Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
Oil markets are moving sharply lower after Washington signaled it is close to a nuclear deal with Tehran. Brent crude fell more than five percent to just over ninety-eight dollars a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate near ninety-two. President Trump cautioned he would not rush the agreement, but the prospect of Iranian supply returning to global markets is doing the heavy lifting on price.
Shifting to equities in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei is poised to extend a strong two-session rally heading into Monday's open. The index has added nearly thirty-five hundred points, or roughly six percent, over that stretch and is pressing up against the sixty-three thousand six hundred forty level. Momentum out of Japan is being read as a broader signal of risk appetite returning to the region.
And on the macro side, a Swedish government analysis is casting serious doubt on Russia's official economic picture. Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard wrote in the New York Times that an alternate measure of Russian output shows a significant contraction, warning Western policymakers against taking Kremlin GDP figures at face value and noting that Russian elites are growing increasingly alarmed about the country's underlying fragility.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
