World shares are mostly higher, oil gains USD 2.50 as Iran talks remain in flux

BANGKOK: World shares mostly gained, and the price of Brent crude oil jumped USD 2.50 a barrel early Monday as talks on ending the war with Iran stayed snagged.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index hit a fresh record Monday after US stocks ended last week with new highs.

Two Middle Eastern officials said Iran was offering to end its chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, while requesting that the US end its blockade of Iran. President Donald Trump is unlikely to support the proposal, which was conveyed to the US through Pakistan, as he wants Iran's nuclear program closed down as part of a broader deal to end the war.

Disruptions to shipping through the strait have pushed oil prices sharply higher since the war began.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, to be delivered in July, rose USD 2.46 to USD 101.59. US benchmark crude oil added USD 2.20 to USD 96.60.

This week will bring decisions on interest rates by top central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX picked up 0.3 per cent to 24,193.27, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1 per cent higher, to 8,165.07. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.1 per cent to 10,374.51.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2 per cent.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surged 1.4 per cent to 60,537.36 after touching a new intraday high of 60,903.95. The Kospi in South Korea jumped 2 per cent to 6,615.03.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.1 per cent to 25,964.27, and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2 per cent to 4,086.34.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 per cent to 8,766.40.

Taiwan's Taiex rallied 1.8 per cent, helped by a revival of buying of tech shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence. India's Sensex added 0.8 per cent.

On Friday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8 per cent and topped its prior all-time high, which was set on Wednesday. It closed at 7,165.08.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2 per cent to 49,230.71, while the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.6 per cent to its own record thanks to strong gains for the tech sector, closing at 24,836.60.

A survey by the University of Michigan found consumer sentiment soured in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.

The S&P 500 has leapt nearly 13 per cent in a little under a month. Hopes have also been built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.

A tenuous ceasefire remains, but tensions between the US and Iran are keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

In Wall Street trading on Friday, Intel roared past its peak in 2000 during the dot-com boom to an all-time high. It soared 23.6 per cent for its best day since 1987 after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel's chips and products, and the company's forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts' estimates.

In other dealings early Monday, the dollar fell to 159.24 Japanese yen from 159.59. The euro climbed to USD 1.1741 from USD 1.1701.