Iran continues to reaffirm that US demands have been “unserious” and “unrealistic”
- US proposals have been 'unserious’, and its demands 'unrealistic’
- Tehran has clearly stated its demands and will not change them
- We do not believe in deadlines or ultimatums when it comes to safeguarding national interests
Tehran is definitely being quite vocal about the situation here to start the new week. Adding to this is that its military spokesperson has also come out to say that it is “ready to confront the US after aggression against Iranian ship". That refers to the seized Iran-linked vessel from the US naval blockade.
In any case, the message from Iran seems to be that they are looking to want to maintain a hard line in negotiations. But as mentioned earlier, being uncompromising has always been their default negotiating position from the start. It doesn’t mean that they will not sit down to discuss things. We saw in the weekend before this past one that they were certainly willing to come to the table to talk.
For now, markets are still very much taking things in stride. Is it a case of traders and investors waiting on Trump to come to the rescue with another TACO moment? That was very much the case last Monday and it could be that markets are waiting for a repeat.
Oil prices have stuck with the gap higher, with Brent crude up over 6% to $95.85 and WTI crude also up over 6% to near $88 (June contract). Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures are down 0.6% but have kept thereabouts in the past few hours without much notable movement.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.