Stocks edge up, dollar steady as ceasefire buoys confidence
The dollar languished close to an almost four-year low versus the euro, with two-year U.S. Treasury yields sagging to 1-1/2-month troughs as lower oil prices reduced the risk to bonds from an inflation spike.
The shaky truce has so far held, although Israel says it will respond forcefully to Iranian missile strikes that came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an end to the hostilities.
In addition, U.S. airstrikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, according to a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment, contradicting Trump's earlier comments that Iran's nuclear programme had been "obliterated".
Europe's Stoxx 600 index edged up 0.2% in early trade, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were flat.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.3% and mainland Chinese blue chips gained 1.44%, closing at their highest level since March 20.
An MSCI index of global stocks held steady after pushing to a record high overnight.
"If the still tense situation in the Middle East does indeed continue to calm down, the stock markets could have a pleasant July ahead of them, in line with their typical seasonal pattern," analysts at Frankfurt-based Metzler said.
"This would result in new all-time highs in the U.S., possibly further fuelled by renewed expectations of interest rate cuts by the Fed."
A series of U.S. macroeconomic data released overnight including on consumer confidence showed possibly weaker than expected economic growth in the world's largest oil consumer, bolstering expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts this year.
Brent crude rose 2% to $68.43 per barrel, bouncing a bit following a plunge of as much as $14.58 over the previous two sessions. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up as much to trade at $65.60 per barrel.
"While concerns regarding Middle Eastern supply have diminished for now, they have not entirely disappeared, and there remains a stronger demand for immediate supply," analysts at ING wrote in a note to clients.
The two-year U.S. Treasury yield was at its lowest since May 8 at 3.7848%.
The euro slipped 0.1% to $1.1594, still close to the overnight high of $1.1641, a level not seen since October 2021, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against six major counterparts, was only slightly higher at 98.079.
Gold rose marginally to about $3,328 per ounce.
Aside from geopolitics, U.S. monetary policy continues to dominate investor concerns.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that higher tariffs could begin raising inflation this summer, a period that will be key to the U.S. central bank considering possible rate cuts.
Markets continue to price in a roughly 19% chance that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter point in July, according to the CME FedWatch tool. - Reuters
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an hour ago
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By Professor Mohd Nazari Ismail BDS Malaysia Chairman Recently, the prime minister announced that US President Donald Trump is coming to Malaysia to attend the ASEAN summit, which is scheduled to take place at the end of October. This pleased Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim so much that he told Trump that he would be announcing the visit to the Malaysian parliament. The display of pride and happiness when he made the announcement was a stark contrast to the anger and disgust on his face when he spoke on previous occasions about how the Western governments were aiding Israel in committing genocide in Gaza. This very puzzling inconsistency is made worse by the fact that the US is the leading supplier of weapons used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. Since Germany recently announced that it will no longer supply Israel with weapons that can be used in Gaza, the US will be the ONLY supplier of such weapons. To make matters worse, Trump had recently announced to the world that he had managed to force many world leaders to 'kiss his ass' to negotiate for a lower tariff on exports from their countries to the US. These countries most certainly include Malaysia, which negotiated hard to reduce the tariff from 25 per cent to 19 per cent, whilst there were zero tariffs imposed on almost all US products exported to Malaysia. In addition, Malaysia agreed to invest in the US and purchase more American products, including additional orders of Boeing aircraft valued at tens of billions of dollars. There are differences in opinion on whether this deal benefits the US more than Malaysia since the US is Malaysia's third most important export destination, after China and Singapore. Moreover, the sectors that are involved – electrical and electronic products, palm oil and rubber employ a substantial number of workers. However, it can also be argued that the US, especially its consumers, will lose more by the imposition of high tariffs on Malaysian exports. Therefore, an alternative strategy is to call Trump's bluff, which was China's strategy. That could have imposed more pressure on Trump since his priority is to remain popular among American voters. In any case, what was more concerning was the reticence of the PM on whether he had raised the issue of Palestine with Trump during their telephone conversation. If the PM did not use the opportunity to pressure Trump to stop sending weapons to Israel, then that is indeed very saddening. All this while, the PM has been so vocal in saying that the world must do something to stop the genocide in Gaza. He should have used the opportunity to make Trump realise that Malaysians can never tolerate a leader who continues to be the leading enabler of the killings of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian women and children. The whole world is now aware of what is happening in Gaza. Children are being deliberately shot by Israeli snipers, or blown to pieces by bombs and shredded into pieces of meat, either by being crushed by falling buildings or driven over by giant bulldozers. Now, Israel is deliberately making sure the Gazans will starve to death by blocking food from coming into Gaza. Hundreds are now dead due to starvation, and hundreds more are slowly dying of hunger, including babies. Based on the announcements made by Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, it is very clear that Israel plans to occupy Gaza completely and displace as many Palestinians as possible. Israel's ultimate plan at the end of the genocide is to carry out ethnic cleansing of the remaining Palestinian population, which is a crime under international law. Israel can do this with impunity because of the unwavering backing by the US. The US is still supplying Israel with fighter jets, bulldozers and bombs that are being used to commit genocide in Gaza. In other words, Israel's impunity and deliberate crime of genocide in Gaza is due to the iron-clad support it is getting from Trump. When asked by a reporter about his response to Netanyahu's plan to take over Gaza City and displace more Palestinians, Trump said that it is up to Israel. In other words, Trump is deliberately allowing Israel to force Palestinians to leave their homes and their homeland permanently. Therefore, if Malaysia is serious about trying to protect the Palestinians, the minimum the prime minister should have done is to tell Trump directly to his face that the US should stop enabling Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. Instead, he exchanged pleasantries with Trump before extending the invitation to him to attend the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur. So, where does that leave Malaysia's stated policy of unwavering support for Palestinians in their fight for freedom from the settler-colonial Zionist regime and her oft-expressed utter disgust with the parties that are enabling the genocide in Gaza? Malaysia has to rise above rhetoric and be consistent in its support for the Palestinian cause lest it too would be accused of hypocrisy, a charge that Malaysia itself has often levelled at the Western governments. It is still not too late for the prime minister to send a message to Trump that, because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which the US is very much involved, he is not welcome to visit Malaysia. Prof. Mohd Nazari Ismail (Phd.) is the chairman of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (Malaysia) and Director of the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies, in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Malaya. If you'd like your opinion shared on TRP, please send it via email at editorial@ with the title 'OPINION:' or through social media on TRP's Get more stories like this to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter.
