Transcription
Let us begin with the global update as well. Neha is with us, Neha. First of all, has anything fresh happened regarding the US and Iran? Absolutely, Swati, good morning. Let us give you the US-Iran update first. On the first round of talks in Switzerland, Trump and the US Vice President, JD Vance, claim that Iran has agreed to inspect nuclear sites. However, Iran has rejected America's claims, and currently, this is the one major development. In the meantime, we have seen that in the last 24 hours, a statement has come from Trump on social media, once again. He has reiterated that Iran has fully agreed to large weapons inspections to ensure nuclear honesty under courts. This is his claim, via Truth Social. Meanwhile, the US Treasury has given Iran a complete exemption on the production, delivery, and sale of crude oil, refined oil, and petrochemical products until August 21, 2026, under a general license. So, currently, these are the two-three major developments that we have seen on the America-Iran front. Absolutely, Neha, after the heavy selling in tech stocks, what has been the condition of the American markets? See, mixed trading has been observed here. If you look at the S&P and Nasdaq, they closed in the red and closed quite close to their intraday lows. But, in stark contrast, the Dow Jones, amidst a lot of volatility, managed to close in the green. However, it lost close to 175 points from its day's highs. But when the closing happened, we saw that it closed approximately 148-49 points higher. Besides this, if you talk about the S&P, this index lost approximately 57 points from its day's highs, but its closing was a bit lower. But such a heavy fall was not seen here. Talking about the Nasdaq, a weakness of 351 points was also seen here. You rightly said that all the mega-caps, all the big tech companies, saw a decline. Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, .com, all these big stocks of the American market closed down by 2.5 to 4-5%. Now, an interesting factor amidst all this is the Russell 2000. For the last two trading sessions, record high closings have been seen repeatedly, and yesterday, for the first time after a long holiday, when it opened, it crossed the 3000 mark. So, it is trading at an all-time high, and we saw a record closing in it yesterday as well. The dollar index appeared strong for the fourth day. It reached its highest level since May 2025, meaning last year's May, and the 10-year US bond yield showed some sluggishness, hovering around 4.5%. In gold, we saw a break in the two-day decline yesterday. A strength of $40 was seen. In silver, we saw a break in the two-day decline. But this morning, if we talk, pressure is once again building from the upper levels. Due to the strength in the dollar index, [nasal sound] meanwhile, copper is trading within a range. Yesterday, only a minor gain was seen. It closed above 13650. But aluminum saw a 1% weakness, and this commodity closed at its lowest level in approximately 3 months yesterday. Talking about zinc, there was a 1/4% strength, and lead also had some strength. But the biggest noticeable factor was crude oil. Crude oil has gone down to its lowest level in 4 months. Yesterday's closing, Swati, Brent crude closed near 77.7, and after the pre-war levels of February 27, we have seen such low closings in it. In fact, the concerns about supply, the concerns about Iran, the state of sanctions in the Strait of Hormuz, all these concerns have recently started to ease out a bit. And for this reason, we have seen a decline in crude oil prices. Talking about raw sugar, a decline was seen here for the second day, and it is at its 10-day low.