Oil prices ease on renewed hopes of US-Iran peace deal • FRANCE 24 English

Añadido: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]I'm sure it's great for them. I'm sorry, I'm not a fan. Charles is not a fan either. I I do I I love it. What do you What makes you think I'm not a fan? Cuz you said you never had one.

[00:00:10]Anyway, Charles is starting with the week with a look at the price of oil.

[00:00:13]What a surprise, Charles.

[00:00:14]>> Yeah. [laughter] Okay, that's a really tough transition.

[00:00:18]Over the weekend, Donald Trump announced a deal had been largely negotiated with Tehran and that details would emerge soon. And since then, he's also urged his team not to rush an agreement. Well, this has increased hopes of seeing the Hormuz Strait open up again, which is leading to a significant easing of oil futures this Monday, dropping over 5% for the WTI or over 4% for the West Texas Intermediate. Um as you can see there on that graph. As But we've been here before in the past 3 months or so since the US and Israel started its war in Iran, prices have dropped to those levels on hopes of seeing the conflict resolve only to go back up again. Prices still significantly higher than before the war started. They were hovering around the $70 a barrel mark by then. So what Charles, what's been the impact on the equity markets? Well, when oil prices ease, shares tend to gain, especially in economies that are heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil like Japan. The Nikkei Index in Tokyo broke 65,000 points for the first time this Monday.

[00:01:25]As a result, the Shanghai Composite making more measured gains while the Kospi and Seoul and Hang Seng in Hong Kong are closed for a public holidays.

[00:01:33]We're seeing the same cause and effect at play on the major European bourses this Monday as well with the CAC All-Tradable in Paris and the DAX in Frankfurt opening quite higher over 1% trading on the London FTSE 100 closed for a public holiday as well.

[00:01:50]Last talks continue. Some ships are still making it through the Hormuz Strait. Well, a supertanker carrying Iraqi crude oil, the Eagle Verona, has crossed the Hormuz Strait and the US naval blockade into the Arabian Sea. It had loaded its cargo at the Basra oil terminal on February 28th when the war started. Uh this from data from MarineTraffic and it's now headed into to the port of Ningbo in China where it's uh scheduled to arrive on June 12th and will deliver about 2 million barrels of crude. This tanker's departure uh followed close by another gas carrier transporting the first shipment of super chilled fuel from the Persian Gulf to India since the war began. So, over the past 24 hours, the IRGC in Iran has said that 33 vessels have crossed the strait with their authorization. Meanwhile, the US Navy says it has redirected 100 commercial vessels in the 6 weeks since it started its blockade. Uh before the war, there were over 100 crossings every day.

[00:02:49]Now, next the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the midst of a four-day visit to India. This is the world's two largest democracies navigator a host of very sensitive issues. High among those is trade relations have been strained ever since President Donald Trump launched the so-called reciprocal tariffs last April as India was targeted with some of the highest. Those tariffs have since come down. Now, the two sides are trying to finalize a bilateral trade deal as the global energy crisis sparked by the US's war on Iran hits India especially hard. Brian Quinn takes a closer look.

[00:03:26]A whirlwind tour for America's top diplomat. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in India over the weekend for a four-day multi-city visit seeking a reset of relations strained by nearly a year of trade tensions between the world's top democracies. We've made tremendous progress and I think we're going to wind up with a trade agreement between the United States and India that's going to be enduring and it's is to be beneficial to both sides. India was a prime target when US President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners last April. Initial tariffs of 25% on Indian goods were soon hiked to 50% over Delhi's imports of sanctioned Russian oil. In February, Trump dropped those tariffs to 18% after India agreed to buy some $500 billion in American goods as part of an interim trade agreement. The US Supreme Court's ruling against Trump's tariff scheme saw them further lowered to 10%.

[00:04:25]America's war on Iran, meanwhile, has hit Indian energy supplies hard. The country imports 80% of its energy with half its crude oil typically passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The way we will deal with, you know, the current situation in Hormuz and frankly going forward as well. Uh which is to uh to uh diversify our energy sources because that is at the heart of our energy security.

[00:04:51]With the US now the world's top oil and gas producer, some are hoping American supplies could ease both the crunch and the US's trade deficit with India. But distance and logistics mean that's unlikely to be a real solution.

[00:05:09]Brian Winnekins. Finally, from Ferrari, they're hoping for a roaring car launch today. Said this one's actually going to sound a little bit different. The Italian sports car manufacturer is uh launching it's uh the Luce model this Monday, its first fully electric model, and its engine will make a sound, just not the one we're used to with thermal engine cars. They've designed a special sound system meant to amplify vibrations from its powertrain to create a to create a distinct sound, so they're not pumping uh out some cheesy fake engine noise, as you might expect. This launch comes as there are doubts over electric sports cars as as uh in terms of uh Lamborghini abandoning its plans to make one by 2030 citing lack of customer interest, but Ferrari is keen to make a statement with their 500,000 euro model saying they are still in the race to build electric supercars, a race dominated by Chinese manufacturers like BYD. 500,000.

[00:06:08]Yeah. You know, you do you have that lying around? No, I think you're getting two cuz you can't decide on the color in the [laughter] shop.

[00:06:13]Shopify will be good business for us.