James Gruber

Hello, good morning.

I'm James Gruber and it's Tuesday the 14th of April.

This is the morning edition of the ComSec Market Update.

Well, it was another day of increasingly heated rhetoric before US President Trump stepped in with hints of progress in peace talks.

Earlier, Trump ramped up his threats against Iran after the US military blockade of all maritime traffic entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas.

Then, Iran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours.

Later, Trump said that Iran wants to make a deal, but he won't come to any agreement that allows Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

US share markets took heart from those comments and rose late in the day.

Let's take a deeper look at what's happened with Aussie futures, commodities and currencies.

The ASX is poised to open higher with index futures up 1.4%.

Speaking of the ASX200, yesterday it fell 0.4% to 8,926 points.

Energy stocks climbed 2.1% on higher oil prices, while technology stocks and miners lagged, down 1.8% to 1.4% respectively.

Today, overseas markets, if they're a guide, we might see a rebound in those mining and tech stocks, though it depends obviously on any news coming out of Iran.

Turning to commodities, global oil prices rose on Monday after the US military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran's ports and Tehran threats to strike back.

Brent crude settled up 4.4% to US$99.36 a barrel.

Base metal prices jumped on Monday on renewed supply worries.

Copper futures rose 1.8%.

Meanwhile, aluminium futures surged to fresh four-year highs, up 4.4%.

to $3,582 a tonne.

Gold futures slipped on Monday as peace talks faltered.