This content was published on
June 12, 2026 - 07:55
6 minutes
(Bloomberg) — Stocks extended gains and oil fell after President Donald Trump said the US was nearing an agreement with Iran, raising expectations for a diplomatic end to the conflict that’s triggered price swings across financial markets for more than 100 days.MSCI’s Asia Pacific equities gauge climbed 2.7%, led by a 5.5% jump for South Korea’s Kospi — a barometer for AI investments. Some of the gains were pared as global banks curb hedge funds’ leveraged bets on Asia’s top chipmakers, including SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.European shares were set to climb 1.5% at the open. Equity-index futures for Wall Street benchmarks pared earlier advances to trade little changed after Iran said it has not reached a final conclusion on the deal.Investors remain focused on the technology sector ahead of SpaceX’s listing on Nasdaq Friday, after raising $75 billion in the world’s largest initial public offering. Shadow markets are pricing a blockbuster SpaceX stock debut, indicating a pop of at least 35% for Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI company.Brent crude fell 2.2% to about $88.35 a barrel as Trump pulled back from threatened military attacks against Iran, citing discussions that have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership for a negotiated end to the war. Trump said a signing could take place as soon as this weekend in Europe with Vice President JD Vance in attendance.“While the path toward a resolution is likely to be uneven, our base case is that diplomacy ultimately prevails, allowing investors to refocus on resilient economic fundamentals and robust earnings growth,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global equities CIO at UBS Global Wealth Management.The latest push for a deal buoyed risk sentiment by raising expectations that a broader Middle East conflict will be avoided, shifting attention back to corporate earnings and the artificial intelligence-driven rally. A de-escalation would ease a major overhang for markets, lowering the risk of energy-supply disruptions that may boost oil prices and reinforce higher-for-longer interest rates.Treasuries held Thursday’s gains, with yield on the 10-year holding at 4.46%.Trump’s comments had lowered yields across the curve in US trading. Short-term rate contracts that reflect expectations for the Federal Reserve — and had fully priced in a quarter-point increase in the US policy rate by December — shifted the assessment to the first quarter of 2027.Elsewhere, the European Central Bank is prepared to raise interest rates for a second straight meeting next month if the shock from the war in the Middle East requires it, according to Governing Council member Joachim Nagel.The US president’s pullback from threatened military strikes against Iran was a stark reversal that came just hours after he vowed to hit the Islamic Republic and threatened to seize its oil infrastructure.Iran has “not yet” reached final conclusion on a deal with the US, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported, citing Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.“Most of the text of the agreement had been finalized, but the problem began when the American side raised new demands and changed its positions,” it said.In other corners of the market, a Bloomberg gauge of the dollar edged up 0.1% after four days of declines. Gold gave up some up some of its 3.4% rally on Thursday to trade around $4,180 an ounce.Meanwhile, investors are bracing for Friday’s listing of SpaceX, the marquee event for equity markets after the world’s largest IPO.Space Exploration Technologies Corp. was valued at $1.77 trillion at the offer price. Trading in derivatives linked to the stock on online trading platform IG International implied a market value of about $2.4 trillion, signaling expectations for a first-day surge of more than 35%.The company’s debut is expected to remove a “liquidity overhang” that has weighed on markets and contributed to this week’s retreat in tech stocks, said Billy Leung, an investment strategist at Global X Management. Historically, risk sentiment tends to improve in the near term after a major IPO, Leung said.“SpaceX is just the opening act,” said Ritesh Ganeriwal, head of investment at Syfe Pte in Singapore. “With Anthropic and OpenAI likely moving toward public markets, we’re entering a rare window where some of the most consequential private companies of the last decade are becoming investable for mainstream investors.”Corporate Highlights:Adobe Inc. said that its chief financial officer would depart the company, leaving the company without a top tier of veteran leadership after Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen announced in March that he would step aside. Intel Corp. jumped as Bank of America Corp. turned bullish on the chipmaker and upgraded it to a buy rating. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is offering $1.5 billion to acquire Chinese grocery delivery firm Pupu, initiating a bidding war as part of a broader campaign to wrest market share from Meituan in online commerce. Some of the main moves in markets:StocksS&P 500 futures were little changed as of 6:50 a.m. London time Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1% The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 2.6% The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 2.7% Japan’s Topix rose 1.4% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.8% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7% The Shanghai Composite rose 1.4% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 1.5% CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1562 The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 160.32 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.7650 per dollar The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3400 CryptocurrenciesBitcoin was little changed at $63,321.28 Ether fell 0.5% to $1,663.34 BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.47% Japan’s 10-year yield declined 4.5 basis points to 2.635% Australia’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 4.82% CommoditiesSpot gold fell 0.8% to $4,178.86 an ounce West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.1% to $85.88 a barrel This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.–With assistance from Bernadette Toh, Winnie Hsu, Alice French and Abhishek Vishnoi.©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
