This content was published on <\/p>\n
April 2, 2026 – 07:59\n<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) \u2014 Oil jumped, while stocks and bonds fell after President Donald Trump warned the US would hit Iran \u201cextremely hard\u201d over the next two to three weeks, undermining expectations for an imminent resolution to the five-week-old Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n
Brent crude jumped 6.6% to near $108 a barrel as the war kept the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a key artery for Middle East shipments \u2014 effectively shut, tightening supply. The passage would reopen \u201cnaturally\u201d once hostilities subside, the US president said, without providing details or a clear timeline.<\/p>\n
Stocks sold off after Trump\u2019s speech undermined a nascent global rally, as concerns grew that a prolonged war would keep crude prices elevated and weigh on economic growth. A gauge of Asian shares fell 2.5% and futures contracts for the S&P 500 Index dropped 1.4%, signaling the two-day advance in global equities on expectations of easing tensions is unlikely to hold. European shares were primed to open about 2% lower.<\/p>\n
Cross-asset volatility also picked up after Trump\u2019s speech, with the dollar strengthening against \u2014 reinforcing its appeal as the haven of choice during the war \u2014 and Treasuries falling on inflation concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s speech was not what the market had hoped for \u2014 namely, signals pointing toward an end to the conflict,\u201d said Jumpei Tanaka, head of investment strategy at Pictet Asset Management Japan Ltd. \u201cInstead, he suggested a potential escalation. The remarks are being interpreted as a negative factor for the equity market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Optimism had been building in the run-up to Trump\u2019s speech after the president had earlier said he foresaw the US ending the war with Iran within two to three weeks. The change of tone in Trump\u2019s speech damped hopes for a quick conclusion of the conflict that has already roiled financial markets and pushed several equity gauges into correction territory as investors pared risk.<\/p>\n
Trump said the core strategic objectives are nearing completion, in his speech from the White House. The president nevertheless suggested that military operations may soon escalate, saying \u201cover the next two to three weeks, we\u2019re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s latest address was supposed to reassure markets. It didn\u2019t,\u201d wrote Maxence Visseau, founder of investment firm Arkevium. \u201cHe called the operation \u2018close to completion\u2019 but offered no timeline, no exit plan, and critically, no strategy for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Bloomberg\u2019s Strategists Say\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cRisk rallies will remain volatile in the short term and vulnerable to sustained reversals in the longer term because of the likelihood that even the best-case scenario for the conflict will create sustained, deep damage to global supply chains. This week\u2019s back-and-forth looks to be entrenching the likelihood that shipping through Hormuz will remain well short of pre-war levels for a substantial period.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Garfield Reynolds, MLIV Asia Team Leader. Click here for the full analysis.<\/p>\n
In other corners of the market, Bitcoin tumbled with the original cryptocoin falling 2.6% to trade around $66,600. Precious metals were sold off with gold sliding 3.4% to about $4,600 an ounce and silver tumbling 5.7%.<\/p>\n
Treasuries fell across the curve with the yield on the benchmark 10-year rising six basis points to 4.38%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%.<\/p>\n
The Indian rupee strengthened and the country\u2019s bonds extended losses after the central bank stepped in to shore up the currency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market was craving some clarity on when the conflict will finish, but this speech has just added more uncertainty,\u201d said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets. \u201cInvestors are clearly unimpressed and I think we could see more downside for global markets today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s president took the unusual step of issuing a letter addressed to Americans, arguing that his country has no enmity with the US and has acted in self-defense. He warned that \u201ccontinuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before\u201d and noted that attacks on infrastructure directly target the Iranian people.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Trump said that Iran has asked for a ceasefire, adding that the US would only consider it if the Strait of Hormuz was reopened. Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said the claim of a ceasefire request was \u201cfalse and baseless,\u201d according to state TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile everyone wants to move on from this, there is still much to unpack from the past month\u2019s events in the Middle East,\u201d said Ken Wong, Asian equity portfolio specialist at Eastspring Investments Hong Kong Ltd. \u201cThe question now is how much these developments will ripple through the global economy over the coming quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the main moves in markets:<\/p>\n
Stocks<\/p>\n
S&P 500 futures fell 1.4% as of 6:50 a.m. London time Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.8% The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.5% S&P 500 futures fell 1.4% Japan\u2019s Topix fell 1.9% Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 1.4% The Shanghai Composite fell 0.9% Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 2.1% Currencies<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4% The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1526 The Japanese yen fell 0.4% to 159.41 per dollar The offshore yuan fell 0.2% to 6.8902 per dollar The British pound fell 0.6% to $1.3219 Cryptocurrencies<\/p>\n
Bitcoin fell 2.5% to $66,477.79 Ether fell 4.5% to $2,046.35 Bonds<\/p>\n
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 4.38% Japan\u2019s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 2.380% Australia\u2019s 10-year yield advanced 13 basis points to 5.04% Commodities<\/p>\n
Spot gold fell 3.5% to $4,591.27 an ounce West Texas Intermediate crude rose 5.5% to $105.65 a barrel This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.<\/p>\n
\u2013With assistance from Ruth Carson, Momoka Yokoyama, Winnie Hsu, David Finnerty, Mark Cranfield, Aya Wagatsuma and Gabrielle Ng.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This content was published on April 2, 2026 – 07:59 (Bloomberg) \u2014 Oil jumped, while stocks and bonds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,6144,85,46,5268,6145],"class_list":{"0":"post-370734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-general","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-stocks","13":"tag-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}