Trump Scraps Iran Deal, Sending Oil Prices Surging 6%
President Trump declared the US-Iran memorandum of understanding dead Tuesday, triggering a broad market selloff and a sharp spike in crude prices.
President Donald Trump abruptly terminated the US-Iran memorandum of understanding Tuesday while attending the NATO summit in Ankara, declaring the ceasefire deal finished and calling Iran "dirty players" and "scum." Iran swiftly condemned the move as a "blatant violation" of the existing agreement, effectively resetting relations between the two countries to a state of open confrontation.
Oil markets reacted immediately and sharply. WTI crude surged 6% to $74.70 per barrel, while Brent crude climbed 5.5% to $78.30 — a dramatic single-session move that reflects how much of a geopolitical risk premium traders had stripped out of energy prices during the period of diplomatic engagement. The reversal underscores how quickly supply-threat calculus can reprice crude when a major Middle East producer faces renewed US pressure.
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Beyond oil, the broader risk mood deteriorated fast. European equity indices fell more than 2% on the session, while S&P 500 futures dropped 1% and Nasdaq futures slid 1.4%, compounding losses from the prior day. Bonds sold off too, pushing 10-year Treasury yields up 5 basis points to 4.58%, approaching the June high — a sign that markets are simultaneously pricing geopolitical risk and reassessing the rate outlook.
Gold, typically a safe-haven beneficiary in risk-off environments, bucked that pattern. The metal fell 1.4% to $4,050, weighed down by rising rate-hike expectations alongside the Iran escalation. Silver dropped 2.3% to $58.65. Bitcoin also retreated 2.5% to $62,108. The dollar held firmer across major pairs, with EUR/USD flat near 1.1410 and USD/JPY edging up 0.2% to 162.40.
Trump further rattled markets at the Ankara summit by threatening to cut trade ties with Spain over what he characterized as insufficient NATO defense spending, and by revisiting his Greenland ambitions with renewed intensity — adding multiple geopolitical fault lines to an already unsettled trading session. Continue reading at Forexlive.
