ET NEWS

US stock market futures gained sharply on Tuesday, with Dow Jones futures surging more than 465 points after a report said that US President Donald Trump is willing to end the war with Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.Trump told his aides that he is willing to end the war even if a large part of operations through the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and is set to open at a later date, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing administration officials. This comes as the war has entered its fifth week, leading economists to worry about the impact on the economy.Dow Jones futures gained more than 1% (over 465 points) to 45,681, as seen at around 11.15 am IST on Tuesday. Nasdaq 100 futures gained over 186 points and S&P 500 futures rose 54 points.This comes a day after Wall Street indices remained mixed on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.11%, the S&P 500 fell 0.39% to 6,344, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.73% to 20,795.Oil futures remained nearly flat on Tuesday morning. Brent crude futures fell marginally to $112.7 per barrel, a day after reaching their highest levels since March 19. WTI crude, meanwhile, dropped to $102.6 per barrel. This came along with a decline in bond yields after a sharp surge earlier.The fall in US bond yields comes after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday that longer-run inflation expectations appear to be "well anchored" despite soaring oil prices. This led to investor expectations that the Fed is likely to be in no rush to cut or hike interest rates.All is well?The rise in Wall Street futures accompanies gains in GIFT Nifty as well. However, some caution is warranted. Donald Trump said the US will blow up Iran if a ceasefire deal is not reached soon. “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business', we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinisation plants!),” Trump posted on Truth Social.(With inputs from Reuters)(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Housing sales across nine major cities fell 13 per cent annually during January-March quarter to 98,761 units on lower fresh supply of inventories amid West Asia conflict, according to PropEquity. Real estate research firm PropEquity on Monday pointed out that the sales have fallen below 1 lakh units mark after 18 quarters. The nine major cities are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. As per the data, housing sales fell 13 per cent to 98,761 units during January-March this year compared to 1,13,602 units in the year-ago period. The total sales in these nine cities declined 6 per cent from 1,05,527 units in the previous quarter (October-December 2025). Samir Jasuja, Founder & CEO of PropEquity said, "Housing sales continued to moderate in the first quarter of 2026 with Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru emerging as outliers. This reduction is on account of low supply across most cities. Close to 22,000 lesser units were supplied in Q1 2026 as compared to the same period last year." New supply fell 19 per cent to 92,411 units during January-March period from 1,14,718 units in the corresponding period last year. The launches dipped 8 per cent from the preceding quarter which saw new supply of 1,00,525 units. Although PropEquity has not mentioned the reason for fall in launches this quarter, industry experts said the ongoing West Asia conflict has affected buying sentiment According to the PropEquity data, housing sales in Bengaluru rose 3 per cent to 17,991 units during January-March 2026 from 17,508 units in the year-ago period. In Delhi-NCR, housing sales increased 13 per cent to 12,141 units from 10,723 units. However, housing sales in Chennai fell 4 per cent to 4,765 units from 4,959 units. Hyderabad saw a 16 per cent decline in sales to 11,546 units from 13,725 units. Sales of residential properties in Mumbai fell 20 per cent to 9,186 units from 11,453 units. Navi Mumbai witnessed a 14 per cent fall to 7,157 units from 8,340 units, while Thane saw a 24 per cent decline to 15,959 units from 21,025 units. In Pune, the sales fell 25 per cent to 16,144 units from 21,640 units. Lastly, the housing sales in Kolkata declined 8 per cent to 3,872 units during January-March period from 4,229 units in the year-ago period. On the sales data, Bhavesh Kothari, Founder and CEO of Property First Realty, said Bengaluru's dominance as the highest-selling housing market underscores the city's strong fundamentals driven by its thriving tech ecosystem, steady job creation, and sustained demand from both end-users and investors. Bengaluru-based Sanjeevini Group Chairman and Founder Umesh Gowda H A said the steady increase in supply in the IT city remains well-aligned with the demand, reflecting developers' prudent and market-responsive pricing strategies. PropEquity, which is part of listed entity P E Analytics Ltd, tracks more than 1,80,000 projects by 60,000+ developers across 50+ cities. It provides data mainly to institutional investors, banks, NBFCs, private equity funds and real estate developers.