Good morning, and welcome to the ABC’s finance blog. I’ll be guiding you through the latest market action for the next few hours.

It’s fair to say markets have no idea what to make of all the mixed messaging coming out of the White House about how soon war in the Middle East will end.

How soon will the war end?

On the one hand, US President Donald Trump suggested vaguely that the war could be over “very soon” in an attempt to calm the markets down, after their most brutal sell-off since the introduction of his “Liberation Day” tariffs last year.

However, his defence secretary Pete Hegseth has since told reporters that today would be the “most intense” day of strikes against Iran.

US officials contradict each other

Then you’ve got Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, posting misinformation about the latest situation in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping activity has ground to a halt as a result of Iran’s attacks on vessels passing through that narrow passageway.

In a social media post overnight, Mr Wright said “the US Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets.”

But later, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that was not true.

“I was made aware of this post,” Ms Leavitt told reporters.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to the energy secretary about it directly. However, I know the post was taken down pretty quickly.”

Market reaction

Despite the confusion about what’s going on, markets are surprisingly chill this morning.

Brent crude futures dropped 8.1%  to around $US91 per barrel.

That’s a huge drop, considering it spiked to around $US120 earlier this week on fear of a global oil shortage leading to an inflation spike.

Wall Street, meanwhile, finished relatively flat. The closing figures are:

Dow Jones: -0.1% to 47,707 pointsS&P 500: -0,2% to 6,781 pointsNasdaq Composite: unchanged at 22,697 points

The Australian share market, meanwhile, is expected to open slightly higher. ASX futures are pointing to a 0.3% gain when the local trading day begins.