Good morning, and welcome to the ABC’s finance blog. I’ll be guiding you through the latest market action for the next few hours.
Oil prices have fallen sharply, with Brent crude futures down 4.5% to $US79.40 per barrel.
This takes prices to a three-month low … or back to where they were on March 2 (shortly after the US and Israel started their war against Iran).
There’s a lot of excitement (arguably too much) about the Strait of Hormuz reopening when the US and Iran formally sign their interim agreement to end the war — at a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday (local time).
Oil also tumbled on reports the US will allow Iran to immediately begin selling oil and fuel once that agreement is signed.
So effectively, it’s a major rollback of economic sanctions against Iran.
So you can expect the huge drop in oil prices to weigh heavily on Australia’s energy stocks later today.
On that front, the local share market is on track to open slightly lower (with ASX futures down 0.3%).
It comes after a mixed performance on Wall Street — the Dow Jones rise 0.6% to a new record high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% and 1.2% respectively.
But first, grab a coffee, tea or whatever you normally have in the morning, and I’ll have more updates for you shortly!
