U.S. equity futures jumped around 4:00 a.m. ET after Bloomberg News reported that Iran had previously signaled a willingness to surrender its highly enriched uranium stockpiles in high-stakes negotiations, just before the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury.
Although the Bloomberg story relates to last week's U.S.-Iran developments, the market is extremely sensitive to headlines - even old ones - and that was enough to send S&P 500 E-mini futures surging, erasing earlier losses and now flat. Nasdaq futures are also little changed.
Main U.S. equity futures indexes
Here's what Bloomberg reported:
Iran told the U.S. in recent nuclear negotiations that its stockpile of highly enriched uranium "is the result of our practical achievements and that we are ready to get rid of it, provided we get something good in return," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi as saying.
Bear in mind this news is 'old' (we reported on Friday), but for it to repeated no in public is very different from saying it in private a week ago...
Absolutely huge late Friday developing news, if it's confirmed and assuming it sticks, via CBS: "Iran has agreed to give up its stockpile of enriched material - zero accumulation - and allow for full verification by the IAEA of its nuclear program according to US-Iran talks mediator, Oman's foreign minister Badr al Busaidi."
The Iranian side also seems to be confirming its willingness to make this significant concession, also to stave off a massive US attack, given the immense build-up of Pentagon assets in the region. According to more breaking details via CBS:
Negotiators from the U.S. and Iran have made "substantial progress" toward a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told CBS News on Friday, as President Trump considers strikes on Iran.
Albusaidi — who has mediated several rounds of U.S.-Iran talks over the last month — told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan that a "peace deal is within our reach."
He said Iran has agreed that it will "never, ever have … nuclear material that will create a bomb," which he called a "big achievement." The country's existing stockpiles of enriched uranium would be "blended to the lowest level possible" and "converted into fuel, and that fuel will be irreversible," according to Albusaidi.
Why this old news is being recirculated remains unclear.
Last week:
On Wednesday, CNN reported that Iranian intel officials had sent word to Washington about potential talks to end the conflict, yet no U.S. official has publicly confirmed that any negotiations are underway.
Interestingly while stocks jumped on the 'hope', Polymarket odds of a ceasefire by month-end slipped to just 1 in 4...
Iran potentially surrendering its uranium stockpiles may become the new "trade war" headlines for the stock market casino. We all remember those headlines from one year ago and in Trump's first term.