Tuesday 12 May 2026 6:30 am | Updated: Tuesday 12 May 2026 6:27 am
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks to fall as Trump says Iran peace deal on 'life support'
By: Samuel Norman, Senior City Reporter
Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog.
Geopolitical tensions look to once more be catching up with investors and putting an end to a period where markets have been able to skirt sell-offs as uncertain headlines around the Iran war persisted.
Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – has started the day in the green, whilst futures data points towards the FTSE 100 taking a hit on open.
It comes after Donald Trump branded the month-long ceasefire between the US and Iran as being on 'massive life support'. He said late on Monday that while the peace deal was still in place, it was 'unbelievably weak'. On Sunday, Trump branded a counter-proposal from Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz 'totally unacceptable' and a 'piece of garbage'.
Esmail Baghaei, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, said Tehran's proposals were 'responsible' and 'generous'.
'It's hard to make sense of the market reaction, it feels like the calm before a storm,' Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said. 'Higher energy prices will hit the ground sooner rather than later as Middle East tensions prolong and the world's energy stockpiles dry out.'
Tehran's offer included the immediate end to the war on all fronts, in a shot at the Israeli attacks in Lebanon that target the Iran-supported Hezbollah. It also called for a halt to the US naval blockade and guarantees of no further attacks.
But contentions have remained around Iran's enrichment sites, with the US branding Tehran's nuclear capabilities a non-starter for negotiations.
We'll be bringing you the latest on this and more. Here are a few of our top headlines this morning: Enhanced Games NYSE firm opens down on Friday close; 'Twenty years of caution': Banking industry ramps up efforts to fix 'anaemic' UK growth; NHS gives Palantir wider access to patient data amid growing backlash; Darts: PDC aims to reel in Big Fish sponsor in multi-million-pound deal; Burges Salmon and Wexler roll out firm-wide legal AI partnership.
