Traders Brace for Renewed Turmoil on Hormuz Standoff

Traders are preparing for a bumpy open to the week as a continued standoff around the Strait of Hormuz revives the uncertainty that Wall Street had been eager to look past, after a week that drove the S&P 500 Index to a record and pushed oil back toward $90 a barrel.

Iran warned over the weekend that ships approaching the waterway “under any pretext” would be treated as violating the ceasefire, with its Revolutionary Guard Corps firing on commercial vessels and leaving tanker operators waiting on Tehran. The moves hardened an impasse that had appeared to ease Friday, when signals of a thaw fueled a broad rally in risk assets. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the Islamic Republic would skip a second round of US-Iran talks in Islamabad this week while the American naval blockade remained in place, with messages still moving through intermediaries.