Stocks rose and oil fell sharply Monday morning after President Trump said the U.S. has held talks with a “top person” in Iran and is “very intent on making a deal with Iran.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 900 points, or nearly two percent. The Nasdaq composite and the S&P 500 each rose by more than one percent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped nearly three percent.
Every sector of the S&P 500 was up on Monday morning. The best performing sector was consumer discretionary, one of the sectors that has beaten down by fears that higher gasoline prices could stymie consumer spending elsewhere.
Brent crude futures, the international oil price benchmark, fell below $100, tumbling more than 10 percent. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard, also declined by around 10 percent.
In a Truth Social post, President Trump said the U.S. and Iran had had “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”
In a phone interview with CNBC, the President said “we are very intent on making a deal with Iran.”
Iranian media denied talks had taken place, calling Trump’s reference to talks “psychological warfare.”
Trump told reporters in Palm Beach Monday that his son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff had held talks Sunday evening with “a top person” in Iran.
“They want, very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal too,” he said. “We’re going to get together today by, probably, phone, because it’s … very hard for them to get out, I guess. But we’ll, at some point, very, very soon, meet.”
Trump said that the U.S. might share joint control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran.
Read the full article here