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Yesterday was a relatively quiet day, as markets prepared themselves for the PCE figures released today from the US. The main stories were with regards to oil & US treasury yields, plus the blowout results reported after close from Micron (which will be covered later). Oil continued its post-Iran war fall and is now largely back to pre-war levels, with Brent Crude trading at $74 and US Oil at $70. The result of this was that we saw US treasury yields fall further from their r

The most significant news of the day yesterday was the significant AI selloff in stock markets that began in Korea. In terms of geopolitics, the US and Iran continue to negotiate, though the tone yesterday was a little more combative, with Iran saying the Strait of Hormuz "will never return to its previous state before the war." Markets are seeing this as just another negotiating tactic, however, and the rhetoric yesterday did not cause significant moves. The market remains f

After the back and forth over the weekend, with threats coming from both sides, Monday's talks in Switzerland seemed to bring positive outcomes. Iran cited 'good progress', while US Treasury Secretary Bessent confirmed the US had authorized Iranian oil sales through to the end of August. There now seems to be a clear roadmap on the way to a deal at the end of the 60-day period, something the markets had been betting on throughout. In the UK, there continues to be fallout from

The weekend saw a rocky start to negotiations between the US and Iran in Switzerland. At one point, Iran publicly walked out of the talks as reports continued to emerge of Israeli strikes in Lebanon, after a ceasefire was initially announced between the two on Friday. Iran also claimed on Saturday to have closed the Strait of Hormuz again after the strikes. This was disputed by the US, however, and tracking data seemed to show ships still moving through the Strait. Israel mai

In terms of geopolitics, compared to previous days in the past few months, yesterday was a relatively quiet day. There was some general chatter surrounding the terms of the US/Iran peace deal, but nothing significant that altered the terms already agreed upon. The remaining stumbling block is Israel's actions in Lebanon, whether Israel will agree to cease hostilities there to fully put an end to this period of conflict. Most major leaders have now left France after the G7 sum