London (AFP) – Oil prices fell and stock markets traded steadier Wednesday after recent volatility, as Donald Trump said US and Iranian representatives met for “very good” talks at the United Nations. The US president added that the three-hour meeting was “very productive” and that the two countries “have another one scheduled in the very near future.”
Trump’s statements came just hours after he delivered a bellicose address to the United Nations, saying he faced a “big decision” on whether to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly.” Brent North crude, the international benchmark, remained under $100 per barrel on hopes of diplomatic progress towards ending the Middle East conflict.
Stephen Innes at Quintex Intel noted that the UN “meeting matters because it shifts the market from pure (war) escalation pricing toward a genuine diplomatic process, even if a final deal still looks distant.” The OECD on Wednesday said that global economic growth had been “resilient” in many countries despite the war, as it slightly raised its economic output forecasts for 2026. Oil prices were dampened also by a report that the world’s biggest crude exporter Saudi Arabia had rebooted operations along its East-West Pipeline — a crucial oil export route shut down by drone attacks. The kingdom is aiming to resume exports later this week, Bloomberg quoted a source as saying.
But while Saudi oil giant Aramco reportedly told Asian refiners they could soon pick up crude from the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the firm told their European counterparts they will not be allocated oil in October, Bloomberg said.
In stock markets trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down one percent, shrugging off an announcement by Chinese tech giant Alibaba that it would expand its overseas data centres. The firm, one of the frontrunners in China’s AI industry, said the move would target markets across Europe and the Middle East. Shanghai ended with a loss of 0.4 percent. Alibaba’s announcement follows a renewed burst of confidence in artificial intelligence this week, with Anthropic and OpenAI releasing new, cheaper AI models within hours of each other. Anthropic’s release comes a few weeks before its expected stock market debut. OpenAI has delayed its IPO plans until next year.
South Korea’s tech-rich Kospi and Taiwan’s Taiex index — home to chipmaking titan TSMC — gained nearly one percent. In Europe, London edged higher nearing midday deals, while eurozone indices largely dipped.
**Key figures at around 1015 GMT:**
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.1 percent at $99.15 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.9 percent at $89.73 per barrel
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,718.26 points
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,147.75
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 25,466.02
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 24,834.12 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,936.52 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: closed for a holiday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1409 from $1.1451 on Tuesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3281 from $1.3344
Dollar/yen: UP at 157.83 from 157.37
Euro/pound: UP at 85.92 pence from 85.81 pence
burs-bcp/ajb/cw
© 2024 AFP
