accelerated after a report<\/a> by the Axios news site that the White House believes it is getting close to agreeing a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war with Iran. It said both sides were ready to set a framework for more detailed nuclear talks, citing four sources including two US officials.<\/p>\n

the oil price had hit $126 a barrel<\/a> last week, its highest level since 2022, after Trump said the US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months and peace talks remained stalled.<\/p>\n

European stock markets rallied on Wednesday. The UK\u2019s FTSE 100 index rose 2% in early trading, and France\u2019s Cac 40 and Germany\u2019s Dax were up about 2.7%.<\/p>\n

MSCI\u2019s All-Country World Index rose 0.4% to a fresh record alongside similar milestones for its emerging markets benchmark and its broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan, which jumped 2.8%.<\/p>\n

The rally was led by a 6.6% surge in South Korea\u2019s Kospi, which cleared the 7,000 mark for the first time. As the Seoul market reopened after a holiday, Samsung Electronics jumped by 14.8%, topping a $1tn market value, as it rode the boom in AI stocks.<\/p>\n

Markets on Wall Street had hit fresh records on Tuesday as the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1%.<\/p>\n

On the bond market, UK <\/a>long-term gilt yields dipped slightly after reaching their highest level since 1998<\/a> on Tuesday. The yield on 30-year gilts \u2013 which is the effective interest rate on the UK government\u2019s long-term borrowing \u2013 slipped by about 5 basis points to 5.68%.<\/p>\n

Gold, which is traditionally seen as a safe-haven asset, rose by almost 2.5% to $4,667 an ounce.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest comments came as the French shipping group CMA CGM said that one of its ships, the San Antonio, had been the target of an attack while crossing the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

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The attack, which occurred on Tuesday, injured crew members and damaged the vessel, the company said, adding that it was \u201cclosely monitoring the situation and remains fully mobilised alongside the crew\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, Susannah Streeter, said: \u201cA dam of tension has eased with relief flooding into financial markets, amid hopes that hostilities will cease in the Middle East, with the Trump administration making conciliatory moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelief is starting to seep into the bond markets, with UK gilt yields easing off amid hopes that inflation might not head quite as high if a longer-term resolution can be negotiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief investment officer at the wealth management arm of UBS, Mark Haefele, said in a note to clients that Trump\u2019s comments marked an \u201cabrupt shift\u201d from recent days, but with the strait still effectively closed, government bond yields still remained well above their normal levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cFutures pricing now expects about three 25-basis point rate hikes by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England over the next 12 months,\u201d he said. \u201cMarkets also see no interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year and a 70% probability of a rate hike in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bank of England kept rates on hold at 3.75%<\/a> last week, but said the UK may need to brace for increases later this year.<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oil prices have fallen sharply and stock markets rose as Donald Trump touted \u201cgreat progress\u201d towards a \u201cfinal agreement\u201d with Iran. The US president said he would briefly pause his \u201cProject Freedom\u201d operation escorting ships through the strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supplies but has been blockaded by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}