Trump Talks Iran, Oil Prices Fall Amid Geopolitical De-Escalation
President Trump announced on August 3 that talks with Iran are underway to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the Middle East. He stated that the first stage of negotiations is to reopen the strait and the second stage is denuclearization. The US remains firm that Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons.
The president's comments led to a sharp decline in oil prices, with WTI crude falling 0.61% to $80.3 per barrel and Brent crude dropping 0.45% to $79.58 per barrel. This is due to the reduced risk premium for geopolitical disruptions.
On the stock market, all three major US indexes rose on Monday, with the Dow Jones closing at 53,178.41 (+1.32%), the S&P 500 closing at 7,600.50 (+1.48%), and the Nasdaq closing at 25,913.90 (+2.13%). Tech giants Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) led the gains, with their market caps reaching new highs.
Amazon's market cap surpassed $3 trillion for the first time, driven by strong recognition of long-term demand for cloud and AI infrastructure. The company had previously invested in OpenAI and AWS cloud growth remains robust.