Trump Slams Brakes on Iran Strike, Oil Price Plunges 9% Over Weekend, Asian Markets Open Lower on Monday

August 3rd. Over the weekend, Trump's Iran strategy replayed TACO, from "about to strike" to "postpone strike." As of last night and this morning, Trump's latest statement was, "At the request of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Iran to cancel the strike on Iran, if it were not for their request, a massive attack would have been launched on Iran last night. Iran is aware of the scale of this attack. I believe there is already an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, and a denuclearization agreement will also be reached. We are in negotiations with them in a diplomatic form, starting tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday morning Beijing time). We are ready to act at any time.

Impacted by this news, Brent crude oil prices quickly fell from a high of $91 over the weekend to now trade at $83.8.

However, the positive news did not boost the Japanese and Korean stock markets. According to Bitget's market data, at Monday's open, the Nikkei 225 Index fell by 659.27 points, a 1.02% decrease, and the South Korean KOSPI Index fell by 217.22 points, a 3.29% decrease. SK Hynix fell by 4%, and Samsung Electronics fell by 5%.