SINGAPORE/LONDON: Although uncertainty about the Iran conflict continues to disrupt energy supplies, raising fears about fuel inflation and interest rates, stocks increased on Friday following recent strong selling, aided by reduced oil prices.
At 4:47 p.m., the price of oil was less than $100 a barrel. Saudi time, but it is still almost 37% higher than when Israel and the US attacked Iran nearly two weeks ago. Shortly after granting a partial 30-day reprieve for purchases of sanctioned Russian oil in an effort to reduce prices driven by the US-Israeli war on Iran, President Donald Trump declared that the US will be hitting Iran “very hard over the next week.
Following sharp drops on Thursday that saw the S&P 500 close 1.5 percent lower, US futures indicated gains, with S&P 500 e-minis increasing 0.4 percent. Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, stated, “It could simply be the case that we’ve had two or three days of pretty aggressive selling across the board, and there’s simply a degree of exhaustion coming in.” He stated, “The crude benchmark is a little softer, and everything is still taking its lead from where oil is trading.
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