BANGKOK — Shares were mixed in Asia, while oil prices gained more than 2 per cent after jumping the day before due to uncertainty over when the Strait of Hormuz may reopen, getting the global flow of crude going again.
U.S. futures edged lower.
Oil prices rose after U.S. President Donald Trump scoffed at demands from Iran that the U.S. pay for devastation caused by five months of war as one condition for reopening the strait.
Brent crude oil gained 2.4 per cent to US$89.80 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude picked up 2.6 per cent to $84.28 a barrel.
Brent surged 5 per cent on Monday. It swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.
In early European trading, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2 per cent to 8,708.85, while Germany’s DAX also fell 0.2 per cent, to 26,272.81. In Britain, the FTSE 100 lost 0.2 per cent to 10,840.84.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1 per cent lower.
Stocks wavered in Asia after the U.S. market edged away from its all-time highs.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.7 per cent to 6,345.53 as shares in market heavyweight Samsung Electronics jumped 4.1 per cent. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 0.4 per cent.
The wild swings of recent weeks, driven by waxing and waning hopes for a lasting boost to corporate profits from artificial intelligence, have abated in the past several days.
“Broadly, for the Korean memory chipmakers, the past year’s chip mania could well be over, even though Korean chipmakers will continue to benefit from the massive AI build out,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, said in a commentary.
Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng lost 1.1 per cent to 25,652.82, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.8 per cent to 3,934.09.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2 per cent higher to 9,250.60 after the Reserve Bank of Australia opted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.4 per cent and the Sensex in India shed 0.5 per cent.
On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent from its record set on Friday. The Dow dipped 0.1 per cent and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3 per cent.
The recent rally powered by soaring profits for U.S. companies has slowed. Reports are on track to show earnings per share leaped 50 per cent in the spring from a year earlier for companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Berkshire Hathaway, famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, gained 1.5 per cent. It is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected.
Intel fell 4.1 per cent after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. That would dilute its shareholders’ ownership stakes. Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments in the huge spending related to AI technology.
The main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on U.S. inflation in July. Economists expect it slowed to 3.4 per cent from 3.5 per cent in June, and that would relieve pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow money. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.35 Japanese yen from 159.30 yen. It has been inching higher despite a recent rate intervention in the markets by Japan and the U.S. to help raise the yen’s value against the dollar.
The euro fell to $1.1539 from $1.1544.
The price of gold, often used as a hedge against risk in times of uncertainty, added 0.3 per cent to $4,434.20 an ounce.
Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press
