Investing.com – European stocks were mostly lower on Thursday, as investors assessed a report that Iran was assuming a hard line on key uranium enrichment demands that could imperil chances of an immediate peace deal.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged around 0.1% higher, the in Germany declined by 0.3%, the in the U.K. rose 0.1%, and the in France dropped 0.4%.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has issued a directive that the country’s almost weapons-grade uranium should not be shipped abroad, Reuters reported, citing two senior Iranian sources. The news service added that U.S. President Donald Trump has assured allies in Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium would leave the country under any peace deal.

The White House has pushed back against the report, describing it as false, Fox News reported, citing a person directly involved in the negotiations.

A fragile ceasefire has taken hold since the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran in late February, with efforts aimed at resolving the impasse so far proving unsuccessful.

Trump has said the U.S. was in the “final stages” of a potential draft peace agreement, although he raised the specter of a re-escalation in hostilities, warning that “we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty” should a deal not be reached.

Iran, for its part, has said that it is reviewing Washington’s most recent position on concluding the conflict, but is ready to respond to more strikes with its own crushing barrage.  

Iran also launched a new “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” to control traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, having earlier outlined plans to charge tolls in the channel. 

Investors are particularly hunting for any indications that a deal could be made to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway off of Iran’s southern coast which has been all but closed to tanker traffic for weeks. Shipping data in media reports earlier this week indicated that some vessels have been able to traverse the conduit in recent days. 

Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil traverses the strait, making its closure a key driver behind a sharp spike in oil prices. Before the conflict, was exchanging hands at around $70 a barrel — on Thursday, it was exchanging hands above $105 a barrel.

Expectations that the European Central Bank and its global counterparts could hike interest rates to counter an energy-fueled inflation spike have led to an uptick in Eurozone government bond yields, putting pressure on equities. Yields, which tend to move inversely to bond prices, were last higher in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. 

Fresh data also showed that economic activity in the currency area shrank at its steepest rate in more than two-and-a-half years in May, due largely to a jump in living costs because of the war.   

earnings

Nvidia notched record quarterly sales and income, fueled by soaring demand for high-end data center systems and ongoing growth in so-called AI agents.

April quarter sales at the company, whose products have made it a bellwether for the state of the AI boom, spiked by 85% from a year ago to $81.6 billion, outpacing analysts’ expectations. Net income stood at $58.3 billion, over three times greater than the previous year and also well above Wall Street forecasts.

CEO Jensen Huang touted the arrival of the “era of agentic AI,” adding that this trend toward models that can independently carry out tasks on behalf of users had helped demand turn “parabolic.”

“[T]he chip landscape remains Nvidia’s world with everybody else paying rent as more sovereigns and enterprises wait in line for Nvidia’s chips,” said analysts at Wedbush said in a note.

However, shares of Nvidia were lower in premarket dealmaking, as analysts cited by Reuters flagged that the firm’s outlook did not include sales in China and was only slightly ahead of estimates. Given the sky-high projections Nvidia routinely faces, even better-than-anticipated results may not completely live up to market hopes, analysts have suggested.

In individual stocks, shares of rose on first-quarter returns that topped expectations. The insurer also confirmed its full-year outlook.

, meanwhile, logged a first-half loss of 552 million pounds. Shares hovered just above the flatline in early trading.