From 27m agoIntroduction: Oil rising back towards $100...Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Global investors are clinging to hopes that a US-Iran peace deal could be close, but optimism could be waning after fresh US strikes in the Middle East.Brent crude oil is creeping back towards the $100 a barrel mark, up 2.5% today at $98.57 a barrel, having dropped below that $100 mark yesterday for the first time in a fortnight.US and Iranian negotiators are in Doha to discuss a potential end to the three-month war, after Donald Trump declared last weekend that a peace deal with Iran “has been largely negotiated”.However, yesterday US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines, which has created some doubts that a deal is genuinely close.Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank suggests the US attacks were “a warning shot that the ceasefire is fragile”, explaining:
double quotation markThese actions were described as “defensive” and not an end to the ceasefire with Iran.
Net net, optimism is still elevated that an agreement can be made to end the war. We have been here before, of course, but it has felt for some time that the move towards peace has been three steps forward and one or two back.
