The Latest: Trump muses about regime change in Iran after U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities
Israel's military said Monday it was striking around Iran's western city of Kermanshah, as fears of a wider regional conflict loomed large after the United States inserted itself into Israel's war by attacking Iranian nuclear sites .
The operation raised urgent questions about what remained of Tehran's nuclear program and how its weakened military might respond. The price of oil rose as financial markets reacted.
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Morgan Stanley's Wilson Says Geopolitical Selloffs Fade Fast
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ASX falls to three-week low on Iran fears
The Australian sharemarket slipped to a three-week low on Monday, despite Commonwealth Bank reaching a new record high, on the back of fears an Iranian response to the US bombing could see the price of crude oil skyrocket. On a volatile day of trading, the benchmark ASX200 fell 30.6 points or 0.36 per cent to 8,474.9 on Monday – its lowest point since June 3 – although it rallied from down nearly 1 per cent during the afternoon's trading. The broader All Ordinaries also slumped, down 35.50 points or 0.41 per cent to close the session at 8,688. The Aussie dollar also fell on the news out of Iran and is now buying US64.18c. On an overall volatile day, eight of the 11 sectors finished in the red, with financials and the energy sector leading the way. IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said the sell-off was in line with US futures on well-founded fears after the US conducted strikes with B-2 Stealth Bombers on three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend. 'The US insists the strikes were aimed at halting Iran's nuclear ambitions, not regime change, but Trump's rhetoric suggests openness to further action, Mr Sycamore said. 'You would have been forgiven for thinking we would have a really volatile session on Monday. 'Whether it's just caution or because we have seen nothing from Iran just yet to shake things up further … we are in a hold until we know more.' One of the bright spots on the ASX was the financial sector, with Commonwealth Bank hitting a fresh record high of $184.41, before closing up 1 per cent to $184.35. Mr Sycamore said Commonwealth Bank remains a 'juggernaut that steamrollers people.' 'I don't know where it stops and when it stops but it's the best of the banks and that is the sector where people want to be,' he said. Overall, it was a mixed day for the major banks, with Westpac closing up 0.63 per cent to $33.42. National Australia Bank slipped on the bell, down 0.08 per cent to $38.88 and ANZ dropped 0.63 per cent to $28.21. Energy stocks, which initially bounced on the opening bell, trimmed their earlier gains in line with the oil price but still closed the day in the green. Takeover target Santos closed 1 per cent higher to $7.78 while Woodside Energy traded flat and Ampol gained 0.47 per cent to $5.86. Iron ore miners continued their weakness with market heavyweight BHP slumping 1.57 per cent to $35.64, Rio Tinto dropping 0.33 per cent to $101.83 and Fortescue Metals sliding 1.02 per cent to $14.54. In company news, shares in Australia's largest airline Qantas fell 1.85 per cent to $10.08 on the back of higher oil prices. Discounted retailer The Reject Shop announced shareholders had overwhelmingly voted in favour of a $259m takeover by Canadian discount retailer Dollarama at a meeting on Monday. Homewares and furniture retailer Adairs plunged 20.5 per cent to $2.05 after telling the market that full-year earnings would come in below last year's. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
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Iran's supreme leader asks Putin to do more after US strikes
By Parisa Hafezi and Guy Faulconbridge ISTANBUL/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Iran's supreme leader sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Monday to ask President Vladimir Putin for more help from Russia after the biggest U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution over the weekend. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and about regime change, a step Russia fears could sink the Middle East into the abyss. While Putin has condemned the Israeli strikes, he has yet to comment on the U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites though he last week called for calm and offered Moscow's services as a mediator over the nuclear programme. A senior source told Reuters that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was due to deliver a letter from Khamenei to Putin, seeking the latter's support. Iran has not been impressed with Russia's support so far, Iranian sources told Reuters, and the country wants Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the United States. The sources did not elaborate on what assistance Tehran wanted. The Kremlin said that Putin would receive Araqchi but did not say what would be discussed. Araqchi was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying that Iran and Russia were coordinating their positions on the current escalation in the Middle East. Putin has repeatedly offered to mediate between the United States and Iran, and said that he had conveyed Moscow's ideas on resolving the conflict to them while ensuring Iran's continued access to civil nuclear energy. The Kremlin chief last week refused to discuss the possibility that Israel and the United States would kill Khamenei. Putin said that Israel had given Moscow assurances that Russian specialists helping to build two more reactors at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran would not be hurt in air strikes. Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran's nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. But Putin, whose army is fighting a major war of attrition in Ukraine for the fourth year, has so far shown little appetite in public for diving into a confrontation with the United States over Iran just as Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
