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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
In share trading, U.S. futures declined, with the contracts for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%. <\/p>\n
In early European trading, benchmarks declined. Germany\u2019s DAX lost 1.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.2% to 8,325.67. Britain\u2019s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 10,601.64.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 58,824.89, while South Korea\u2019s Kospi picked up 0.4% to 6,219.09. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng added 0.8% to 26,361.07 and the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.8% to 4,0802.13. <\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 8,953.30.<\/p>\n
In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 0.4%. India\u2019s Sensex rose 0.1% and the SET in Bangkok lost 0.2%. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing of it,\u201d Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. \u201cThe latest move higher in equities has started to feel less like conviction and more like momentum feeding on itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, oil prices had dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war<\/a>, and U.S. stocks raced to a fresh record<\/a> after Iran said the strait was open<\/a> again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. <\/p>\n A freer flow of oil could relieve pressure on prices for gasoline and all kinds of other products <\/a> that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.8% to 49,447.43. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5% to 24,468.48.<\/p>\n The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March <\/a> on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war<\/a>.<\/p>\n The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude had plunged 9.4% after Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait \u201cis declared completely open\u201d as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. <\/p>\n Brent crude fell 9.1%. <\/p>\n After Araghchi\u2019s announcement, Trump said on his social media network that the U.S. Navy\u2019s blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> remained \u201cin full force\u201d pending a deal on the war, though he also suggested that \u201cshould go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated.\u201d <\/p>\n