Iran Tensions Rattle Markets as Trump Scraps Nuclear Deal
Trump declared the Iran MoU dead, sending oil surging and stocks sliding. Fed minutes also leaned hawkish.
If you went to bed Tuesday night expecting calm markets, Wednesday had other plans. President Trump escalated his rhetoric toward Iran significantly overnight, declaring that the memorandum of understanding with Tehran is effectively finished and calling continued negotiations "a waste of time." He went further, describing Iranian leaders as "a bunch of liars" — not exactly the language of a diplomat warming up for another round of talks.
The backdrop here matters. This isn't just tough talk in a vacuum. The U.S. reportedly struck more than 80 Iranian targets, Iran fired back at commercial shipping, and the ceasefire that markets had been quietly relying on appears to be fraying fast. Trump did leave a small door open — saying U.S. negotiators *could* keep talking if they wanted to — but the overall vibe was unmistakably hawkish.
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Financial markets read the room quickly. Crude oil shot higher as traders priced in potential supply disruptions from the Middle East. U.S. equity futures and government bonds both came under pressure, while the dollar caught a bid as the classic safe-haven playbook kicked in. Basically, if you owned oil or dollars going into the session, you had a decent day.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve dropped its June meeting minutes, and they carried their own hawkish flavor. A "few" participants floated the idea of raising interest rates, and the broader group flagged elevated upside risks to inflation while noting that employment concerns had eased somewhat. That combination — geopolitical risk abroad plus a Fed that isn't rushing to cut rates at home — made for a genuinely uneasy Wednesday across currency and commodity markets.
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