Morning Note: A Round-up of Global Financial Market News.

Rising uncertainty over Iran peace prospects has driven Brent Crude by 5% to $95 a barrel this morning. This comes after America seized an Iranian-flagged ship and Tehran again closed the Strait of Hormuz. Iran will respond soon to the seizure, Press TV cited the military command as saying. Tehran said it won’t take part in talks with the US in Islamabad scheduled for tomorrow.

Several LNG tankers reversed course en route to the strait. Five vessels, which loaded in Qatar before being stranded in the Gulf for more than a month, halted their journeys toward the western opening of the waterway.

The dollar strengthened, while Treasuries dropped across the curve on concern higher oil prices will stoke inflation

The yield on the US 10-year is currently 4.27%. Gold slipped to $4,790 an ounce.

Although US equities ended last week on a positive note – S&P 500 (+1.2%); Nasdaq (+1.5%) – the futures market is currently forecasting a 0.5% decline at the open this afternoon. Investors have been piling back into the Magnificent Seven, which have added about $4 trillion recently. Google is in talks with Marvell to develop two new AI chips, The Information reported.

In Asia, equities were generally firm: Nikkei 225 (+0.7%); Hang Seng (+0.8%). China kept its one- and five-year loan prime rates unchanged, as expected.

The FTSE 100 is currently 0.6% lower at 10,622, while Sterling trades at $1.3510 and €1.1485. The 10-year Gilt yield has risen to 4.75%. Keir Starmer will address the House of Commons today on the row over Peter Mandelson’s security clearance, and sacked Foreign Office head Olly Robbins is set to testify tomorrow.