Main developments
Pakistan’s military chief Asim Munir has arrived in Tehran as part of a high-level push to secure an end to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Donald Trump said the conflict could end “almost immediately”, raising expectations that a deal with Tehran was near. “I view it as very close to being over,” he added.
The US president also said further negotiations between the two sides could happen in the “next two days”. Iran has yet to commit to more talks.
Lebanese officials said efforts were under way to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah militants that could be announced “soon”. Any deal would likely be linked to how long a truce between the US and Iran holds.
A ceasefire would likely come into effect “this week” after Israeli forces had taken the Hizbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, a person familiar with the matter said.
The S&P 500 hit a record high as investors hoped an end to the war was close. Brent crude edged up but was still below $100 per barrel.
Iran’s top military command centre threatened to shut off all trade in the Red Sea as well as the Gulf if the US blockade of the country continued.
S&P 500 hits record high as markets surge back from Iran shock
The S&P 500 has hit a record high, as strong corporate earnings and investor optimism over a US-Iran peace deal drive a sharp rebound from losses suffered in the early weeks of the war.
The blue-chip index rose 0.8 per cent on Wednesday, closing above 7,000 for the first time.
The fresh high — which came after President Donald Trump said the war could end “almost immediately” — caps the biggest 10-day gain for the S&P 500 since the rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic sell-off in 2020, as investors turn their attention from the Middle East energy shock to bullish forecasts for earnings growth in corporate America.
“Markets are defying the war,” said Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, global investment strategist at Hartford Funds.
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US Treasury sanctions Iranian oil shipping magnate Shamkhani
The US Treasury department on Wednesday issued a round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, who it said had been evading US restrictions through a web of front companies.
The Treasury said it was imposing sanctions on more than two dozen individuals, companies and vessels connected with Shamkhani, whose father Ali Shamkhani, a senior defence official in the Iranian regime, was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli strikes against Iran.
The move comes after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control levelled an earlier round of sanctions against Shamkhani and his associates last summer.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will continue to cut off Iran’s illicit smuggling and terror proxy networks,” Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.