FTSE 100 rebounds 1% and oil slides 4.5% on Trump’s Iran remarks
The FTSE 100 closed up 1.02% at 10,782.87, recovering part of last week’s losses, as Brent crude fell 4.48% to $93.92 after Donald Trump said renewed strikes on Iran were “highly unlikely” if talks progress. The Dow rose 661 points, or 1.3%, to 51,947 by mid-afternoon, the Nasdaq about 2% and the S&P 500 roughly 2%, with AMD up more than 10% on a Google deal while Nvidia fell. Sterling rose 0.56% to $1.3424.
London’s gain was led by miners and came despite the Nvidia shock, which Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare said the market treats as “Jensen Huang’s personal transgression” rather than a “systemic domino effect”. Oil is the bigger story for British households: Brent dropped 17% last week, its steepest weekly fall since the start of the pandemic, and Monday’s slide takes it further from the $100 that prevailed through the autumn, even as the Guards claim tanker strikes near Hormuz and the Houthis hit Riyadh. Falling crude eased the inflation worry that drove gilt yields up after Thursday’s Bank Rate rise: the ten-year held at 5.14%, up less than a basis point. The Vix fear gauge fell 20.6% to 20.36, gold rose about 1% to $4,105 on Gulf and cyber risk, and bitcoin slipped 1.3% to $74,721. The sell-off and rebound have left the FTSE still below the 10,829 it reached on 4 November and the Nasdaq more than 10% under its peak; Friday’s 165,000-job US payrolls report keeps a December Federal Reserve rise in play. Watch Tuesday’s Abu Dhabi talks and the Qatari prime minister’s White House meeting for the next move in oil.