Oil slumps on hopes of Iran deal, yen firms after intervention

By Nell Mackenzie and Ankur Banerjee

LONDON/SINGAPORE, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell sharply portion European banal markets jumped connected Monday arsenic hopes of a bid woody successful the Middle East grew, portion the yen firmed to a three-month precocious aft the U.S. and Japan confirmed ‌joint involution to enactment the anemic currency.

Brent crude futures sank $4.50, much than 5%, to $83.40 a tube aft U.S. President Donald Trump said talks ‌with Iran volition hap connected Monday. He had earlier called disconnected an onslaught connected Iran to prosecute a woody to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. [O/R]

European shares ticked up 0.4% Monday to commencement August connected ​a steadfast note. The German DAX notched an intra-day grounds and was past up 1.3%.

"For equity markets, the cardinal representation remains encouraging," said Bruno Schneller, managing spouse astatine multi-family bureau Erlen Capital Management.

"Earnings person mostly held up well, and companies with beardown pricing powerfulness and resilient concern models proceed to outperform."

S&P 500 futures roseate 0.5% portion Nasdaq futures gained 0.6%.

Over fractional of the S&P 500 constituent companies person reported net truthful far, with 86% of firms beating net expectations, probe connected Monday from Florian Ielpo, ‌head of macro astatine Lombard Odier Investment Managers, noted.

Asian ⁠stocks struggled arsenic the caller period began aft a turbulent July marked by chaotic swings arsenic investors fretted implicit monolithic superior spending connected AI and whether it volition supply returns rapidly enough.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 1%, portion South Korea's KOSPI slid much than ⁠5%. This weighed connected the MSCI's broadest scale of satellite shares leaving the flat.

YEN BEARS COWER AFTER JOINT INTERVENTION

The Japanese yen strengthened implicit 0.5% to 156.70 per U.S. dollar aft a abrupt determination earlier successful the time to its strongest since aboriginal May of 155.2, putting traders connected alert for different bout of intervention.

Japan and the U.S. conducted coordinated ​yen-buying involution ​and volition not hesitate to instrumentality further action, Japan's concern ministry said connected Monday, confirming ​a uncommon bilateral enactment to halt the yen's descent to ‌40-year lows.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent besides said the United States would see expanding successful coming months the size of the Federal Reserve's repurchase installation providing impermanent dollar liquidity, calling the instrumentality an "important backstop".

"Bessent's comments arguably transportation much value than the involution itself," said Matt Simpson, elder marketplace expert astatine StoneX. "It feels similar a harmless stake that the Japanese yen has troughed for the year. The words 'joint intervention' transportation a batch of value successful these markets and is simply a word seldom used."