Oil prices fell on Tuesday while most 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Islamic Republic’s position remained uncertain as it accused Washington of violating its fragile truce through its blockade of the country’s ports and seizure of a ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the commodity rebounded on Monday as Iran closed the waterway again, citing the blockade and seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US president said the blockade would not be lifted until an agreement had been reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“THE BLOCKADE, which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran,” Trump said on social media. “They are losing $500 Million Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told PBS News <\/em>that Iran was “supposed to be there” at the talks in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We agreed to be there,” he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired “then lots of bombs start going off”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He separately told Bloomberg News<\/em> it was “highly unlikely” he would extend the truce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Middle Eastern country’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said “Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “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,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, investors remained largely upbeat that the two sides will eventually come to a deal that will reopen the strategic strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate rose more than 1%, while Brent was also higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seoul led the equity market gains thanks to a resumption of the tech rally that had pushed the Kospi to multiple records before the war, while Tokyo and Taipei were also well up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila also advanced, although Shanghai and Sydney fluctuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That came even after a down day on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite retreated from Friday’s record closes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asia had opened “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”, wrote SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Markets are pricing the possibility of progress rather than its certainty,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Trump’s remark that a ceasefire extension is ‘highly unlikely’ if no deal is reached has effectively put a clock on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The policy shift, which ends Tokyo’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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fujitsu climbed 2.4%, NEC added 3.7% and Mitsubishi Electric was up 0.9%, while Mitsubishi Heavy gained 0.4%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oil prices fell on Tuesday while most 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nTech rally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n