Iran and the United States are at an impasse as President Donald Trump prepares for a trip this week to China, where he could urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into making concessions. The latest round of high-level state maneuvering leaves ordinary people stuck with the consequences while leaders trade threats, leverage, and market shocks across borders.
Trump called Iran’s latest proposal to end the war “totally unacceptable” on Sunday, and that rejection has raised the stakes for the trip because China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil. The language of diplomacy here is just another instrument of domination: one government trying to force another into concessions, with the people paying for the deadlock through war and economic strain.
Who Pays for the Deadlock
Oil prices rose Monday as the war with Iran threatened to drag on longer, with Brent crude climbing 1.7% to $102.99. The war has already pushed Brent up from roughly $70 and delivered painful inflation through the global economy after shutting the Strait of Hormuz and leaving oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide. The costs of this conflict do not stay in the halls of power; they spill outward into prices, supply chains, and daily life.
U.S. stocks nevertheless held near record highs. The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged from its record set Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 73 points, or 0.1%, at 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower. The market’s calm sits beside a war that has already disrupted global shipping and driven up energy costs, a neat little reminder that financial indexes can float above the wreckage they help normalize.
The Apparatus Keeps Moving
Mosaic fell 2.3% after reporting much weaker results than analysts expected, saying it was facing much higher prices for sulfur and other raw materials because of logistics snarls created by the war with Iran. Fox rose 3.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected. Beazer Homes USA soared 29.6% after Dream Finders Homes offered to buy it in a deal valuing it at roughly $704 million, while Dream Finders slipped 0.6%.
These market moves show how corporate balance sheets absorb and repackage the damage from state conflict. One company blames logistics snarls and raw material costs; another celebrates profit; another gets swallowed in a buyout. The machinery keeps sorting winners and losers while the war keeps grinding on.
What the Markets Call Stability
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia, with France’s CAC 40 down 0.8% and South Korea’s Kospi up 4.3%. Treasury yields held relatively steady, with the 10-year yield at 4.38%, where it was late Friday. The numbers suggest calm to the people who trade in them, even as the war has already shut the Strait of Hormuz and left oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf.
Trump’s planned trip to China this week now carries more weight because of China’s role as the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil. That makes the trip another round of elite bargaining over access, pressure, and compliance, with no sign in the report of relief for the people absorbing the inflation, shipping disruption, and uncertainty created by the conflict.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to the report.