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World Stocks Mixed, Oil Prices Jump 04/20 04:50
Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday as a
standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of
Hormuz.
(AP) -- Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday
as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait
of Hormuz.
The Persian Gulf waterway was closed again after Iran reversed a decision to
reopen the strait and President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of
Iranian ports remains in effect.
U.S. benchmark crude gained 5.3% to $87.88 a barrel, while Brent crude, the
international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.62 a barrel.
In share trading, U.S. futures declined, with the contracts for the S&P 500
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%.
In early European trading, benchmarks declined. Germany's DAX lost 1.6% and
the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.2% to 8,325.67. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to
10,601.64.
Despite renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast
amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East, share prices were mostly
higher in Asia., though they gave up the bigger gains of earlier in the session.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 58,824.89, while South Korea's Kospi
picked up 0.4% to 6,219.09.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8% to 26,361.07 and the Shanghai Composite
index advanced 0.8% to 4,0802.13.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 8,953.30.
In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 0.4%. India's Sensex rose 0.1% and the SET in
Bangkok lost 0.2%.
"The problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing
of it," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. "The latest
move higher in equities has started to feel less like conviction and more like
momentum feeding on itself."
On Friday, oil prices had dropped back to where they were in the early days
of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to a fresh record after Iran said the
strait was open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian
Gulf to customers worldwide.
A freer flow of oil could relieve pressure on prices for gasoline and all
kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately
help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.
The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high of 7,126.06, closing out a third
straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.8% to 49,447.43. The Nasdaq
composite climbed 1.5% to 24,468.48.
The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in
late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario
for the global economy despite their war.
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude had plunged 9.4% after Iran's
foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial
vessels through the strait "is declared completely open" as a ceasefire appears
to be holding in Lebanon.
Brent crude fell 9.1%.
After Araghchi's announcement, Trump said on his social media network that
the U.S. Navy's blockade of Iranian ports remained "in full force" pending a
deal on the war, though he also suggested that "should go very quickly in that
most of the points are already negotiated."
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. had seized an
Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get around a naval blockade. Iran's
joint military command said Tehran would respond soon and called the U.S.
seizure an act of piracy.
A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire
Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz raises questions
over new talks to end the war.
Since the war began, market sentiment has swung between optimism and gloom
over when the fighting will end and what costs the world economy will endure. A
strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has helped
support stocks.
In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.02 Japanese yen
from 158.79 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1759 from $1.1742.
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