By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oil prices are sinking, and stock markets are bursting higher worldwide Wednesday with\u00a0hopes that the United States and Iran are nearing a deal<\/a>\u00a0to allow ships to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf once again to their customers.<\/p>\n The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, sank 5.7% to $103.61, down from more than $115 early this week. It dropped as President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz could be \u201cOPEN TO ALL\u201d if Iran accepts a reported agreement that he did not detail.<\/p>\n The strait has caused\u00a0big trouble for the global economy<\/a>\u00a0because the\u00a0war with Iran<\/a>\u00a0has blocked oil tankers from using it to exit the Persian Gulf. A reopening could allow oil to flow freely again and remove some of the upward pressure on inflation that\u2019s driven prices up for\u00a0all kinds of products<\/a>\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was heading\u00a0for another record<\/a>. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 487 points, or 1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.<\/p>\n Stock markets abroad had even bigger gains, and indexes jumped 6.5% in Seoul, 1.2% in Hong Kong, 2.2% in London and 2.9% in Paris.<\/p>\n Of course, hopes have risen several times already on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran, only to quickly get dashed. That could happen again, and oil prices pared some of their steepest losses from Wednesday morning. The price for a barrel of Brent briefly dove below $97 before pulling back above $100.<\/p>\n But Wall Street nevertheless latched onto several potentially encouraging signals.\u00a0Trump on Tuesday evening said he would pull back<\/a>\u00a0on his effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially through forceful means. And\u00a0China\u2019s foreign minister called for a comprehensive ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0following a meeting with Iran\u2019s foreign minister. That could be influential because of how closely tied Iran is to China economically and politically.<\/p>\n