Oil drops to $80 a barrel, stocks climb after US‑Iran peace deal.

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Oil prices fell toward $80 a barrel and stocks rose on Monday after Washington and Iran agreed to end the Middle East conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending a wave of relief through global markets.

The strait, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil supply normally passes, was effectively closed by Tehran after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, pushing energy prices higher.

The peace deal will be formalised with a signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday, ending three months of conflict that had revived fears of a prolonged inflation spike.

Crude prices dropped about five percent, having risen above $110 shortly after the conflict began.

Wall Street indices jumped at the New York open, led by the tech‑heavy Nasdaq, where SpaceX climbed an additional eight percent after the blockbuster $75 billion IPO for Elon Musk’s rockets‑to‑AI firm.

That followed gains across European and Asian equity markets, while the dollar, traditionally an investment haven in times of turmoil, fell.

The Tokyo and Seoul stock markets rose around five percent each, largely on new flows into tech firms.

Paris and Frankfurt rose while London’s FTSE 100 slipped, pulled down by heavyweight oil firms as energy prices fell.

“Asian and European markets enjoyed a bounce on the news, but the scale of the advance wasn’t as huge as one might have expected,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“That’s partially down to markets having already bounced back in recent weeks, but it is also because inflation fears won’t suddenly disappear,” he added.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the deal put an “immediate end” to the war and that talks on a “final agreement” would be held within two months.

But the content of the agreement, which follows weeks of fraught negotiations and periodic threats from U.S. President Donald Trump of new attacks despite a ceasefire agreed in April, remained unclear.

“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump said on Sunday. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

Elsewhere, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are expected to leave their main interest rates unchanged this week, preferring to wait and see if inflation risks will quickly subside.

It will be the first meeting chaired by Kevin Warsh, and comes after Trump’s repeated demands for rate cuts to boost the world’s biggest economy.

“What he says about interest rates, given that inflation is still twice the Fed’s two percent target, should be interesting,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.

The Bank of Japan meanwhile is expected to increase borrowing costs, following a quarter‑point rate increase by the European Central Bank last week.