Donald Trump's announcements on naval escorts for oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and on insurance against political risks brought some relief. By mid-afternoon, WTI is down 2% at $74.02 and Brent is down 1.23% at $80.96.

Investors also learned of a New York Post report saying Iranian agents may have secretly contacted the United States to discuss a way out of the conflict. For now, however, uncertainty remains on this fifth day of war, which is dominating attention.

"Our base-case scenario calls for a fairly limited escalation, with only a temporary disruption (4 to 5 weeks) to oil and gas flows from the Gulf,” Generali AM said.

On the data front, traders looked at the ADP report for February. The US private sector created more jobs than expected, with 63,000 positions after 11,000 in January, a figure revised down from the 22,000 initially reported. The ISM non-manufacturing PMI also surprised on the upside: activity in the services sector reached its highest level in more than three and a half years in February. The index came in at 56.1 last month, its highest level since July 2022, versus 53.8 in January, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast a dip to 53.5.

In corporate news, CrowdStrike (-0.67%) forecast fiscal 2027 revenue above Wall Street expectations, helped by strong demand for its AI-enabled cybersecurity solutions.

Moderna (+8.75%) announced an agreement to end its dispute with Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, providing for a $950m lump-sum payment in Q3, with no future royalties.

Babcock & Wilcox (+21.23%) is surging after saying it has secured final approval to build a $2.4bn power plant intended to supply Applied Digital's artificial intelligence campuses.