Oil prices fall again amid Middle East ceasefire hopes after Wall Street sets another record
Asian stocks were lower Friday even after Wall Street set another record, as investors watched for signs of more U.S.-Iran talks and an extension of the ceasefire of the Iran war that is expiring next week.
Oil prices fell Friday, while U.S. futures edged up modestly.
Tokyoโs Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 58,930.87 after reaching an all-time high on Thursday. South Koreaโs Kospi was 0.6% lower at 6,191.19. Hong Kongโs Hang Seng dropped 1% to 26,126.86, while the Shanghai Composite index edged down 0.1% to 4,051.45.
Australiaโs S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3%, while Taiwanโs Taiex traded 0.5% lower.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that heโs open to extending the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, and Iranโs U.N. envoy said Tehran remained โcautiously optimisticโ over negotiations with the U.S.
As optimism over an extended ceasefire grew, oil prices fell early Friday after climbing a day earlier. Brent crude, the international standard, was 1.1% lower at $98.31 per barrel. It had surged roughly 40% since the beginning of the Iran war in late February. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 1.4% to $89.90 a barrel.
Global energy shocks are growing over impacts of the Iran war, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining largely closed while the U.S. imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. The head of the International Energy Agency told The Associated Press on Thursday that Europe has โmaybe six weeks or soโ of jet fuel supplies remaining and warned of flight cancellations โsoon.โ
On Thursday, Wall Street set another record with the benchmark S&P 500 closing 0.3% higher at 7,041.28, just a day after it eclipsed its previous all-time high in January. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 48,578.72, and the tech-focused Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to 24,102.70.
Shares of PepsiCo gained 2.3% following its announcement of better-than-expected quarterly results. U.S. logistics company J.B. Hunt Transport Services was 6.3% higher also on stronger-than-expected results.
In other dealings, gold and silver prices were up. Goldโs price was 0.1% higher at $4,814.60 an ounce, while silver prices gained 0.4% to $79.04 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar rose to 159.43 Japanese yen from 159.17 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1778, down from $1.1781.
