President Donald Trump reiterated his appeals for help from other nations to secure the Strait of Hormuz, saying that Iran was nearly obliterated even as the war keeps roiling oil markets and global shipping.

“Numerous countries have told me they’re on the way — some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years,” Trump told reporters Monday during a White House event.

The president expressed his frustration with other nations, who have so far been publicly noncommittal on his calls to help ensure vessels can transit the strait. The vital waterway has been effectively closed since the start of the war, crunching global energy supply chains. (Bloomberg – Continue Reading)

Abu Dhabi state oil giant ADNOC has suspended crude loading operations at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday, ​after a drone attack triggered fires at the key export terminal.

Some loading at ​the hub restarted, two other sources said. Two of the three ⁠single point moorings, where tankers connect to load, were operational, one source said. (Reuters – Continue Reading)

Trump’s threat to postpone his Beijing trip unless China helps break Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has fused two crises Beijing had sought to keep apart: the unravelling of Middle East stability and the fragile thaw in US–China relations.

China, the world’s largest buyer of Gulf oil, is now being forced to weigh its economic reliance on stable energy routes against its tradition of non‑interference in diplomacy, according to observers.

While Beijing is eager to host Trump for a strategically important summit later this month, observers said China was unwilling to be seen as yielding to pressure and being drawn into a US-led military intervention, or allowing the visit to be used as leverage. (SCMP – Continue Reading)

Electronic ‌trading on the London Metal Exchange's LME Select platform resumed at 1730 GMT on Monday after an outage of nearly ​three hours caused by a technical issue.

Prices for ​the LME's metal contracts, including copper , aluminium , lead , ⁠zinc , nickel and tin stopped updating on LSEG's Workspace ​platform shortly before 1500 GMT.

The LME, the world's oldest ​and largest market for industrial metals, said its primary electronic matching engine encountered an issue, causing electronic trading to enter a ​technical halt. The inter-office market remained open throughout, ​it said. (Reuters – Continue Reading)

A leading measure of investor confidence in Germany is expected to fall sharply as the Iran war continues unabated.

An analysts’ poll predicted that the forward-looking economic sentiment reading from a survey conducted by Germany’s ZEW economic institute will plummet to 39.2 points from last month’s 58.3 reading, which followed January’s 59.6 mark, the best since July 2021.

Another decline in the institute’s current conditions indicator is expected, which would keep it in negative territory – its home since December 2021. Analysts forecast a drop to -68.0 points from -65.9 in February.

The reading for the Eurozone is set to fall to 24.3 points from 39.4, according to analysts. (LiveSquawk – Continue Reading)