How Iranian Markets Received the New U.S. Sanctions

While 48‑year‑old Jawad, the shop owner, slowly arranged boxes on the shelves and watched the scene calmly, he said, “Before the last Ramadan war and during its first weeks, we saw people stock up on food, but today there is no increase in demand for groceries… Perhaps people have gotten used to war, or they realized that goods would not run out. But I believe purchasing power has collapsed.”

In Ferdowsi Street in the city center, where currency exchange shops cluster, the situation was different; hawkers gathered in the square’s corners, repeating their usual lines: “We buy dollars, come here.” Yet their eyes showed unmistakable worry, for they know that previous dollar‑price spikes brought security crackdowns and arrests of several brokers. Still, they cannot stop, and one says, “The market runs in our blood.”

In the gold shops on Karim Khan Street, the jeweler and traders confirm that demand for raw gold and gold bars is rising, and the data displayed on the screens tells a story of silent panic; the price per gram of 18‑karat gold rose from 196.304 million rials on Wednesday to 223.349 million rials by noon on Tuesday.

At the Tehran Stock Exchange, the session on Tuesday seemed like a quiet battlefield between opposing forces from the very first minutes of trading, when some sellers initially tried to impose their rhythm on the market. That attempt quickly faded as strong buyers entered swiftly and turned the equation, affirming that cautious optimism has persisted for days in the trading corridors.

Consequently, the overall Tehran Stock Exchange index continued to rise, achieving a jump of 123,921 units, a 2.02% increase, settling at 6,223,877 units. Economists observe that despite the fragility of the macroeconomy, the market still shows a appetite for risk, as if traders bet that inflationary momentum will keep pushing assets higher, even though the real economic floor remains shaky.

At the end of this scene, Tehran appears to be a city that has learned to coexist with threats, and the new sanctions have not caused panic in the streets. Yet their repercussions seep slowly into everything, while Iranian citizens see that an economic war does not need bombs to leave its mark; it only needs to keep the price wheel turning nonstop so that people chase it to exhaustion.