India, April 14 -- For 21 hours, the world waited with baited breath. Whatever time it was in whichever part of the globe, even as the sunrays touched Iran on Sunday, the message was clear. One swallow does not make a summer, and one round of talks does not bring Tehran any closer to a peace accord with Washington. The highly-anticipated face-to-face discussions concluded without an agreement in Pakistan's capital. It was back to the status quo, albeit in a new form. The Strait of Hormuz was blocked, this time by the US, not Iran, as economies braced for the worst. Equities were down, so was gold, oil zoomed, and so did the dollar.

Global crude prices went up to over $100 a barrel, yet again for the umpteenth time in the past six weeks, ...