Stocks Rise and Oil Falls After Reports of Temporary U.S.-Iran Deal

Economists said it could take time for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to return to normal and for natural gas prices to fall back to pre-conflict levels. According to Jin10, they also said U.S. inflation accelerated in May to its fastest pace in more than three years, though they believe the trend has likely peaked. Andrew Hollenhorst, Citigroup’s chief U.S. economist, said the past three months had underscored how difficult it is to forecast moves in energy and oil markets. He added that, in his view, the broader direction of the trend was downward. Reports of a temporary U.S.-Iran agreement pushed oil prices lower and lifted equities. Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander U.S. Capital Markets, said markets had concluded the agreement was effectively done and that conditions were proceeding smoothly, with expectations that the situation would return to something close to the pre-conflict status quo.