US President Donald Trump speaks during the NCAA Collegiate National Champions Day event at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON — European stocks opened higher on Wednesday as traders assessed the Iran ceasefire extension and the prospect of further peace talks.
By 8:50 a.m. in London (3:50 a.m. ET), the pan-European Stoxx 600 was about 0.2% higher, with most sectors and major regional bourses in positive territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the two-week U.S. ceasefire with Iran, saying the extension was warranted due to Tehran’s government being “seriously fractured.”
Trump said the ceasefire, which he earlier had said would end on Wednesday, would continue “until such time as” Iran’s leaders and representatives submit a “unified proposal” to end the war with the U.S. and Israel.
The President’s announcement came after reports that an expected trip by Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan for a second round of peace talks with Iranian officials had been put on hold.
Iranian state news outlet Tasnim also reported that negotiators from Tehran had informed their U.S. counterparts through an intermediary in Pakistan that they would not appear for further talks.
While the ceasefire extension saw oil prices moderate, market sentiment was kept in check by Trump’s refusal to lift the ongoing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
He said in a Truth Social post: “They only say they want [the Strait of Hormuz] closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to ‘save face.'”
Trump added that lifting the blockade would mean “there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included.”
Back in Europe, the U.K.’s first inflation print covering the period since the Iran war began was released on Wednesday. The country’s inflation rate jumped to 3.3% in March, official data showed, in line with economists’ expectations and up from 3% the previous month. Officials said higher fuel costs had helped push the prices higher.
Suren Thiru, chief economist at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said in a note following the data release that Trump’s extended ceasefire deadline for Iran “won’t prevent a painful period of accelerating inflation with skyrocketing energy costs and food prices likely to lift the headline rate above 4% by the autumn.”
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.K. government bond was last seen trading almost 2 basis points lower at 4.873%. Sterling ticked higher against the U.S. dollar, gaining 0.1% to settle at around $1.35.
Among individual stocks, Dutch chipmaking equipment manufacturer ASMI topped the Stoxx 600 index after reporting first-quarter earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell. Shares popped 8.8% after the company’s quarterly revenue came in at 862.5 million euros ($1.01 billion), meeting the high end of its guidance and exceeding analysts’ expectations. The firm also reported a record adjusted operating margin of 33.1%.
ASMI share price
Elsewhere, shares of recruitment giant Randstad jumped 5% after the firm published its first-quarter earnings update. Revenue rose 0.4% year-on-year to reach 5.51 billion euros in the three months to March, beating an analyst consensus estimate provided by the company.
“While geopolitical instability and limited visibility require us to remain vigilant, the trajectory in Q1 with 0.4% growth gives us confidence for the months ahead,” CEO Sander van’t Noordende said in a statement.
French beauty conglomerate L’Oreal will report on earnings after the trading session ends, while other companies reporting on Wednesday include ABB, EssilorLuxottica, and Danone.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this market report.
