Oil prices rise and gold hits two-month high after Trump makes new deal demands on Iran – business live
Oil prices and gold both rose after Donald Trump issued fresh demands over a new nuclear deal with Iran, including compensation for damage the US claims to have incurred, complicating an already fragile standoff. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil-shipping route, remains effectively closed despite the absence of active conflict, keeping energy markets on edge and pushing investors towards safe-haven assets such as gold.
Elsewhere, UK consumer confidence climbed to a near two-year high in July, with a Barclays survey finding 30% of respondents felt positive about the economy, a 21-month high, aided by the World Cup, increased UK holidaymaking, June's Middle East truce and a new prime minister; card spending rose 2% year-on-year. Separately, Nvidia agreed to partner with six major Wall Street firms, including BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and KKR, to raise more than $500bn for AI infrastructure financing, with chief executive Jensen Huang saying Nvidia could backstop up to $125bn of the deals as institutional investors increasingly treat AI computing capacity as an asset class.
- Trump's new Iran deal demands push up oil prices and gold
- Strait of Hormuz remains closed despite no active war
- UK consumer confidence hits near two-year high in July
- Nvidia partners with Wall Street firms on $500bn AI financing
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Oil markets are watching the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping channel through which a large share of the world's oil passes. Even though there is no active fighting, the route has effectively been shut, which alone is enough to unsettle traders. Donald Trump's fresh demands over a new nuclear agreement with Iran, including a call for compensation, add a further layer of uncertainty to an already tense situation between the US and Iran.
When investors feel nervous about geopolitical risk, they often move money into gold, seen as a "safe haven" asset that tends to hold its value in uncertain times, which is why gold has been climbing alongside oil prices.
The wider business picture includes unrelated developments: UK consumer confidence has been improving, and the computer chip firm Nvidia has struck a financing partnership with major Wall Street institutions to fund the infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence. Both are being tracked as separate threads within the same live business updates.
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