Oil prices fall as progress in US-Iran talks eases supply concerns

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell about 1% on Monday after nuclear talks between the United States and Iran progressed, reducing the concerns that the dispute will reduce supply from the major Middle Eastern producer.

Brent crude futures slipped 70 cents, or 1.03%, to USD 67.26 a barrel at 0030 GMT after closing up 3.2% on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at USD 64 a barrel, down 68 cents, 1.05%, after settling up 3.54% in the previous session. Thursday was the last settlement day last week because of the Good Friday holiday.

The US and Iran agreed on Saturday to begin drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after talks that a US official described as yielding “very good progress.”

The progress on the nuclear discussions follows further sanctions by the US last week, including against a China-based teapot oil refinery that it alleges processed Iranian crude, ramping up pressure on Tehran amid the talks. Teapot is an industry term for smaller, independent processors.

Concerns about tightening Iranian oil supply and hopes for a trade deal between the United States and the European Union, pushed both Brent and WTI up about 5% last week, their first weekly gain in three weeks.

Separately, Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Sunday for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, with both sides accusing the other of hundreds of attacks and the Kremlin saying there was no order for a ceasefire extension.

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Gold climbs as softer dollar, tariff tensions buoy demand

Gold prices gained on Tuesday, helped by safe-haven demand as US President Donald Trump’s uncertain tariff plans kept investors on edge, while an overall weaker dollar also lent support.

Spot gold was up 0.6% at USD 3,230.18 an ounce as of 1:47 p.m. ET (1747 GMT). Bullion hit a record high of USD 3,245.42 on Monday.

US gold futures rose 0.4% to settle at USD 3,240.40.

“Traders are waiting for the next major fundamental development to drive the gold market, but the charts remain bullish. There’s still safe-haven demand,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals.

Federal Register filings on Monday showed the US administration is advancing investigations into pharmaceutical and semiconductor imports in a bid to impose tariffs.

Trump said on Sunday he would announce the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week.

The price of gold, a safe haven during times of political and financial uncertainty, has risen over 23% so far in 2025 and scaled multiple record highs.

“The rise in the gold price is also partly in line with the continuing weakness of the dollar, which points to a gradual erosion of the US currency’s status as a safe asset – gold is likely to be an alternative for many USD investors,” Commerzbank said in a note.

“The short-term monetary policy outlook is providing further support for gold.”

The dollar neared a three-year low against its rivals, making gold more attractive for other currency holders.

Financial markets expect the Federal Reserve to resume cutting interest rates in June after pausing in January, and reduce its policy rate by 100 basis points this year.

Investors now await comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, for more clues on the interest rate path.

Elsewhere, spot silver eased 0.1% to USD 32.32 an ounce and platinum rose 0.9% to USD 959.75, while palladium gained 1.7% to USD 972.57.

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Ishaan Arora in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Fenton, Shreya Biswas, and Richard Chang)

Wall Street ends down slightly; tariff uncertainty keeps investors on edge

NEW YORK – US stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday as tariff uncertainty stayed high and shares of consumer and healthcare companies eased, while upbeat results from banks provided some support.

Shares of Bank of America and Citigroup rose following their results.

Still, bank executives warned that US consumer spending faces huge risks if the upheaval sparked by President Donald Trump’s trade policy goes on.

Among the biggest weights on the Dow was Boeing. The stock fell 2.4% after Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that China has ordered its airlines not to take further deliveries of Boeing jets in response to the US decision to impose 145% tariffs on Chinese goods.

Federal Register filings on Monday showed the Trump administration was also proceeding with probes into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, as part of a bid to impose tariffs on the sectors.

Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs sparked turmoil in the market and fueled worries about a global trade war and possible recession. Trading has been more subdued this week, but investors have been unable to focus on much else.

“Earnings have been pretty good, but this is a market that’s just beset by tariff and trade uncertainty and those are really the only catalysts that matter at this point,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.

“On a day where you’re bereft of those (catalysts), it’s kind of a wayward market, and we’re seeing that today.”

Johnson & Johnson’s shares ended down 0.5% after the company missed estimates for sales of medical devices, despite beating Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue and profit.

Barclays on Tuesday downgraded the US auto and mobility sector, saying Trump’s tariffs could pressure automakers’ earnings. Shares of Ford closed down 2.7% while shares of General Motors fell 1.3% and the S&P consumer discretionary index slipped 0.8%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.83 points, or 0.38%, to 40,368.96, the S&P 500 lost 9.34 points, or 0.17%, to 5,396.63 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 8.32 points, or 0.05%, to 16,823.17.

Also in the healthcare space, shares of Merck & Co. ended 1% lower.

Bank of America topped estimates for first-quarter profit as interest income grew, and its shares ended up 3.6%.

S&P 500 companies have just begun to report results for the quarter ended March 31, but changes in US trade policy are muddying the outlook, and executives could be reluctant to give earnings guidance.

“As far as the results from Q1, those basically occurred in a world that doesn’t really exist anymore,” Mayfield said. “It’s going to be about guidance, and I expect a lot of companies to just kind of punt and rescind their guidance.”

Johnson & Johnson’s chief executive said that tariffs on pharmaceuticals can create supply-chain disruptions and that favorable tax policies would be a more effective tool to boost US manufacturing capacity of both drugs and medical devices.

Strategists are also paying close attention to their technical charts after the S&P 500’s 50-day moving average slipped below the 200-DMA on Monday, producing a “death cross” pattern that suggests a short-term correction could turn into a longer-term downtrend.

The S&P 500 remains down 12.2% from its February 19 record-high close and down about 8% for the year to date.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.29-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 49 new highs and 67 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,399 stocks rose and 2,003 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.2-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 27 new highs and 95 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 15 billion shares, compared with the roughly 19 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Additional reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)

Dollar gains on euro, yen, but tariffs keep investors cautious

NEW YORK – The dollar rose against the euro and yen on Tuesday, showing tentative signs of recovery following a sharp selloff that saw the dollar index tumble more than 3% last week.

Investors nonetheless remain cautious on concerns about the impact of US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on the US economy.

Rapid shifts in tariff announcements have reduced faith in US policymakers and led investors to seek calmer waters outside of the United States, which last week sent Treasury yields sharply higher and dented the appeal of the greenback.

“The dollar has been primarily driven by asset flows rather than traditional short-term drivers such as rate differentials,” said Vassili Serebriakov, FX and macro strategist at UBS, adding that “it does appear that the market is driven by a rethink of US exceptionalism.”

Factors driving the move away from the US include “the slowdown in the US economy, uncertainty about tariffs, broader US policy uncertainty, improved sentiment towards Europe, rotations out of US tax, things like that,” Serebriakov said.

Data on Tuesday showed that US import prices unexpectedly fell in March, pulled down by decreasing costs for energy products, the latest indication that inflation was subsiding before Trump’s sweeping tariffs came into effect.

Trading this week has so far been relatively calm but investors remain cautious as they wait on further tariff clarity.

“Last week was all about deleveraging, liquidation, and asset re-allocation out of US assets. This week’s tone is calmer in what is a holiday-shortened week,” said Prashant Newnaha, senior Asia-Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities.

Most US markets will be closed for this week’s Good Friday holiday though foreign exchange will remain open.

The euro was last down 0.70% on the day at USD 1.127, after last week reaching a three-year high at USD 1.1473.

Euro/dollar is one of the most overvalued currency pairs, showing that the single currency is acting as “the preferred channel for loss of confidence in the dollar,” ING analysts Francesco Pesole and Benjamin Schroeder said in a note.

The shift from US to European assets, combined with the diminished safe-haven appeal of the dollar, may continue to justify the euro’s overvaluation, they added.

German investor morale in April posted its strongest decline since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 due to uncertainty unleashed by US tariffs, data showed on Tuesday.

Eurozone banks also curbed firms’ access to credit last quarter and expect to keep tightening credit standards due to increasing concerns about the economic outlook, the European Central Bank’s lending survey showed.

The ECB is expected to cut rates by 25 basis points when it concludes its two-day meeting on Thursday.

The dollar gained 0.12% against the Japanese yen to 143.16 yen per dollar, not far off Friday’s six-month low of 142.05.

Japan will seek full removal of additional tariffs imposed by Trump, its top negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Tuesday, ahead of his scheduled three-day visit to Washington.

The dollar gained 0.91% to 0.822 Swiss francs after slumping to a 10-year low against the Swiss currency last week.

Sterling was up 0.15% at USD 1.3209 after earlier reaching USD 1.3252, the highest since October 3.

The Australian dollar rose 0.32% to USD 0.6345 and the New Zealand dollar rose 0.39% to USD 0.5899 and earlier reached USD 0.5943, its highest since November 13.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin fell 0.52% to USD 84,436.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell; Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Amanda Cooper; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Kim Coghill, Joe Bavier, Giles Elgood, Franklin Paul, and Sandra Maler)

Global investors dump US stocks at record pace, BofA survey says

LONDON – Global investors have slashed their holdings of US stocks by a record amount in the past two months, a trend that is likely to continue given that a record number of managers say they plan to keep cutting their exposure, BofA Global Research said on Tuesday.

Respondents to BofA’s monthly survey of fund managers were a net 36% underweight in US equities, the most in nearly two years, a number that has plunged by 53 percentage points since February, the biggest such fall on their records.

A majority think a trade war that triggers a global recession is the biggest risk for markets, according to the survey.

US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plans have sparked a selloff in US assets, including stocks, the dollar and Treasury bonds. The market rebounded on Monday, but the broad-market S&P 500 index is still down about 8% so far this year.

BofA polled 164 investors with USD 386 billion of assets under management.

There were further signs of nervousness in the survey, particularly about U.S assets.

A net 42% of investors said they expected a global recession, the most since June 2023 and the fourth-highest level in the past 20 years.

In addition, 73% said they thought the theme of “US exceptionalism” has peaked – the idea has powered markets in recent months – and relatedly 49% said they thought the most crowded trade in markets was now “long gold”, displacing bets on US tech giants for the first time in 24 months.

A net 61% expect the US dollar to depreciate over the next 12 months, the most since May 2006. The currency has tumbled sharply against most others in the past few weeks, with the euro, Japanese yen and Swiss franc all gaining sharply.

(Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Hugh Lawson)

US Treasury secretary: no risk of China weaponizing Treasuries despite bond market volatility

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Tuesday, dismissed concerns over China weaponizing its Treasuries despite bond market volatility and added there was no risk of China potentially using its robust Treasury pile to inflict economic pain on the United States.

“If Treasuries hit a certain level or if the Federal Reserve believed that a foreign — I won’t call them an adversary — but a foreign rival were weaponizing the US government bond market or attempting to destabilize it for political gain, I am sure that we would do something in conjunction with each other, but we just haven’t seen that,” Bessent said. “We have a big tool kit.”

China is the second-biggest foreign holder of US government debt after Japan, holding almost USD 761 billion of bonds in January.

“If they (China) sell Treasuries, then they would have to buy RMBs, and it would strengthen their currency. And they’ve been doing just the opposite,” Bessent said, adding that it is not in China’s best economic interests to sell.

US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods this year as part of broader reciprocal duties on all US trading partners. That prompted ridicule and criticism from Beijing, which retaliated by jacking up levies on US goods to 125%.

Beijing has called Trump’s tariffs strategy “a joke,” which irritated Bessent.

“These are not a joke. I mean these are big numbers,” Bessent has previously said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Any US-China negotiations would have to come from “the top,” involving Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Bessent added.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Global bond funds log biggest weekly outflows in over five years

Global bond funds saw their largest weekly outflow in over five years in the week to April 9, as investors pulled back even from traditionally safer bonds amid recession fears and an escalating US-China trade war that are stoking concerns over inflation in the United States.

According to LSEG Lipper data, investors withdrew a net USD 25.71 billion from global bond funds during the week, the biggest amount for a week since April 1, 2020.

US Treasuries saw heavy selling this week after President Donald Trump escalated the trade war with China, lifting tariffs on Chinese imports on Wednesday to an effective rate of 145% and fuelling concerns that Beijing could raise its own duties. China did take that step on Friday, hiking its tariffs on US imports to 125%.

The benchmark 10-year US treasury yield has so far increased about 45.5 basis points to 4.45% this week, the biggest increase in a week since November 2001.

Some analysts said the selloff in US bonds signals a shift in global confidence, with Treasuries, long seen as the bedrock of the financial system, coming under strain from rising geopolitical tensions and doubts over US financial dominance.

By region, investors pulled a net USD 15.64 billion from US bond funds in the week to April 9, logging the biggest weekly net sales in over 27 months. Investors also ditched USD 12.72 billion worth of European funds, while Asian funds saw about USD 289 million worth of net inflows.

The high-yield bond funds and loan participation funds saw intense selling pressure as investors divested these funds to the tune of USD 15.92 billion and USD 6.69 billion respectively during the week.

Safe-haven money market funds saw a second straight week of net inflows, drawing in USD 25.8 billion.

Investors also pulled USD 10.7 billion from global equity funds amid sharp market volatility.

Sectoral equity funds posted record weekly outflows, led by financials, healthcare, and tech, which saw net redemptions of USD 3.23 billion, USD 1.21 billion,n and USD 867 million, respectively.

At the same time, gold and precious metals funds saw net inflows of USD 1.03 billion, marking their ninth straight week of gains.

Among emerging market funds, equity and bond funds logged their biggest weekly outflows in over four months, at USD 4.9 billion and USD 3.6 billion, respectively.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Gold soars past USD 3,200 as trade war deepens, dollar loses ground

Gold blazed past the USD 3,200 mark on Friday, as a faltering dollar and an escalating US-China trade war stirred recession fears, sending investors flocking to the safety of the yellow metal.

Spot gold was up nearly 2% at USD 3,235.89 an ounce at 2:32 p.m. ET (1832 GMT), after hitting a record high of USD 3,245.28 earlier in the session. Bullion is up over 6% this week.

US gold futures rose 2.1% to settle at USD 3244.6.

“Gold is clearly seen as the favoured safe-haven asset in a world upended by Trump’s trade war. The US dollar has depreciated, and US Treasuries are selling off hard, as faith in the US as a reliable trading partner has diminished,” said Nitesh Shah, commodities strategist at WisdomTree.

China increased its tariffs on US imports to 125% on Friday, raising the stakes in a confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.

The dollar fell against its peers, making greenback-priced bullion cheaper for overseas buyers.

A combination of central bank buying, US Federal Reserve rate cut expectations, geopolitical instabilities and a surge of investor flows into gold-backed ETFs has also supported gold’s rally this year.

US monthly producer prices unexpectedly fell 0.4% in March, but tariffs on imports are expected to drive inflation higher in the coming months.

Traders now bet that the Fed will resume cutting rates in June and see around 90 basis points worth of cuts by the end of 2025.

“A minor correction (for gold) wouldn’t surprise, but the path forward is up and away as CPI and PPI give the Fed more room to cut and will keep downward pressure on the dollar,” said Tai Wong, an independent metals trader.

Non-yielding gold, a traditional hedge against global uncertainties and inflation, also tends to thrive in a low interest rate environment.

But certain developments could cap gold’s rise, UBS analysts said in a note, including “easing geopolitical tensions, a return to more cooperative trade relations, or a significant improvement in the US macro and fiscal backdrop.”

Spot silver gained 3.2% to USD 32.18 an ounce, while platinum fell 0.2% to USD 936.36. Palladium advanced 0.7% to USD 914.87.

(Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Nia Williams)

China has considered opening its USD 520 billion ETF market to Western market makers, sources say

HONG KONG – China has been looking at allowing Western firms such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street to act as market makers in its rapidly growing exchange-traded fund (ETF) sector, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Over the last two years, Chinese authorities have issued more licenses and encouraged the development of domestic market makers. But international market makers are more experienced in providing liquidity to ETFs and the move would boost trading efficiency and lower costs, the people said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The sources cautioned, however, that the escalating trade war with US that has seen China saddled with tariffs of 145% this year could delay Beijing’s official green light for US firms.

ETF market makers serve as liquidity providers, offering continuous bid and ask quotes for ETF shares which allow investors to trade the products efficiently and at lower cost. Licenced market makers in China enjoy lower fees and less restrictions in trading.

Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities and Jane Street, two of the largest market-making firms in the US, as well as Amsterdam-headquartered Optiver may be the first to benefit when the market is opened up, according to one of the people and a third source.

Citadel Securities applied in January to set up its own securities broker unit in China.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, Citadel Securities and Jane Street did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Optiver declined to comment.

China’s ETF sector has expanded 134% over the past two years to be worth USD 510 billion, driven by strong inflows from state capital that has propped up the stock market. It is now the second-largest ETF market in the Asia Pacific region after Japan’s, which is worth USD 620 billion.

Foreign financial firms have in recent years been granted wider access to China’s domestic securities, funds and insurance sectors.

Even so, many foreign firms have trimmed headcount in mainland China and pared back expansion plans, concerned about slow growth for the world’s second-biggest economy and the rise in geopolitical tensions.

Last year, firms doing so included Fidelity International, Morgan Stanley, and Legal & General.

(Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)

Brent, WTI prices climb more than USD 1 on possible Iran crude restriction

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude climbed more than USD 1 on Friday after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the United States could end Iran’s oil exports as part of an effort to bring the Islamic Republic to terms over its nuclear program.

Brent crude futures settled at USD 64.76 a barrel, up USD 1.43, or 2.26%. US West Texas Intermediate crude finished at USD 61.50 a barrel, up USD 1.43 or 2.38%.

“Strict enforcement of restrictions on Iranian crude exports would reduce global supply,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. “I suspect China will continue to buy oil from Iran.”

Wright’s comments provided upward momentum for oil prices, following volatile price swings this week as US President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime forced traders to reassess the geopolitical risks facing the crude market.

“The US being a geopolitical risk is new for the market,” said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital. “We’ll have this reordering of the chessboard like we did after Russia invaded Ukraine.”

China announced on Friday it will impose a 125% tariff on US goods starting on Saturday, up from the previously announced 84%, after Trump raised tariffs against China to 145% on Thursday.

Trump this week paused heavy tariffs against dozens of other trading partners, but a prolonged dispute between the world’s two biggest economies is likely to reduce global trade volumes and disrupt trading routes, weighing on global economic growth and reducing demand for oil.

“Although the implementation of some tariffs, excluding those on China, was delayed by 90 days, the market damage had already been inflicted, leaving prices struggling to regain stability,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

The US Energy Information Administration on Thursday lowered its global economic growth forecasts and warned that tariffs could weigh heavily on oil prices. It reduced its US and global oil demand forecasts for this year and next year.

China’s 2025 economic growth is expected to fall relative to last year’s pace, a Reuters poll showed, as US tariffs raise pressure on the world’s top oil importer.

The impact of tariffs could be “catastrophic” for developing countries, the director of the United Nations’ trade agency said.

ANZ Bank analysts forecast oil consumption will decline by 1% if global economic growth falls below 3%, said senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba, Robert Harvey, and Sudarshan Varadhan, additional reporting by Arunima Kumar; Editing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan, Jane Merriman, Nia Williams, and Rod Nickel)

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