Oil Prices Plummet 6% After US and Iran Pause Strikes

The single sharpest fact in one or two punchy sentences. Donald Trump's envoy said he was giving talks some space after the US and Iran held their fire, leading to a 6% fall in international benchmark Brent crude to around $86 a barrel.

The truce came after the US and Iran resumed hostilities earlier this month, breaking a fragile truce, after the Islamic Republic attacked ships passing through Omani waters in the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a pattern of escalation.

Crude prices soared on the flare-up, with Brent breaking back above $100 a barrel last week for the first time since May. 'Although the situation in the Middle East has calmed, it has not been resolved, and it could make a decline below $85 per barrel tricky at this stage,' said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB Trading Group.

David Morrison at Trade Nation said that 'investors are hoping that this could be a precursor to a resumption in peace talks.' The calmer situation eased worries about a resurgence in inflation and a fresh round of interest rate hikes, helping lift equity markets Monday.

Early gains on Wall Street failed to hold, with only the Dow in positive territory in late morning trading, with tech stocks continuing to drag down the Nasdaq Composite. 'When a calming of Middle Eastern hostilities fails to provoke a major up day in stocks, you know there is more trouble ahead,' said Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at online trading and investing platform IG.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to stand pat on interest rates on Wednesday, with the Bank of England set to follow suit Thursday. 'Policymakers face a difficult trade-off between evidence that inflation had been moderating and growing signs that higher oil prices could create a more persistent inflation shock,' said Jim Reid, managing director at Deutsche Bank.

In Asian stock market trading, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Shanghai all advanced. Investors are also awaiting earnings from South Korea's SK hynix and Samsung and Japan's Kioxia this week, while US titans Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon are due to update, with a focus on their outlooks and spending plans.

The share price of China's leading memory chipmaker, CXMT, rocketed more than 500 percent on its market debut in Shanghai to become the mainland's most valuable company before later paring the gains to end up 465 percent. The company had raised $9.8 billion in a blockbuster initial public offering, making it China's biggest mainland tech share sale.