Bitcoin is stuck at $67,000 and has barely moved in a week straight after the speaker of Iran’s parliament on Sunday called pre-market news a “reverse indicator” and said if markets dump long trades, if they pump you short. Since then, this call has been implemented step by step.
That same night, S&P 500 futures fell nearly 1% as fears of war grew. Two hours later at midnight, those losses were completely wiped out and futures turned green.
Then at 7:25 a.m. EST, Donald Trump posted that “significant progress” had been made in the peace talks, sending the S&P 500 up 100 points from its low. About seven hours later by 3:00 PM ET, this move was completely reversed, with the index down 100 points from its high.
This equates to roughly $2 trillion in market cap of the S&P 500 in a matter of hours.
As US futures opened on Monday night, the pressure was back on. S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.7%, and Dow Jones futures fell 145 points, or 0.3%.
Oil added more fuel to the volatility. Prices jumped after reports that Iran struck a Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters. Officials in Dubai said that all 24 crew members were safe and there were no injuries. Brent crude rose 2% and West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3%.
Meanwhile, in Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi fell more than 4% and the KOSDAC fell more than 3%, while the won weakened 0.63% to 1,526.9 per dollar, its lowest level since 2009.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.2% and the Topix lost 1.4%. Australia’s ASX 200 index fell by 0.56%. Hong Kong futures fell to 24,683 points from the last close of 24,750.8 points.
Returning to the regular session in the United States, the S&P 500 fell 0.39% for the third loss in a row, the Nasdaq fell 0.73%, and the Dow Jones rose 49.50 points, or 0.11%.
The S&P 500 is now down just over 9% from its recent closing high, with technology stocks leading the downside after falling more than 1%.
