Business
Oil dips, stocks mixed on US-Iran truce hopes
– Stock markets were mixed while oil prices fell again on Friday (May 29) on investor optimism that the United States and Iran would reach a deal to extend their ceasefire – despite Washington and Tehran offering conflicting views on the state of negotiations.
Oil markets have been up and down this week as investors assess the chances of a breakthrough deal that could potentially resume shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Those hopes had been briefly dashed by new US military strikes on Iran on Wednesday, countered by the Revolutionary Guard’s targeting of an American airbase in the region.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump held a meeting during which he said he would make a “final determination” on a peace deal. Iran’s foreign ministry said negotiations were ongoing and there was no final agreement.
Nevertheless, the reports of progress sent the S&P 500 to a record high before it pared those gains slightly at the close. Other Wall Street indices also rose on Friday, while Europe’s main markets were flat ahead of the weekend.
While details of the possible agreement are scarce, “oil traders are taking an optimistic view that the end could be in sight for disruption in the region,” said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
However, “the market’s patience may be tested if a deal is not agreed by early June, and this could have big ramifications for the oil price and the global stock market rally,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management told AFP the tech sector was continuing to drive equity markets.
“It looks like we’ll wrap up a ninth consecutive week of higher markets, largely driven by some new names coming out to be beneficiaries of artificial intelligence today,” he said, citing Dell, Micron and SanDisk among individual companies that have delivered big gains.
EUROPEAN INFLATION
In Europe, French data showed Friday that its economy contracted 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, while inflation in May accelerated to 2.4 per cent, above the ECB’s target of two percent.
Germany saw inflation slow in May to 2.6 per cent, though analysts still expect an interest rate hike for the eurozone, possibly at the next ECB meeting on June 11.
Still, “recession risks are easing as oil prices moderate and the probability of worst-case scenarios fades,” wrote Matthew Martin of Oxford Economics.
“While reduced risks from the war have helped, the improvement in equity prices is mostly because of a robust earnings season. The driver is overwhelmingly AI-related capital expenditure,” he said.
Global AI bullishness has driven a historic rally recently, this week pushing the market capitalizations of chipmakers Micron and SK hynix across the US$1 trillion threshold.
Seoul’s stock market led the charge in Asia on Friday, surging 3.6 per cent while Tokyo’s Nikkei closed at a record high.
Business
The government has increased the price of gasoline by Rs13.18 per litre and diesel by Rs13.80 per litre.
Petroleum Division issued a notification saying that prices of petroleum products had been hiked by the federal government.
Under the revised rates the petrol price has been increased by Rs13.18 per litre increasing the new price to Rs310.71 per litre.
The price of high-speed diesel (HSD) has also been increased by Rs13.80 per litre to Rs323.30 per litre.
Sources said that the petroleum charge on petrol has been increased by Rs9.36 per litre to Rs80 per litre from Rs70.36 per litre.
The amended prices will be effective from midnight and will be applied for one week, the announcement said.
Business
Govt hikes kerosene price by Rs11.19/litre
Just a few days after increasing the cost of gasoline and high-speed diesel, the government has now hiked the price of kerosene by Rs11.19 per liter.
According to a notification, the price of kerosene has increased to Rs242.33 per litre, which is an increase from the previous cost of Rs231.14 per litre.
It is anticipated that the most recent rise will add to the financial pressure that currently exists for consumers who rely on kerosene for their household and other day-to-day necessities. After the official notification was issued, the revised price went into effect. This occurred after the price was published.
Business
Qatar: Iran tanker hit in waterway, crowds mourn Khamenei
Two tankers were hit in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, including an LNG carrier at risk of explosion, as huge crowds mourning Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thronged the holy city of Qom.
Qatar blamed Iran for the attack on a huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room.
The crew were safe and being evacuated, but maritime security sources briefed on the incident told Reuters the fire on board could put the ship at risk of blowing up.
A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, believed to be the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off Oman’s coast, maritime security sources said. The cause was not immediately clear.
“Mayday mayday mayday. This is vessel Al Rekayyat, LNG vessel Al Rekayyat. We are being hit by drone on port side, top of engine room,” the Qatari tanker’s captain said in a recorded radio call reviewed by Reuters. “Status: engine room fire and full of smoke. Unable to assess further damage.”
Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari called the incident an unacceptable attack on the security of international navigation and global energy supplies, and a clear violation of international law.
He called on Iran to immediately halt actions threatening regional security and maritime navigation, and said Tehran bore full legal responsibility for the attack and any resulting damage or consequences.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran, or any claim of responsibility. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that Iran had fired at two commercial vessels.
The incidents were the first reported attacks in the strait since mourning for Khamenei began last week, proof of the ongoing insecurity for Gulf shipping more than four months after the United States and Israel launched a war they said would stop Iran threatening its neighbours.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS TAKE TO STREETS IN QOM
Iran’s clerical rulers have exerted newfound control over the world’s most important energy shipping route, where they aim to install a permanent system to collect fees in what would amount to a huge shift of the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.
At home, the leadership has used the mourning period to demonstrate its control after Khamenei was killed alongside his daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the first day of the war.
The caskets of the slain leader and family were driven through the streets of the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday, where many hundreds of thousands of people carried flags and banners comparing Khamenei to martyrs whose deaths are foundational to the Shi’ite sect.
In chants they vowed to avenge Khamenei. Some bore placards and banners reading “KILL TRUMP”.
A similar huge funeral procession was held in the streets of Tehran on Monday, following more solemn prayer events that began last Friday, attracting top figures in Iran’s leadership and dignitaries from abroad. Authorities say the leader’s body will be taken to Shi’ite holy cities in neighbouring Iraq, then brought back to Iran and laid to rest in a mediaeval shrine.
TRUMP: ‘MAKE A DEAL OR WE’RE GOING TO FINISH THE JOB’
The war has been paused under an interim peace deal reached last month, intended to provide a 60-day period for negotiations on a permanent deal. A round of indirect talks in Qatar concluded last week with no sign of headway towards a lasting peace.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume bombing, most recently on Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office: “We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job…. We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that under the terms of the interim ceasefire memorandum, negotiations on the final deal would “not commence if threats continue”.
“Honor your signature,” he wrote on X.
Oil prices , which have returned to around the pre-war level since last month’s interim deal let ships resume sailing through the strait, ticked up around 1% on Tuesday following the incidents in the waterway.
In launching the war four months ago, Trump said his aims were to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, end its ability to threaten its neighbours and create conditions for Iranians to topple their leaders.
None of those objectives has been met, although Washington says a permanent deal will halt what it says is an Iranian programme that could make a nuclear weapon, which Iran says it never sought.
Despite five days of mourning, there has still been no sign in public of Khamenei’s son and successor Mojtaba, believed to have been disfigured by wounds in the same attack and yet to be shown in any image since the war began. Three other sons of the slain leader prayed at the casket on Sunday.
Iran’s leaders have portrayed the mass funeral gatherings as proof of national unity following the U.S.-Israeli attacks, although it is difficult to assess how deep that loyalty runs in a country where media and communications are tightly controlled.
Just weeks before the war started, Iran’s authorities killed thousands of demonstrators to put down some of the biggest anti-government protests in the country’s history, but there has been no sign of organised opposition in Iran since the war began.
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