Closing summary
Oil prices have gone back above $100 a barrel again.
Reversing earlier declines, Brent crude is now 2.1% ahead at $100.57 a barrel, after Iran seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz, tightening its grip on the strategic waterway. Overnight, Donald Trump extended the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, until Tehran comes up with a peace proposal.
While Wall Street is higher, European stock markets have fallen, with the FTSE 100 index down 20 points, or 0.2%, at 10,476.
Germany’s Dax has slipped 0.25%, France’s CAC is down 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB is flat.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are both up 0.8% and the Dow Jones has gained 0.9%.
Tradres placed a series of bets worth $430m on a drop in crude oil prices (which materialised this morning) just 15 minutes before the US president announced the ceasefire extension, Reuters reported.
It is the fourth time that large, well-timed bets on the oil price were made shortly before major announcements on the Iran war.
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Airports in the EU have welcomed new measures today designed to stave off a summer flight crisis amid fears of aviation fuel shortages.
Olivier Jankovec, head of Airports Council International’s Europe region, said the decision by the EU to set up a command centre to monitor supplies across the bloc was the right thing to do.
He said passengers had no need to panic.
No airport in Europe is currently facing jet fuel shortages, and flight operations are proceeding normally. But the plan adopted today is the adequate strategy and response to mitigate potential jet fuel shortage risks, given how uncertain the situation remains over the resumption of the safe and stable passage through the strait of Hormuz.
Earlier today the European Commission announced five measures including emergency schemes to help cushion the spike in the cost of living caused by the Iran war.
It includes short term measures such as fuel vouchers for vulnerable but other initiatives aimed at accelerating the building of a renewable energy grid across Europe.
Energy commission Dan Jørgensen warned that the price hikes in gas could last months if not years as it would take Qatar, the main gas supplier in the Gulf two years to rebuild its bombed plants.
He also said Europe could face aviation fuel shortages within five to six weeks.
