Sharp increases at the opening on Wall Street; Oil prices are falling

15:35

After four consecutive weeks of declines, Wall Street opens the week with sharp price increases, after President Trump extended his ultimatum to Iran by five days and declared that the US is in negotiations with it to end the conflict. The Nasdaq index jumps about 1.6%, the S&P 500 adds about 1.5% to its value and the Dow Jones advances at a similar rate.

Following the announcement of the contacts between the US and Iran, oil prices drop by over 7%. Brent oil fell below the $100 per barrel mark and traded around $98, while the price of a barrel of American oil fell to around $90 per barrel.

15:23

Geothermal Energy Company Ormat Technologies Completed the issuance of convertible bonds with an expanded scope of 1 billion dollars, after the participants in the issuance exercised the option to expand the raising. Ormat issued convertible bonds bearing an annual interest of 1.5% due in 2031, in the amount of 825 million dollars; and convertible bonds bearing 0% interest due in 2031, with an option for the holders to demand that the company purchase the debt from them within a year, to the extent of 175 million dollars.

Ormat CEO Doron Belsher said that demand was high, and that Ormat chose to raise money in the convertible bond market “since it provided an optimal combination of low interest and no interest, financial flexibility for the company and reduced dilution for the shareholders compared to other alternatives.”

The Autotec company Mobileye Global announced that it was chosen by a leading American car manufacturer to integrate its MDS driving monitoring system. The start of production is planned for 2027, and the win expands the scope of features in the existing ADAS (driver assistance system) project, and is expected according to Mobileye to be included in millions of vehicles in several models and model years.

14:51

stock Tower Jumps about 7% in early trading on Wall Street and completes a jump of 35% since the beginning of the year.

The company announced today a collaboration with Coherent Corp, which deals in the field of optical communications, in which they announced a technological breakthrough of data transfer at a rate of Gbps/lane 400 gigabit per second per channel using a silicon modulator (Mach-Zehnder Modulator) MZM based on Tower’s silicon-photonics (SiPho) platform ready for serial production. This achievement forms the basis for a significant leap forward to optical transceivers (transceiver) at a rate of 3.2 terabits and expands the application capabilities in silicon for advanced optical connectivity in data centers, including Pluggable and CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) solutions.

The optical fiber optics market continues to grow at an accelerated rate beyond previous market forecasts, and the demand for the next generation of bandwidth is becoming a key element in driving the exponential growth of artificial intelligence infrastructures. This achievement is a precise and strategic response to this demand.

14:01

On Wall Street, the futures moved to sharp increases following the extension of Trump’s ultimatum. Nasdaq jumps by about 2%, Dow Jones by 2.7% and S&P 500 by 2.5%.

At the same time, oil prices are also falling and recovering – Brent oil is trading at $103 after trading around $113 this morning.

Trump has just announced on social media that the ultimatum has been rejected. “I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the State of Iran held, during the last two days, very good and productive talks regarding a full and final solution to the conflicts between us in the Middle East.

Based on the nature and tone of these in-depth, detailed and constructive talks, which will continue throughout the week, I ordered the army to postpone any military attack against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a period of five days, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”

According to sources with knowledge of the matter, the Iranian news agency Fars reported that there is no direct communication with the United States, not even through intermediaries, according to Reuters. It was also reported that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, withdrew from his position after being told that Iran would direct attacks against all power plants throughout West Asia.

Ronan Menachem, Chief Market Economist at Bank Mizrahi says that “we are witnessing a sharp drop in oil prices, although they remain at least $10 above the level that preceded the crisis, because the markets will want to be convinced that at the end of the 5-day lull the campaign will indeed be completely over. This is the market that could have been damaged the most by the further escalation of tensions and its focus on energy facilities, and therefore it will also hesitate to return to the opening levels before the talks will become completely clear”

10:19

The stock markets in Europe also opened with sharp declines – Frankfurt falls by 2%, Paris and London by 1.5%.

The precious metals continue to weaken sharply, despite the geopolitical background: the price of gold fell by about 7.8% to a level of about $4,126 per ounce in the London spot trade, while gold futures contracts lost almost 10% and fell to around $4,119, the lowest levels in recent times. In a weekly summary, gold fell almost 10%, the worst week since 2011, and is now about 25% lower than the record recorded at the end of January.

Silver also registered a sharp weakness: the spot price fell by about 8.3% to about $62.24, an annual low and almost half of the level of about $117 at the end of February, with a further drop of about 11.7% in the futures contracts.

The overall picture is clear: in spite of war and uncertainty, investors are exiting the properties of “Safe Beach” – not because of a decrease in risk, but because of stronger macro pressure of rising real interest rates, a strong dollar and a need for liquidity.

08:42

At the same time as the declines in Asian stock exchanges, the prices of precious metals continue to fall – gold contracts fall by 4% this morning to $4,370 per ounce, silver falls by 5.5% to $65.5.

The metals market clearly signals a change in focus on the part of investors, when a horizontal decrease was recorded – gold by about 3.1%, silver by about 4.6% and copper by about 4.2% – which at first glance seems contrary to the tense geopolitical environment, but in practice reflects a deeper macroeconomic dynamic: not a demand for a “safe haven”, but pressure from rising real interest rates, the strengthening of the dollar and tightening liquidity conditions.

When real yields rise, interest-bearing assets become more attractive compared to non-yielding gold, raising the opportunity cost of holding it and leading to sales. At the same time, a strong dollar weighs on global demand for metals, as they are priced in US currency, while an environment of reduced liquidity causes investors to sell “safe” assets as well to generate cash or switch to yield-generating channels.

Thus, despite the background of security tensions, the market signals that the monetary forces – and especially interest rates and the dollar – are the ones currently leading the way.

05:54

In the shadow of the war in Iran and the fear of escalation, Asian stock markets are falling this morning. The trend is particularly noticeable in Seoul, where the Kospi index was cut by more than 5%. Even in Japan, the negative trend continues, with the Nikkei index losing close to 4%. Since the beginning of the month, these two indices have weakened by a double-digit rate of more than 10%. At the same time, government bond yields reached an eight-month high, and in the US there is already talk of a possible interest rate hike later this year. Wall Street contracts are now pointing to declines of up to 0.4%.

The price of oil is climbing slightly, with a barrel of Brent trading for $107, and American oil for just under $100. Gold, on the other hand, has been in free fall in recent days, as the price per ounce stands at less than $4,400. In doing so, gold is on track for its sharpest monthly decline since October 2008, although looking at the beginning of the year the yield is still positive.

The current trigger for concerns is an exchange of threats between the US and Iran. Iran announced on Sunday that it will attack the energy and water systems of its neighbors in the Gulf if US President Donald Trump carries out his threat from Saturday night to attack critical energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. With this, hopes are fading in the markets that the war, which has entered its fourth week, will end soon.

Patty Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned that the crisis is “very serious” and worse than the two crises that hit the oil market in the 1970s, the Arab oil embargo in 1973 and the revolution in Iran in 1979, from the effect of the war between Russia and Ukraine on the natural gas market together. “The most important solution to this problem is the opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” he concluded.