CALDEIRÃO DE BOLSA

Futures Desk: Iran formally limits cooperation with UN atomic watchdog."The decision to reduce cooperation will be effective today. The Atomic Energy Organisation will inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today," deputy government spokesman Mohammad Paryab said.

U.S. stock futures drop on Persian Gulf tensions

Bernanke testimony, durable-goods orders data ahead

By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
Mar 28, 2007


LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock market futures pointed to a second-straight session of losses on Wednesday, with lingering tension between Iran and the West lifting crude-oil prices and dampening investor sentiment. Markets will be awaiting the word of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and durable-goods data.
S&P 500 futures dropped 4.8 points at 1,435.80 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 6.75 points at 1,803.50. Dow industrial futures declined 36 points.

U.S. stocks dropped on Tuesday after weaker-than-forecast consumer sentiment data and a profit warning from home builder Lennar.

Oil futures on Wednesday climbed $1.17 to $64.10 a barrel -- after briefly topping $68 a barrel in after-hours trade Tuesday on a false rumor of an Iran attack on a U.S. ship.
Oil-exporter Iran has defined United Nations resolutions on its nuclear research program and last week seized 15 U.K. naval personnel.

Weekly energy inventory data also is due for release.

The dollar was mixed against rivals, but declined 0.5% at 117.31 Japanese yen -- the currency that recently has become a proxy for risk appetite.

Gold futures rose $3.50 to $672.30 an ounce.

As well as the Persian Gulf, eyes will be on Washington D.C. with testimony in Congress from Bernanke, due to start at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Traders are expecting a rise in durable-goods orders in February after January's sharp decline, with those figures due out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

DOW Escreveu:

Dialmedia Escreveu:Tenho 3 fortes motivos para acreditar que os USA não irão passar das ameaças com o Irão:

Achas mesmo? não sei não, mas a captura dos soldados Ingleses pode ser o rastilho ou o motivo que faltava...

Dialmedia Escreveu:Tenho 3 fortes motivos para acreditar que os USA não irão passar das ameaças com o Irão:

Oil spikes $5 on rumors of Iran attack

After-hours contract briefly jumps 8 percent on rumors that Iran fired on U.S. warships; navy denies story, crude falls from highs.

March 27 2007: 9:15 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- U.S. crude futures briefly spiked over $5 a barrel in electronic trading late Tuesday on rumors that Iran fired on U.S. Navy warships.

Crude gave up most of those gains according to one trader after reports of a confrontation were denied.

U.S. light crude for May delivery jumped $5.18, or about 8 percent, to $68.91 a barrel in electronic trading before giving back most of those gains to trade at $64.40 a barrel, $1.47 above Tuesday's settle price on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"We have no information at this time that an incident has taken place in the Gulf," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said about reports of a confrontation between Iran and U.S. Navy warships.

"This just illustrates how this market is on tenterhooks regarding the situation in the Gulf," said Andy Lebow, a broker at Man Financial in New York.

The wild volatility in oil reverberated in other markets. U.S. stocks futures fell sharply, gold prices firmed, U.S. Treasury debt prices rose and the Swiss franc edged higher.

U.S. officials were quick to knock down talk of military action between the United States and Iran.

"Navy has nothing to substantiate that report right now," a U.S. Navy official said. "At this juncture, there is no validity to it."

Iran seized 15 British sailors Friday, a day before the United Nations imposed new sanctions on the world's fourth biggest oil exporter because of its nuclear program.

So far there has been no disruption to Iran's daily shipments of around 2.2 million barrels per day.

More than 10,000 US personnel, two aircraft carriers and 100 warplanes begin biggest simulated demonstration of force in Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq

The exercise was launched March 27 the day before the Arab League summit opens in Riyadh, to demonstrate the Bush administration’s determination not to let Iran block the Strait of Hormuz to oil exports from the Persian Gulf, or continue its nuclear program.

Taking part are the USS Stennis and USS Eisenhower strike forces.

With Iran’s Revolutionary Guards one week into their marine maneuvers, military tensions in the Gulf region are skyrocketing and boosting world oil prices.

Intelligence sources in Moscow claim to have information that a US strike against Iranian nuclear installations has been scheduled for April 6 at 0040 hours. The Russian sources say the US operation, code-named “Bite,” will last no more than 12 hours and consist of missile and aerial strikes devastating enough to set Tehran’s nuclear program several years back.

The maneuver also occurs four days after 14 British seamen and one crew-woman were seized by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards warship, with no sign that their release is imminent.

London insists its marines were on routine patrol on the Iraqi side of the Shatt al Arb on behalf of the Iraqi government. Tony Blair has threatened “a new phase” in the crisis if the captured personnel are not speedily released.

The warplanes are flying simulated attack maneuvers on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and seeking mines, off the coast of Iran.

US Navy Cmdr Kevin Aandahl declined to say when the maneuver was planned or how long it would last. He said US warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters up to 12 miles from the Iranian coast. Tehran does not recognize this limit and claims a deeper stretch of water.

The Iranians were bowled over by the appearance of the french nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle opposite their southern coast, having assumed that Paris took issue with Washington’s tough stand on their nuclear activities and was seeking improved relations with Tehran.

However, Western military circles explain that the French president Jacques Chirac decided before he leaves office in May to repair the bad impression he left in early February when he urged the world - and Israel in particular - to learn to live with “an Iranian nuclear bomb or two.”

Rafale fighter-bombers on the French carrier’s decks will fly missions over Afghanistan alongside US warplanes.

Its arrival raises to four the number of Western aircraft carriers cruising within striking distance of Iran, including the USS Eisenhower, USS Stennis and USS Boxer.

The Charles de Gaulle is accompanied by French Task Force 473, which consists of five warships: the FNS Cassard guided missile destroyer, the FNS Tourville anti-submarine frigate, the FNS Dupleix destroyer adapted for escorting oil tankers and the FNS Marne, a command and supply vessel.