FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop after Trump threatens harder strikes on Iran; Oil at four-week high
Welcome back to the CityAM liveblog.
Oil prices have reached a four-week high after the Strait of Hormuz became too unsafe for ships travel through following the exchange of strikes between the US and Iran.
Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – tipped over the $87 per barrel mark on Tuesday breaching its highest level since 12 June, before a ceasefire was inked.
The yield on 10-year gilts also blew past five per cent on Tuesday, before giving up some gains, in a major blow to the government’s cost to borrow.
The US Central Command said it completed a “seven-hour wave” of strikes to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews”.
Donald Trump has also threatened to ramp up the military action, warning Iran will be hit “very hard” in the coming days.
“Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’ll knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate,” he told Fox News.
He also didn’t rule out a ground campaign, saying, “Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us”.
The President has, however, backed down on his floated plans for 20 per cent toll on ships using the Strait of Hormuz area.
He posted on Truth Social that he would replace what he called a “20 per cent United States Reimbursement Fee” with trade and investment deals with Gulf states in the region.
We’ll be bringing you the latest market updates and analysis.
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