Oil eases and world shares mixed as Iran war shows no clear de-escalation signs
HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices eased and world shares were mixed on Tuesday as there were no clear signs of a de-escalation of the Iran war.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 10,191.75. France’s CAC 40 was up 0.5% to 7,810.26, while Germany’s DAX was trading 0.8% higher at 22,740.35.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.6% to 51,063.72. Losses after the Iran war began on Feb. 28 have wiped out the gains it made from the beginning of the year.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.3% to 5,052.46. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.2% to 24,788.14, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.8% to 3,891.86.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3%, while Taiwan’s Taiex was 2.5% lower.
U.S. futures were up 0.8% early Tuesday.
With the Iran war in its fifth week, attacks in the Middle East continued and progress toward an end to the war remained unclear. Brent crude futures were 0.6% lower at $106.73 a barrel on Tuesday, while benchmark U.S. crude dropped 0.5% to $102.36 per barrel.
Oil prices have surged in March with Brent crude prices rising more than 40% since the start of the Iran war.
On Tuesday, an Iranian drone hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters and caused a fire, Dubai authorities said. Early Tuesday, the U.S. and Israel hit Iran in a new wave of strikes.
The U.S.’s Gulf allies were privately making a case to the White House that Iran has not been weakened enough, officials said, and were urging U.S. President Donald Trump to keep fighting. Meanwhile, Trump has said the U.S. is in negotiation with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, though Iran denied such talks were happening.
U.S. gas prices on Tuesday surged past an average of $4 a gallon, the first time since 2022, as the global fuel prices soar on Iran war impacts. Also on Tuesday, official data showed that Europe’s inflation rate in March jumped to 2.5%, up from February’s 1.9%.
Maritime traffic disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes through, remains the pain point for global energy supplies. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump has “options available” in response to Tehran’s threats to control the strait, after Iran was said to have effectively created a “toll booth” there.
Wall Street stocks were mixed on Monday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% to 6,343.72, the Nasdaq composite lost 0.7% to 20,794.64, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% to 45,216.14.
Shares of food distributor Sysco fell 15.3%, after it said it would be acquiring supplier Jetro Restaurant Depot in a $29 billion deal.
In other dealings early Tuesday, gold and silver prices were up. Gold’s price was 0.6% higher at $4,584.10 an ounce, and silver prices rose 3.7% to $73.17 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar was at 159.64 Japanese yen, down from 159.71 Japanese yen. The euro was trading at $1.1468, up from $1.1465.