{"id":102385,"date":"2026-05-07T13:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102385\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:49:29","slug":"hopes-for-reopening-the-strait-of-hormuz-push-world-shares-higher-as-brent-crude-holds-above-100-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102385\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopes for reopening the Strait of Hormuz push world shares higher, as Brent crude holds above $100"},"content":{"rendered":"

AP – World shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo\u2019s Nikkei 225 gaining almost 6% to a new record 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\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped more than 3,300 points to 63,086.00 as markets in Tokyo reopened following \u201cGolden Week\u201d holidays.<\/p>\n

In early European trading, Germany\u2019s DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,988.08 and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.3% at 8,325.55. Britain\u2019s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 10,411.19.<\/p>\n

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3%.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 has gained nearly 20% in the past three months and more than 70% in the past year, pushed higher by strong buying of tech shares that have benefited from the boom in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 9% and testing equipment maker Advantest Corp. added 6.8%. Shin-Etsu Chemican gained 8.5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It\u2019s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,\u201d said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.7% to 26,668.37.<\/p>\n

The S&P\/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.8% at 8,862.40.<\/p>\n

In South Korea, the Kospi reversed early losses, gaining 1.4% to 7,490.05, the second straight day it has closed at a record high. The benchmark jumped nearly 7% on Wednesday to barrel past 7,000 for the first time.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s Taiex surged 1.9%, lifted by a 3.1% gain for big computer chipmaker TSMC.<\/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 industrials 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 yoyoed on Thursday, shedding early gains to fall 30 cents to $100.97 a barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude oil slipped 37 cents to $94.71 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Oil prices sank Wednesday and stock markets rallied worldwide on hopes that the United States and Iran were 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. But after dipping below $97 a barrel, it pushed back above $100 after Trump threatened to start bombing \u201cat a much higher level and intensity\u201d if Iran does not accept his proposed agreement.<\/p>\n

The effective closure of the strait due to the war threatens 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

U.S. stocks have 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

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 156.39 Japanese yen from 156.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1752 from $1.1747.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP – World shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo\u2019s Nikkei 225 gaining almost 6% to a new record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1101,656,1872,356,897,376,102,389,42,14679,18146,795,101,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-102385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-ap","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-brent-crude","11":"tag-crude","12":"tag-gas","13":"tag-gas-prices","14":"tag-hormuz","15":"tag-japan","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nikkei","18":"tag-sp","19":"tag-stock-market","20":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116533616062394458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102385","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=102385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}