Market Commentary: Thursday 9th April

Yesterday’s market optimism slightly faded after Iran said three clauses of the ceasefire proposals had been breached. Asian shares fell 0.9%, and WTI crude rose 3.4% to $97 per barrel.

The White House has announced that Vice President JD Vance will lead a delegation to hold direct talks with Iran in Islamabad. Two Chinese oil tankers, carrying crude from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, are approaching the Strait of Hormuz and are on track to become the first non-Iranian vessels to cross the strait since the US–Iran ceasefire. However, several vessels previously turned back, and safe passage is still not guaranteed.

On the corporate side, Meta debuted its latest AI model, Muse Spark. It is a closed model, unlike Meta’s prior open-source strategy, with a number of larger models in the development pipeline. Meta’s shares rose 7% yesterday following the announcement.

On today’s calendar, we have US Q4 GDP and US weekly initial jobless claims at 1:30 PM.

• Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $70,930.84
• Ether fell 1.2% to $2,182.65
• Spot gold fell 0.1% to $4,714.38/oz

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