Oil prices drop as US-Iran nuke talks progress
NEW YORK/LONDON—Oil dropped over 2 percent on Thursday as a potential US-Iran nuclear deal raised the prospect of increased global crude supply, and Wall Street indexes were mixed in choppy trading.
European shares reversed losses to end higher, with corporate earnings in the spotlight, and gold prices jumped over 1 percent.
US producer prices fell unexpectedly in April and retail sales were mixed, data showed on Thursday.
Global equities rose 0.3 percent, while emerging market stocks eased.
US Federal Reserve officials feel they need to reconsider the key elements around both jobs and inflation in their current approach to monetary policy, chair Jerome Powell said during opening remarks at a two-day conference.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey, dealing a blow to prospects for a peace breakthrough.
Brent futures closed down over 2 percent as US President Donald Trump, in the midst of a Middle East tour, said he was getting close to securing a deal with Iran—and that Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said in an NBC interview that the country would commit to never making nuclear weapons and get rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.
BNP Paribas economist Paul Hollingsworth said the drop in oil compounded the deflationary pressures already in play in places like Europe where US tariff worries are lingering.
“Everyone is finding it difficult to navigate the volatility in the announcements,” Hollingsworth said.
In Europe, the continent-wide STOXX 600 index rose 0.6 percent, recovering from earlier losses that were led by the energy sector. Most major regional indexes were higher.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 271.69 points, or 0.65 percent, to 42,322.75, the S&P 500 rose 24.35 points, or 0.41 percent, to 5,916.93 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 34.49 points, or 0.18 percent, to 19,112.32.
