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New Delhi: US Ambassador Sergio Gor on Saturday lauded US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the India-US joint statement.In a post on X, he said, "A new day! All credit to President Trump and Prime Minister Modi for their leadership and vision in achieving this.""From the desk of the President of the United States!" he added.On Friday, US Trade Representative Ambassador Greer welcomed President Donald Trump's announcement of a joint statement outlining a trade deal with India, saying it would remove tariff and non-tariff barriers and open India's vast market to American products. In a statement issued after the announcement, Greer said the agreement would significantly benefit US workers, farmers and producers by lowering tariffs across all US industrial goods and a broad range of agricultural products."President Trump's dealmaking is unlocking one of the largest economies in the world for American workers and producers, lowering tariffs for all U.S. industrial goods and a wide array of agricultural products," Greer said.He said the announcement reflected deepening ties between Washington and New Delhi and would create new opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs in both countries."Today's announcement demonstrates the deepening ties between the United States and India as we create new opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs in both countries," Greer said, while also thanking Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal for his leadership and commitment to achieving fair and balanced trade with the United States.The joint statement follows President Trump's announcement of a framework to expand market access, reduce trade barriers, and advance fair and reciprocal trade between the two countries as part of broader efforts to strengthen US-India economic relations.The United States and India have announced a framework for an interim agreement on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, marking a significant step toward advancing the broader US-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations launched by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2025, a joint statement released by the White House and Commerce Ministry stated.

Bitcoin climbed back above $70,000 on Friday, after sinking to a 16-month low earlier, lifted by a sharp rebound ⁠in technology shares and precious metals following a global rout that had hammered a broad swathe of risk assets. The world's largest cryptocurrency was last up more than 11% at $70,231, rising as high as $71,464.96 and recouping losses that pushed it to $60,017.60, the lowest level since October 24, earlier on. Bitcoin posted its largest one-day gain since March 2023, but was down roughly 8% this week. "It feels ‌like a day of ‌consolidation for risk assets that have been under pressure this week," said Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto. The digital currency market has struggled for months since a record crash last October sent bitcoin ‌tumbling from an all-time peak and investor sentiment toward these assets has cooled. Friday's low was its weakest level since early October 2024. That was just before bitcoin's rally accelerated as Donald Trump closed in on winning the U.S. presidential election, having signalled his intention to support crypto on the campaign trail. Market participants, however, were leery about Friday's recovery. The options market showed that investors are anticipating further losses on bitcoin, as demand for downside protection increased. Data from Derive.xyz, a decentralized options platform, showed a significant build-up of put open interest in bitcoin, or expectations that the price will fall further. Traders focused on the $60,000 to $50,000 strikes for the February 27 expiry. Those bets suggested that investors are wagering that bitcoin will end up near or at those levels by that ‌date. "It's a one-way market. ‍Demand for downside protection is extreme," said Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive.xyz. "While longer-term fundamentals for bitcoin remain intact, ‍the options market is clearly signalling that this aggressive grind lower may persist in the near-term." Ether was ‌last up 12% at $2,068, having similarly slid close to a 10-month low of $1,753.98 earlier in the session. The second-largest cryptocurrency was on pace for its largest daily gain since August last year. On the week, however, it was still down more than 9%. STILL $2 TRILLION LOST SINCE OCTOBER Still, the global crypto market had lost some $2 trillion in value since hitting a peak of $4.379 trillion in early October even with Friday's bounce-back, CoinGecko data showed, with more than $1 trillion wiped out over the past month alone. "Bitcoin drifting back toward $60,000 is not crypto dying, it is the bill coming due for Treasuries and funds that treated bitcoin as a one-way asset without real risk controls, just as we have seen sharp corrections in self-proclaimed safe-haven assets like gold and silver when leverage and ‍narrative ran ahead of reality," said Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association. "Those who bet too big, borrowed too much or assumed prices only go up are now finding out the hard way what real market volatility and risk management look like." Sentiment toward ‍crypto had been affected ⁠by the latest selloff in precious metals and ⁠stocks. Gold and silver, for instance, have caught the market's attention due to their extreme volatility as a result of leveraged buying and speculative flows. On Friday, both metals regained their footing, with silver up 8.8%, while gold rose about 4%. Bitcoin's fortunes have also been tied to the broader tech sector for some time. The price tended to rise, particularly on the back of investor enthusiasm over artificial intelligence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average blew past the historic 50,000 mark on Friday and the S&P 500 ended sharply higher, as Nvidia and other chipmakers soared. Anthony Pompliano, a major crypto investor and founder and chief executive officer at Professional Capital Management, said the "recent selloff is not nearly as bad as past bear markets." "Bitcoiners were built for this type of chaos in markets. They have held the asset through many 50%-plus drawdowns." He noted that bitcoin has experienced a 50% drawdown approximately every 18 months for the last decade.

Oil prices settled higher on Friday, ‍reversing earlier losses as traders worried that this week's talks between the U.S. and Iran had failed to ⁠reduce the risk of a military conflict between the two countries. Brent crude futures settled at $68.05 a barrel, up 50 cents, or 0.74%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished up 26 cents, or 0.41%, at $63.55 a barrel. In overnight ‌trading, both benchmarks ‌fell, but during the U.S. session both Brent and WTI rose more than $1 a barrel before moderating gains toward settlement. Iran and ‌the U.S. held negotiations via Omani mediation to try to overcome sharp differences over Tehran's nuclear program. "We keep going back and forth on this Iran situation," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital. "It's better one day or even one hour then worse the next. It's status quo nervousness over Iran." Iranian state TV reported in late afternoon that the talks had ended. Iran's foreign minister said negotiators will return to their capitals for consultations, and ‌the talks ‍will continue. Ahead of the talks, a lack of consensus on the ‍agenda for the meeting kept investors anxious about geopolitical risk, as Iran ‌wanted to stick to nuclear issues, while the U.S. wanted to discuss Iran's ballistic missiles and support for armed groups in the region. Any escalation of tension between the two nations could disrupt oil flows, since about a fifth of the world's total consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the strait, as does fellow ‍OPEC member Iran. If the prospect of conflict in the region eases, oil prices could decline further. Kazakhstan's planned oil exports could fall by as much as 35% this ‍month via its ⁠main route through Russia, ⁠four trading sources have told Reuters, as the giant Tengiz oilfield slowly recovers from fires at power facilities in January. On a weekly basis, prices were weighed down by a broader selloff in markets and by persistent expectations of an oversupply of oil, analysts said. Saudi Arabia cut the official selling price of its Arab Light crude to Asia for March to around a five-year low on Thursday, marking the fourth straight month of price cuts.