investingLive European markets wrap: Dollar, oil prices drop further on US-Iran hope

Headlines: Gold rebounds strongly as hope for the end of the war returns. What's next? US president Trump continues to gas up the stock market, posts Dow snapshot The Bank of Japan is back in the yen market China keeps up with the gold buying spree as reserves climb for a 18th straight month ECB's Nagel: The ECB is likely to hike rates unless the outlook improves markedly ECB policymaker Villeroy urges against speculating on timing of potential rate hike Fed's Collins: I still expect interest rate cuts down the road US senator teases Boeing airplane purchases when Trump and Xi meet next week US-based employers announced 83,387 job cuts in April, up 38% from March French trade deficit widened in March as energy imports start to push up German factory orders jump in March on likely stockpiling due to Middle East conflict German construction activity slumps hard in April as cost pressures continue to build UK construction output slumps in April, posts steepest decline since November 2025 Markets: WTI crude down 3.5% to $91.70, Brent crude down 3.4% to $97.95 European stocks little changed, more mixed on the day S&P 500 futures up 0.1% NZD leads, USD and JPY lag on the day US 10-year yields down 2 bps to 4.33% Gold up 1% to $4,735 Bitcoin down 0.7% to $80,825 The market mood is a little calmer today as traders and investors continue to wait on more concrete evidence that the US and Iran will be headed for a deal. Things have settled down since yesterday and we're reverting back to a more cautiously optimistic scene today. And that comes despite US president Trump trying to gas up the stock market. Just before going to bed yesterday, he teased a leak to the US jobs report in saying that: "Jobs & 401-K’s are BOOMING!!!" And this morning, he followed that up with a post with a snapshot of the Dow close yesterday. It's doing just enough to keep US futures a little higher, with S&P 500 futures up 0.1% - the same for Nasdaq and Dow futures. As hopeful optimism is the name of the game, oil prices are sent lower still with WTI crude dropping by over 3% to $91.70 on the day. Meanwhile, the US dollar is lagging across the board with EUR/USD up 0.2% to 1.1765 and AUD/USD up 0.3% to 0.7255 currently. USD/JPY remains cautious amid intervention fears, with the pair keeping flat at 156.38 on the day. In other markets, bond yields are coming off the boil but are still keeping at elevated levels. 10-year Treasury yields sit at 4.33% with 30-year yields at 4.92%, both down slightly by 2 bps on the day. As for precious metals, the rebound continues amid the better market mood with gold up 1% to $4,735 and silver up 4.5% on the day to $80.90. This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.