Good morning, you're listening to Markets Desk.
Crude oil is back above eighty-four dollars a barrel as hopes for a U.S.-Iran agreement over the Strait of Hormuz continue to fade. The waterway handles a critical share of global energy flows, and with diplomatic deadlock deepening, traders are pricing in tighter supply — extending a four-day rally to fresh one-week highs.
Shifting to commodities more broadly, Panmure Liberum is making a compelling case that copper has overtaken gold as the smarter macro hedge. The argument is straightforward — copper offers inflation protection similar to gold, but layers on top of that a genuine industrial demand growth story tied to electrification, while remaining relatively insulated from interest rate movements. Precious metal, meet your rival.
And in pharma, Eli Lilly just cleared a significant milestone in the global weight-loss drug race, winning U.K. approval for its oral GLP-one pill Foundayo. That marks the first international approval outside the United States, putting Lilly in direct competition with Novo Nordisk's Wegovy beyond American borders and opening what could become an enormous international market for weight-loss therapeutics.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
