Today Fundamental Analysis: Oil prices open higher amid worries about reopening the Strait of Hormuz

Oil is climbing again on Monday as the market keeps second-guessing whether the U.S. and Iran will actually reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Crude Brent is up about 1% near $84.47, and WTI for is up roughly 0.9% around $78.91. Iran's foreign minister says there are no direct talks underway on reopening Hormuz, while U.S. officials had been signaling a deal was close.

These developments are weighing modestly on equity futures as well. S&P 500 futures are flat, Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.2%, and Dow futures are down about 0.1%. Last week, the S&P 500 closed at a record high, boosted Friday by a surprise contraction in July nonfarm payrolls that cut the market's odds of a September Fed rate hike to about 42% from 68% a week earlier. Looking ahead this week, CPI and PPI inflation readings are the main macro focus for investors.

In the commodities market, gold is pulling back from Friday's high, which came after a soft July Nonfarm Payrolls report where the US economy unexpectedly lost 23K jobs, and June's figure was revised down to just 20K from 57K. That initially hit the Dollar and lifted gold on reduced odds of a Fed rate hike, but the reaction faded quickly as Middle East tensions reasserted a safe-haven bid for the US dollar instead.

In the currencies market, USDJPY rose 0.39% this morning to 158.41 after establishing a strong support around 156.70 last Friday. The Dollar index remains relatively stable around 99.50. EURUSD is facing a moderate resistance at 1.1560.

In the crypto world, on Thursday a 15-year-dormant Bitcoin wallet moved on nearly 50 BTC, worth about $3.2 million today that had sat untouched since July 16, 2011 when bitcoin traded around $10. Bitcoin price is facing a resistance level around $65,400. Ethereum trades around $1925 today.

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