Markets spent the morning of April 2 digesting a reality that the previous two sessions’ relief rally had refused to price in: Trump’s primetime address to the nation on Wednesday night was not the off-ramp investors were waiting for.
S&P 500 futures fell 1.29% overnight after the speech, Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.59%, and Dow futures slid 543 points, or about 1.16%, reversing the gains accumulated over Tuesday and Wednesday as peace signals briefly gave markets something to celebrate.
West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 6.38% to $106.51 per barrel during the speech, while Brent crude advanced 6.3% to $107.87, undoing the session’s earlier drop below $100 that had been the most visible sign of the peace rally’s logic.
Trump’s words were unambiguous. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” he said in the roughly 19-minute address from the White House. He said that “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” while simultaneously threatening to hit each of Iran’s electric generating plants “very hard” and “probably simultaneously” if no deal is reached.
Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had a falling out with Trump last year, posted a screenshot of rising oil futures on social media after the speech and wrote: “Trump’s magnificent speech got results! Way to go, Mr. President!” Her sarcasm was widely noted.
The IEA’s Fatih Birol had warned on Wednesday that the Iran war is already “the worst energy crisis in history,” and that April would be “much worse than March” in terms of supply disruption impact on global markets. Bank of America Securities revised its global inflation forecast upward by 90 basis points to 3.3% for 2026 on the same day.
Asia-Pacific markets reacted immediately to the speech overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.4%, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.82%, and Australia’s ASX 200 reversed earlier gains to close lower.
