Oil has plunged to $99 a barrel. Trump said: Iran will give up nuclear weapons

Brent crude oil fell to $99 a barrel - markets reacted to the words of US President Donald Trump that Iran has allegedly agreed to give up nuclear weapons, writes Barron's.

"They will no longer have nuclear weapons. They're agreeing to that," Trump said while standing on the runway at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida.

April futures for WTI fell to $86.95 per barrel on the back of this news - by more than 11% against the closing level on Friday, March 20.

Tehran has previously denied information about talks with the US. Axios, citing an unnamed Israeli official, reported that White House representatives were in dialog with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, including talks about ending U.S. involvement in the war with Iran.

"This is clearly an attempt to influence [the situation] against the backdrop of [Friday's] collapse [in the market] that we saw," said Elias Haddad, head of global markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman (quoted by Reuters). - "We're seeing sort of an impulsive reaction to this positive news," he added, noting that Trump's statements "definitely gave room for a partial unwinding of the 'fear trade'." However, "a more sustained rally in risk assets will depend on whether this is a real de-escalation [of the conflict] or just a pause before the next round of escalation," Haddad said.

At the end of trading on March 20, two major U.S. stock indices - Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite - approached the correction zone, having fallen from their February highs by about 9.8%. At the same time, the S&P 500 index lost about 7% from its peak in late January.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor