{"id":1516066,"date":"2026-06-17T05:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1516066"},"modified":"2026-06-17T05:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:16:06","slug":"world-shares-are-mixed-and-oil-trades-below-80-on-optimism-over-interim-us-iran-war-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1516066","title":{"rendered":"World shares are mixed and oil trades below $80 on optimism over interim US-Iran war deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ahn Young-joon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 World shares were mixed and oil was trading below $80 a barrel on Wednesday as investors watched for details on the interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end the war.<\/p>\n

U.S. futures were also trading mixed ahead of a decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.<\/p>\n

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2% lower to 10,471.84, following official data that showed U.K. inflation was steady in May at 2.8% even as fuel prices increased. Germany’s DAX fell 0.3% to 24,829.58, while France’s CAC 40 was up 0.2% to 8,465.32.<\/p>\n

Asian stocks were mostly higher with markets in Japan and South Korea setting new records. Tokyo\u2019s Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% to 69,902.25, after reaching an intraday high of 70,125.75 following news that Japan\u2019s exports jumped 17% in May from a year earlier, helped in part by strong demand for high-tech products.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Kospi gained 1.6% to 8,864.24, also closing at another all-time high, with big technology stocks climbing despite a sell-off of artificial intelligence-related shares on Wall Street. Samsung Electronics, the country\u2019s most valuable company, was up 1%. Chipmaker SK Hynix jumped 5.8%.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng lost 0.7% to 24,312.16, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4% to 4,108.08.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 8,966.30.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s Taiex added 0.2% and India\u2019s Sensex rose 0.3%.<\/p>\n

Oil prices steadied after falling sharply earlier on optimism over a possible end to the war and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for oil and gas transport worldwide. But challenges remain, including whether the deal includes Israel\u2019s withdrawal from Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Brent crude, the international standard, edged 0.1% higher to $79.05 per barrel early Wednesday after falling more than 5% on Tuesday. It was above its roughly $70 a barrel level in late February, before the war started.<\/p>\n

Benchmark U.S. crude was nearly unchanged at $76.02 a barrel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormalizing (oil) flows will take time,\u201d economists at HSBC wrote in a note this week. \u201cHurdles include mine clearance, insurance reinstatement, emptying excess Gulf oil storage, repositioning ships, and restarting idled production fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the day the Federal Reserve will wrap up a two-day policy meeting, the first under its new chair Kevin Warsh. It is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to cut rates.<\/p>\n

Worries over higher prices due to the Iran war may lead the Fed to stand pat, since lower rates could fuel higher inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith weak wage growth and rent growth, underlying forces are pointing to inflation falling sharply once the energy price shock recedes. We don\u2019t expect the Fed to hike rates in 2026,\u201d Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar wrote in a commentary. \u201cWe expect the Fed to resume cutting in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar fell to 160.15 Japanese yen from 160.42 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1601, down from $1.1608.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, hitting another all-time high.<\/p>\n

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 1.2% to 26,376.34 following losses of some big tech stocks over renewed worries about an AI bubble.<\/p>\n

Shares of Nvidia fell 2.4%. Chipmaker Broadcom dropped 4.4% and Micron Technology lost 6.2%.<\/p>\n

SpaceX, Elon Musk\u2019s rocket company, was up 4.8%, gaining for the third straight day since its Wall Street debut.<\/p>\n

Yum Brands gained 1.9% after it announced it is selling Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion, with most restaurants purchased by U.S.-based private equity firm LongRange Capital.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World shares were mixed and oil was trading below $80 a barrel on Wednesday as investors watched for details on the interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1497255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1450,1502],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1516066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-business-news","category-abc-heads"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-19 05:15:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1516066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516068,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516066\/revisions\/1516068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1497255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1516066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1516066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1516066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}