- Today marks another day of conflict in the Persian Gulf, and the situation in the region remains tense.
- Following the weekend escalation of the Middle East conflict, oil prices surged sharply, briefly approaching $115–120 per barrel. The increase was a reaction to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure and Iran's retaliatory actions against oil facilities in the region, raising concerns about disruptions to global oil supply.
- G7 countries have declared their readiness to release parts of their strategic oil reserves if the market situation demands it. The aim of such a move would be to curb a sudden spike in prices and mitigate the effects of supply disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.
- The mere announcement of a potential intervention by the G7 partially calmed market sentiment and contributed to a drop in oil prices. As a result, the price of a barrel fell below $100.
- U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he is analyzing various options to limit rising oil prices amid tensions in the Middle East. He also mentioned having a plan to stop further oil price increases but did not reveal details about its implementation.
- Wall Street indices remain under pressure, even though some earlier losses have been partially mitigated. At the time of writing, just before 8:00 PM, the Dow Jones is down about 0.7%, the S&P 500 has lost around 0.3%, while the Nasdaq is slightly higher.
- European markets also traded under a clear selling trend today. The UK’s FTSE 100 fell more than 0.3%, France’s CAC 40 dropped nearly 1%, Germany’s DAX declined about 0.8%, and Spain’s IBEX 35 decreased over 0.7%.
- In January, German industry recorded a sharp drop in orders by 11.1% month-on-month, far exceeding the forecasted 4.5%, offsetting December’s 6.4% increase. Domestic orders decreased by 16.2%, foreign orders by 7.1%, while industrial production fell by 0.5%.
- On the precious metals market, gold is down about 0.5%, hovering around $5,100 per ounce. Silver is performing better, rising about 1.7% and approaching $85 per ounce again. Palladium and platinum are gaining similarly, both up more than 4% today.
- Natural gas (NATGAS) futures are down more than 6% in today’s trading.
- On the cryptocurrency market, sentiment is positive. Most altcoins are gaining value today. Bitcoin itself is up over 3.5% to above $68,000, and Ether has risen more than 4%, surpassing $2,000.
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