Brent crude falls below $80 as Iranian oil tankers ‘resume shipping’
The benchmark oil price has just slipped below $80 a barrel for the first time since the early days of the Iran war, as traders remain confident about the US-Iran peace deal.
Brent crude just dipped as low as $79.96 a barrel, its lowest since Tuesday 3 March – in the first week after the US-Israel attacks on Iran began.
This means that Brent has fallen by $15 a barrel since last Thursday, before optimism began building that Washington and Tehran might reach an agreement.
Oil added to its earlier losses after Iran state media reported that Iranian oil tankers have resumed shipping following the deal with Washington.
A state television reporter explained:
double quotation mark“Three Iranian oil tankers are currently sailing in the northern Indian Ocean, and two others carrying essential goods and livestock feed are en route and sailing towards southern ports.”
The reporter added that “the operation to lift the naval blockade has been implemented”, which suggests that the US naval blockade has been eased.
As reported earlier, European allies at the G7 summit don’t appear to share Donald Trump’s optimism that the strait of Hormuz will reopen by Friday.
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Updated at 08.56 EDT
Key events
Closing summary
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Brent oil has fallen below $80 a barrel for the first time in more than three months after the US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices fell after Iran state media reported that Iranian oil tankers have resumed shipping, and after Washington and Tehran both virtually signed the agreement to end a US blockade of Iranian ports, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and start 60 days of nuclear negotiations.
Our Middle East liveblog has all the latest developments:
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised interest rates to a 31-year high as it tries to dampen inflationary pressures created by the Iran war.
Thames Water has moved a step closer to nationalisation after the UK environment secretary has objected to a £10bn rescue proposal for the troubled utility firm, because it would place an “undue burden” on consumers.
SpaceX has overtaken Amazon’s valuation, as its shares jump in its third day’s trading since its floated last Friday.
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Wall Street’s main indices are mixed in early trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average has jumped by 325 points, or 0.6%, to 52,000 points, lifted by IBM (+2.6%) and JP Morgan (+1.9%).
The broader S&P 500 is up just 0.1%, though, and the tech-focused Nasdaq is down 0.1%.
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SpaceX overtakes Amazon’s market capitalisation
Wall Street is open… and SpaceX has overtaken Amazon’s market capitalisation.
The rockets-to-satellites-to-AI company’s shares have risen by 8% at the start of trading in New York, as investors digests its $60bn deal to buy the maker of coding app Cursor (see earlier post).
This lifts SpaceX’s market capitalisation to over $2.7tn, Bloomberg TV have rapidly calculated, ahead of Amazon with $2.65tn.
SpaceX’s shares are now changing hands at $207.83, having floated at $135 each on Friday.
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Updated at 09.41 EDT
US housing starts drop to lowest rate since 2020
New construction of private housing in the US has slumped to its lowest level in six years, when the Covid-19 pandemic was hitting America’s economy.
Privately-owned housing starts in May fell by 15.4% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,177,000, the lowest since May 2020.
This may be a sign that the jump in mortgage rates, and the rise in raw material costs, since the Iran was began is hurting the US housing market.
The US Census Bureau also reported that US single-family homebuilding fell to an eight-month low, while starts for housing projects with 5 units or more, a very volatile segment, plunged 41.6%.
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Updated at 09.37 EDT
The aluminium price is also falling, on optimism that supplies from the Middle East will pick-up once the strait of Hormuz reopens.
Benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange has fallen as low as $3,334 a metric tonne today, its lowest since March 27.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted supplies from the Middle East, which accounts for 9% of global aluminium smelting capacity. It has also limited shipments of the raw materials needed to produce aluminium, Reuters points out.
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EU lawmakers clear US trade deal
Lisa O’Carroll
The European Parliament has given its final approval to legislation implementing last July’s tariff agreement with Donald Trump.
Ahead of a threat to increase tariffs if the deal was not sanctioned by 4 July, the MEPs agreed to approve the deal but with two main provisons.
The first is a “sunset clause” which will see the deal expire on 31 December 2029 unless otherwise renewed.
It will also set what it described as “clear conditions” on tariff reductions on products containing some steel and aluminium, tariffs that Trump has imposed under national security laws rather than the tariff regime he institution on “liberation day” last April.
Under the deal the US applies 15% on most EU exports while in turn, the EU has cut to zero import duties on some US goods and some agricultural product.
The deal is now expected to be formally adopted by EU leaders who meet in Brussels on Thursday.
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Brent crude falls below $80 as Iranian oil tankers ‘resume shipping’
The benchmark oil price has just slipped below $80 a barrel for the first time since the early days of the Iran war, as traders remain confident about the US-Iran peace deal.
Brent crude just dipped as low as $79.96 a barrel, its lowest since Tuesday 3 March – in the first week after the US-Israel attacks on Iran began.
This means that Brent has fallen by $15 a barrel since last Thursday, before optimism began building that Washington and Tehran might reach an agreement.
Oil added to its earlier losses after Iran state media reported that Iranian oil tankers have resumed shipping following the deal with Washington.
A state television reporter explained:
double quotation mark“Three Iranian oil tankers are currently sailing in the northern Indian Ocean, and two others carrying essential goods and livestock feed are en route and sailing towards southern ports.”
The reporter added that “the operation to lift the naval blockade has been implemented”, which suggests that the US naval blockade has been eased.
As reported earlier, European allies at the G7 summit don’t appear to share Donald Trump’s optimism that the strait of Hormuz will reopen by Friday.
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Updated at 08.56 EDT
Yum Brands to sell Pizza Hut for $2.7bn
A Pizza Hut fast food restaurant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters
In the restaurant sector, Yum Brands is selling Pizza Hut in a $2.7bn deal, after strugging to compete with rivals in the pizza business.
Private equity firm LongRange Capital has agreed to buy Pizza Hut, excluding its operations in Mainland China, after “a comprehensive review of strategic options” that began last November.
Pizza HutChina will be acquired by Yum China Holdings.
The deal will allow Yum to focus on its other three brands – KFC, Taco Bell, and Tabit Burger & Grill.
Chris Turner, chief executive officer at Yum! Brands, explains:
double quotation mark“These transactions enable Yum! to be a more focused company that continues to leverage scale, technology and talent to accelerate our raising the B.A.R. priorities and deliver sustained value for our stakeholders.
“Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will be well positioned for future growth with ownership that brings deep expertise in the restaurant industry. Pizza Hut is one of the most iconic restaurant brands in the world, and we are proud of the important role it has played in Yum!’s history. Pizza Hut was built by the passion and dedication of our team members, employees and franchisees, and we’re excited for the next chapter.”
Yum began reviewing Pizza Hut’s future after it reported several quarters of declining same-store sales in the US, facing competition from Domino’s, and from third-party delivery apps.
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European gas prices have dipped a little today, adding to Monday’s falls.
The month-ahead UK gas contract is down 0.8% at 100.19p a therm. That still leaves it above its levels before the Iran war began, when it traded below 80p a therm, but below March’s high of 180p a therm.
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The head of the International Energy Agency has said it is essential to “unconditionally” opening the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf tanker traffic, to end the oil and gas price shock.
IEA chief Fatih Birol told a press conference:
double quotation mark“The single most important solution to this problem is the fully and unconditionally opening up of the state of Hormuz to shipping.”
Birol also “warmly” welcomed the US-Iran deal, calling it “great news” that “will give a comfort to the markets”, adding:
double quotation mark“The crisis has started almost four months now.”
Last month, Birol warned that oil markets would enter the “red zone” by July and August, unless the strait was reopened.
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SpaceX to buy Cursor firm Anysphere for $60bn
SpaceX has just revealed it is acquiring code-generation startup Cursor for $60bn in stock, just days after Elon Musk’s company floated on the US stock market.
In an SEC filing, SpaceX says it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, under which Cursor will become a wholly owned subsidiary.
The merger is expected to close during the third quarter of 2026.
Cursor uses artificial intelligence to automate coding. The deal could give xAI, the Grok chatbot maker that SpaceX merged with in February, a stronger foothold in the AI coding market where it has so far lagged rivals. It also provides Cursor with more computing capacity to develop AI models.
Back in April, SpaceX secured an option to either acquire Cursor for $60bn, or pay $10bn for their new partnership.
Cursor shareholders will receive shares in SpaceX, based on the average closing price over the seven consecutive trading days before the Merger closes.
SpaceX’s shares are set to jump by 9% when trading begins on Wall Street later today, having jumped around 19% on Friday – the day they floated – and another 19% yesterday.
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Updated at 06.55 EDT
Global investors are less pessimistic about the growth outlook, according to a poll of fund managers from Bank of America.
BoA reports:
double quotation markA net 1% of investors think global growth will slow over the next twelve months, down from 36% in April.
A net 11% now expect European growth to accelerate over the coming twelve months, versus a net 16% that saw a slowdown last month, though this is still well below the net 60% expecting better growth in February before the start of the Iran war.
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The drop in the oil price is also pushing down government borrowing costs.
The yield, or interest rate, on UK 10-year bonds has dipped by 0.67% to 4.781%, close to the two-month low set yesterday.
That will take some fiscal pressure off Britain’s government, and held Rachel Reeves keep to her ambition of not raising taxes in the coming months (see earlier post).
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Two Iran-linked tankers sailing through Hormuz
In an encouraging development, two Iran-linked tankers are sailing eastward through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Musik is in the strait, while the Argo Maris has already passed through and is in the Gulf of Oman, but is still within the US blockade line that runs from the easternmost tip of Oman to the Iran-Pakistan border.
A chart showing traffic through the strait of Hormuz Photograph: LSEG
Bloomberg reports that satellite imagery shows Musik loaded a cargo at Iran’s Bandar Imam Khomeini port deep in the Persian Gulf on June 10. Argo Maris was seen departing the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in late May, according to shiptracking firm Kpler.
They add:
double quotation markIt’s unclear if they will attempt ship-to-ship transfers at points such as Sohar or Fujairah, wait near the US blockade line, or attempt to cross it.
Both vesesels appear on a list of officially blacklisted tankers for transporting Iranian oil.
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