- Brent is around $112; West Texas Intermediate surpassed $100.
- Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta and Manila rose, others fell.
- The markets are preparing for the publication of the earnings of the titans of Wall Street.
Asian stocks fluctuated on Wednesday as oil prices wavered as talks to end the Iran war appeared to be stalled and the crucial Strait of Hormuz was no closer to being reopened.
While the White House has said that Donald Trump and his team were considering Tehran’s latest proposal to restore traffic through the waterway, cnn and the Wall Street Journal He said the president was skeptical.
The Islamic republic this week presented a plan that would supposedly allow the chokehold to be eased and Washington would lift its retaliatory blockade on the country’s ports while talks continued, including on its nuclear program.
While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s proposal was “better than we thought they were going to present,” he insisted that any eventual deal had to be “one that definitely stops them from running toward a nuclear weapon.”
Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said Washington “must abandon its illegal and irrational demands,” adding that the United States “is no longer in a position to dictate its policy to independent nations.”
Qatar warned of the possibility of a “frozen conflict” if a final resolution is not found.
Concerns about the stalled peace process have driven up crude oil prices for more than a week, and Trump’s decision to cancel his envoys’ trip to peace talks in Pakistan last weekend added to the bearish sentiment.
Brent is above the level it reached before the two sides announced a ceasefire in early April, hovering around $112, while West Texas Intermediate surpassed $100 on Tuesday for the first time in two weeks.
Both contracts rose slightly on Wednesday.
“Iran wants the blockade lifted and access to its flows restored,” wrote Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
“Washington has that leverage and is in no hurry to give it up without extracting value.
“Meanwhile, the longer this goes on, the more second-order effects start to appear. Storage pressure increases, production risks arise, and the system begins to strain in ways that futures prices cannot ignore.”
There was little major reaction to the news that key producer the United Arab Emirates had decided to withdraw from the OPEC and OPEC+ oil cartels on Friday, calling it a strategic decision.
Still, cnn It also cited sources familiar with the mediation as saying the two sides were not as far apart as they seemed.
He added that intense diplomacy continued and talks focused on a phased process with the first part of a possible agreement aimed at returning to the pre-war state and reopening the Strait.
Iran’s nuclear program will be addressed in the future, he said.
Stock markets were mixed: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta and Manila rose, while Sydney, Singapore, Seoul and Taipei fell.
Traders received a weak lead from Wall Street, where the Nasdaq led losses due to a tech sell-off that followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, had missed its user and revenue targets.
The news came as markets prepare for earnings releases from Wall Street titans Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft this week.
The Federal Reserve will also conclude a two-day meeting later in the day, with investors closely monitoring its outlook for inflation and interest rates as energy costs soar.
