{"id":101645,"date":"2026-05-07T03:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/101645\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:29:09","slug":"hopes-for-reopening-the-strait-of-hormuz-push-asian-shares-higher-as-oil-prices-hold-above-100-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/101645\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopes for reopening the Strait of Hormuz push Asian shares higher, as oil prices hold above $100"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asian shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gaining 5.7% to a record intraday high as investors waited to see if the U.S. and Iran<\/a> will strike a deal allowing tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.<\/p>\n

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped 3,402 points to 62,915.87 as markets in Tokyo reopened following \u201cGolden Week\u201d holidays. <\/p>\n

The Nikkei has gained about 18% in the past three months and nearly 73% in the past year, pushed higher by strong buying of tech shares that have benefited from the boom in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.3% to 26,559.86. <\/p>\n

The S&P\/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.9% at 8,870.70. <\/p>\n

In South Korea, the Kospi slipped 0.4% to 7,353.08 as traders sold to lock in profits after the benchmark jumped nearly 7% a day earlier to barrel past 7,000 for the first time.<\/p>\n

Taiwan’s Taiex surged 2.1%. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, markets rallied worldwide after President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz could be \u201cOPEN TO ALL\u201d if Iran accepts a reported agreement that the U.S. president did not detail.<\/p>\n

Oil prices fell nearly 8% and the S&P 500 climbed 1.5% for its best day in nearly a month, setting a fresh record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 2%. <\/p>\n

However, optimism was tempered by continuing tensions.<\/a> The U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker Wednesday as President Donald Trump sought to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal to end the war. The military said in a social media post that a fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as the vessel tried to breach an American blockade of Iran\u2019s ports. <\/p>\n

Early Thursday in Asian trading, Brent crude oil rose 51 cents to $101.78 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 55 cents to $95.63 a barrel. <\/p>\n

Oil prices sank Wednesday, and stock markets rallied worldwide on hopes that the United States and Iran are nearing a deal <\/a> to allow ships to deliver crude through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 7.8% to $101.27, down from more than $115 early this week. <\/p>\n

The effective closure of the strait due to the war has caused big trouble for the global economy<\/a> because the conflict has blocked oil tankers from using it to exit the Persian Gulf. A reopening could allow oil to flow freely again and remove pressure on inflation that\u2019s driving prices up for all kinds of products <\/a> worldwide.<\/p>\n

The price of Brent crude fell below $97 a barrel but then pushed above $100 after Trump threatened to start bombing \u201cat a much higher level and intensity\u201d if Iran does not accept the agreement. <\/p>\n

U.S. stocks remained resilient despite the war thanks partly to strong profit reports by big U.S. companies<\/a> for the start of 2026. <\/p>\n

Chipmaker AMD helped lead the market Wednesday with a surge of 18.6% after it joined the list of big-name companies topping expectations for both profit and revenue. <\/p>\n

Super Micro Computer, rallied 24.5% after likewise delivering stronger earnings than analysts expected. Nvidia, the chip company that became the poster child of the AI boom, rose 5.7% and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500 because of its immense size.<\/p>\n

CVS Health climbed 7.6% after delivering better results for the first quarter than analysts expected and raising its financial forecasts for the full year. The Walt Disney Co. <\/a> gained 7.5% after saying its \u201cZootopia 2\u201d movie helped draw people to its streaming business, parks and cruise ships.<\/p>\n

Outside of earnings reports, companies with big fuel bills jumped on hopes that oil prices will continue to ease. That included gains of 6.8% for United Airlines, 6.8% for Carnival and 8.8% for Royal Caribbean.<\/p>\n

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 156.32 Japanese yen from 156.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1756 from $1.1747.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asian shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gaining 5.7% to a record intraday high as investors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[328,38,102,35154,101,947,82],"class_list":["post-101645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-hormuz","tag-lisa-su","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-technology","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116531177871724146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}