Two Tankers Struck in Hormuz, US Promises New Bank Sanctions; Dollar Climbs Past Record; Iran Market Pulse, Sep 2, 2026; TEDPIX Sets Record

1. Lead

Tehran's free-market dollar, which had hit a historic record of 209,300 tomans on Monday evening, September 1 (9 Shahrivar 1405), climbed another 4,700 tomans by Tuesday evening, September 2 (10 Shahrivar), to reach 214,000 tomans, a record that held through Wednesday morning. The jump came alongside a direct escalation in military tension: early Tuesday, two tankers carrying Saudi crude were struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington is likely to announce a new bank sanction against Iran this week, with another to follow next week. Even so, Tehran's main stock index (TEDPIX) rose 0.55 percent Tuesday to a fresh record of 6,583,932 points, even though 71 percent of listed symbols closed lower and retail investors pulled roughly 4.3 trillion tomans out of the market, meaning the index record was again driven by large capital rather than retail inflows. Global gold fell for a second consecutive day.

2. Today's Snapshot

3. Today's Top Headlines

• Early Tuesday, two tankers carrying Saudi crude, the Sidr and the Senegal Prosperity, were struck by unidentified projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz; the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency confirmed the incident and said crews on both ships were safe (Reuters via gCaptain, citing Kpler and Marisks, Sep 1).
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers' meeting that Washington will likely announce a new Iran bank sanction this week, with another next week, describing the goal as economically "asphyxiating" Iran's leadership (Reuters via Kitco, Sep 1).
• Per Reuters, for the first time on record Iran has gone about seven weeks without shipping meaningful crude cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz to China; August loadings fell to roughly 220,000-255,000 barrels a day, down from about 740,000 in July (Reuters via Yahoo Finance, Sep 1).
• The US 10-year Treasury yield jumped 34 basis points to 4.78 percent, its highest since January 2025; Japan's 10-year yield hit its highest in roughly a century and the UK's its highest since 2008. Ecoiran attributed the move to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks, which also drove global gold down more than 1.8 percent the same day (Ecoiran, Sep 1).
• Parliament's National Security Committee approved an article that would tie Strait of Hormuz transit for parties that damaged Iran in the recent war to a compensation agreement; it still needs approval from parliament's floor and the Guardian Council (IRNA, Sep 1).

4. Currency

Tehran's free-market dollar, which hit a historic record of 209,300 tomans Monday evening, September 1, climbed another 4,700 tomans (2.25 percent) by Tuesday evening, September 2, to 214,000 tomans, a level a live Tgju.org check at 7:47am Wednesday confirmed unchanged. Three independent sources confirmed Tuesday's record: Donya-e-Eqtesad (213,770 to 214,700 tomans), Tgju.org (213,400 to 213,620 tomans) and Alanchand.com (214,700 tomans). The Iran Currency and Gold Exchange Center's negotiated ("agreed") rate, reserved for specific imports, held at 159,146 tomans, widening its gap with the free rate to more than 34 percent, a spread that keeps two rates priced by different mechanisms, administrative allocation versus free-market supply and demand, further apart by the day. Domestic tether traded at 214,080 tomans Wednesday morning, up a slight 0.07 percent, effectively level with the free dollar. The jump coincided with the projectile strikes on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the US Treasury Secretary's announcement of a new sanction this week; per Ecoiran, the dollar's rise was itself one of the factors behind Tuesday's sell pressure on the Tehran Stock Exchange.

5. Gold and Coin

Global gold fell for a second straight session. Spot gold traded at $4,305 Wednesday morning per Sahmino's own data (down 0.56 percent), while Tgju.org's live rate at the same hour showed $4,286 (down 0.99 percent); both extend Tuesday's drop of more than 1.8 percent, which Ecoiran linked to the jump in US, Japanese and UK bond yields following the Fed chair's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks. Global silver fell about 1 percent to $63.5 to $63.7, after a drop of more than 3 percent the previous day. Tehran's 18-karat gold held at 22,195,800 tomans a gram Tuesday evening and the Emami coin at 221,505,000 tomans, both little changed from the day before, since the domestic dollar's rise offset the global gold decline. The Emami coin's premium (hobab) is reported at 2,030,000 tomans.

6. Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse

TEDPIX, Tehran's main index, which is a separate institution from the Farabourse index, rose 0.55 percent (35,969 points) Tuesday to a fresh record of 6,583,932 points, its second straight record after Monday's 6,547,932. The equal-weight index also gained 0.2 percent. Even so, per Ecoiran, market breadth was negative: 71 percent of symbols closed lower and only 29 percent higher, and retail investors pulled roughly 4.3 trillion tomans out of the market, with the heaviest outflows from bank, oil and metal-ore stocks and the heaviest inflows into Vabank, Fooladmobarakeh and Taban. The value of sell queues rose to 7,276 billion tomans by the close, from 1,498 billion at the open. Ecoiran attributed the selling to escalating political risk, the dollar's rise and a disruption in the exchange's core trading system. Farabourse was calmer, its index up 0.28 percent to 51,376 points. Among metals names, Esfahan Steel (Zob Ahan) opened 2.96 percent higher to a fresh 52-week high of 592 rials, its sixth straight higher close, on volume 7.1 times its 20-session average; National Iranian Copper (Fameli) also posted a sixth consecutive gain. Mobarakeh Steel and Golgohar, by contrast, both carried sell queues.

7. Crypto

Bitcoin traded little changed at $77,371 Wednesday morning and Ethereum was down 0.43 percent at $2,408; both are roughly steady after last week's wave of institutional inflows (3.2 billion dollars into global crypto funds), covered in yesterday's Market Pulse. Ethereum is consolidating around the psychological $2,400 level. For Iran's market, domestic tether traded at 214,080 tomans Wednesday morning, effectively level with the free dollar and reflecting the same currency jump.

8. Iron and Steel

Tehran's metals stocks told two different stories today. Esfahan Steel (Zob Ahan) opened 2.96 percent higher Tuesday to a fresh 52-week high of 592 rials, its sixth consecutive higher close, with volume running 7.1 times its 20-session average and a one-year return near 67 percent. But that rally has pushed its P/E to about 49.3, versus a sector ("basic metals") average of 11.7, meaning the stock now trades at roughly 4.2 times its sector's average valuation, per Sahmino's own overnight data. By contrast, Golgohar, cheaper at a P/E of 12.4 with a one-year return of 115 percent, sits just 4.2 percent below its own 52-week high but carried a sell queue this morning; Mobarakeh Steel, cheaper still at a P/E of 5.3, remains 18.4 percent below its 52-week high and also carried a sell queue today. On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, A3 rebar (size 14 to 20) settled Monday at a volume-weighted 714,599 rials per kilogram (71,460 tomans), while retail A3 rebar from Aryan Steel priced at 76,360 tomans a kilogram Tuesday, a gap of nearly 7 percent reflecting distribution costs and middleman margins. Shanghai rebar, the global benchmark, traded down 0.48 percent at 3,122 yuan a tonne Wednesday morning.

9. Vehicles

In the car market, Saipa's Pride 151 GX (2026 model) priced at roughly 1,270,000,000 tomans Tuesday and the 2025 model at roughly 1,220,000,000 tomans, a visible rise from last week driven largely by the free dollar's climb and higher import costs for parts. No fresh data was available today to measure the exact factory-to-market price gap.

10. Building Materials

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, bagged Type 2 (42.5) cement settled Monday at a volume-weighted 38,491 rials per kilogram (3,849 tomans), while a 50-kilogram bag of Type 2 Portland cement from Tehran Cement Factory priced at 240,000 tomans (4,800 tomans a kilogram) in the retail market Tuesday and Abyek cement at 227,000 tomans (4,540 tomans a kilogram), gaps of roughly 18 to 25 percent above the exchange-discovered rate. The sector's listed names moved together and lower Tuesday: Simana fell 2.53 percent, Simano 2.15 percent and the Cement fund 2.16 percent; only Simania on Farabourse lagged the group's size but still closed down 1.85 percent. No data was available to attribute the synchronized decline to a specific driver.

11. Regional and Global Outlook

Brent crude traded up 0.27 percent at $95.43 Wednesday morning, extending a week-long climb kept aloft by the US strike on Lark Island, Iran's response, and now the projectile strikes on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The US 10-year Treasury yield jumped 34 basis points Tuesday to 4.78 percent, its highest since January 2025; Japan's 10-year yield hit its highest in roughly a century and the UK's its highest since 2008, after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks pushed the market's odds of a September rate hike above 66 percent. US stock index futures fell too; the S&P 500 closed Tuesday down 0.71 percent at 7,631. In Europe, eurozone inflation rose to 3.3 percent in August, its highest since September 2023, and markets are now fully pricing a 25 basis point ECB rate hike at the September 10 meeting (Eurostat via Ecoiran, Sep 1). The dollar traded at 48.29 Turkish lira, 6.72 Chinese yuan and 3.67 UAE dirhams Wednesday morning; the Iraqi dinar held little changed at 1,531 rials per dollar.

12. Bottom Line

Today was a day priced by war risk, not by the stock exchange; the dollar and oil both reflected it, yet Tehran's main index still set a record despite that same risk and despite a 4.3 trillion toman real-money outflow. The day's verdict is clear: big capital built the record, the rally was not broadly shared, and in the metals market, money chased a price that has, for now, run ahead of its sector's own valuation.

13. What to Watch Today

• Any formal announcement of the new US Iran bank sanction Scott Bessent promised this week, and the dollar's reaction to it.
• Shipping traffic and any fresh incident in the Strait of Hormuz, after Tuesday's projectile strikes on two tankers.
• Today's Tehran Stock Exchange open reacting to yesterday's index record, even as 71 percent of symbols closed lower Tuesday, especially in Mobarakeh Steel and Golgohar, both carrying sell queues this morning.
• The continuing G20 finance ministers' meeting in the US and any sign of fresh coordination on Iran sanctions.