Oil prices fell sharply Monday after the United States cleared the way for Iran to sell crude in dollars for the first time in decades, including to American buyers, a significant shift in U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic. Vice President JD Vance said Iranian officials had agreed to allow nuclear inspectors back into their country as early as this week, according to The Wall Street Journal, which called the move a significant concession by Iran.
Brent crude dropped 3.3% to just under $78 a barrel on the news. The decline extended a weeks-long trend in which oil prices have fallen from war-driven highs above $100 a barrel in March, as progress in U.S.-Iran negotiations has steadily eased supply fears. MSI previously reported that oil fell below $90 a barrel on June 12 after President Trump called off strikes on Iran, and that global shares gained and oil sank on May 24 after Trump said Iran peace talks were “proceeding” — a pattern that has seen each diplomatic signal draw a measurable response in crude markets.
Major stock indexes finished mixed for the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, closing at 7,500.58, according to FRED data. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.3%, weighed down by technology-sector losses.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 4.49%, according to FRED data, as investors bet the Federal Reserve will raise rates this year to counter price pressures stoked by the war in Iran. The 10-year real yield, as measured by Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, stood at 2.23%. The spread between 10-year and 2-year Treasury yields was 0.27 percentage points.
In corporate news, Alphabet shares dropped 5% Monday. The decline came on the first trading session since John Jumper, a top research scientist and Nobel Prize winner, said he was leaving Google DeepMind for Anthropic, one of the company’s chief competitors in artificial intelligence. Word of his departure came shortly after another AI researcher, Noam Shazeer, said he was leaving the company for OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal reported.
SpaceX shares tumbled for a third consecutive session, falling 16% Monday and bringing the stock’s decline to 23% since it peaked on its third day of trading on June 16. The Elon Musk-controlled company announced its first-ever bond sale Monday, with proceeds earmarked to pay down debt. Even with the drop, the stock remains above its initial public offering price.