Must read: Iran hopes boost share prices, oil down
ii’s head of investment rounds up the morning’s big news.
10th March 2026 08:55
by Victoria Scholar from interactive investor
Global markets
Oil markets are in the midst of the biggest bout of volatility since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. WTI and Brent crude are down around 8% each today, giving back some gains after Brent surged past $100 to a peak of $119 a barrel on Monday. Those gains were supercharged by concerns about the threat to global supply with the Strait of Hormuz essentially shut amid the Iran war. On top of that Saudi Arabia and other countries have started cutting output because storage has been filling up.
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Market sensitive headlines continue to create wild swings for energy prices, with the latest declines driven by comments from President Trump suggesting the war could end ‘very soon’. Also helping ease the energy spike, G7 finance ministers said they would be prepared to release energy stockpiles, although said they are ‘not there yet’ and Trump said he is considering easing sanctions on Russia.
In terms of other market reaction, the US dollar is easing, helping to support gains for gold and silver. On the equity side, renewed risk appetite sparked a rally overnight for stocks in Asia, with the Nikkei up nearly 3% and the Kospi gaining over 5%.
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On Wall Street, US futures are pointing to a higher open, extending gains after yesterday’s volatility that ended with Wall Street averages in the green. The tech heavy Nasdaq led the charge to close 1.38% higher.
Trump’s comments suggesting that he is striving for peace have also lifted European equities, with banks and travel & leisure gaining, while oil equities are under pressure. BP (LSE:BP.) and Shell (LSE:SHEL) are at the bottom of the FTSE 100 while BA’s parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG), easyJet (LSE:EZJ) and Barclays (LSE:BARC) are among the top gainers.
The conflict in the Middle East and the spike in energy prices have led to concerns about inflation. This has drastically reshaped the market’s interest rate outlook.
UK rate futures now point to a roughly 50% chance of one quarter point Bank of England cut later this year, a sharp downgrade from before the Iran war when there was an 80% chance of a cut this month. The European Central Bank has warned about higher inflation and weaker growth and is now expected to raise interest rates by July.
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