The Tamesis
Oil prices were steady, while most markets in Asia rose on Tuesday as investors assessed the likelihood of a peace deal in the Middle East.
Iran’s state news agency announced that crude oil futures rose about 7% on Monday Tehran suspends talks with Washington Israeli advances in Lebanon.
Concerns eased after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to cease all fighting and that talks with Iran were progressing quickly. However, Israel later resumed its attacks on Tuesday.
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The Seoul stock market, which has been at the forefront of the artificial intelligence rally this year, reversed morning losses and closed at a record high, with Samsung shares rising more than 3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also performed strongly on the day, rising 2.5%, while Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.3%. But the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% and the BSE Sensex in Mumbai rose 0.5%.
The Thai and Philippine markets also posted healthy gains of 1.26% and 1.95% respectively.
Israel attacks Lebanese hospital
Late Tuesday, details emerged about two clashes on Monday.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said that a day earlier, Israel launched an airstrike near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre, killing four people and injuring 127 others, including 39 staff of the institution.
The injured at Jabal Amel Hospital include “four doctors, 27 nurses and eight (administrative) staff, four of whom are in critical condition and are being treated in the intensive care unit,” the statement said.
The attack prompted an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “We are deeply alarmed by the escalation of military activity in southern Lebanon and beyond.”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they hit a container ship leaving the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr with a cruise missile in retaliation for a U.S. attack on the Iranian ship Lion Star in the Sea of Oman.
However, both Geneva-based shipping company MSC and British maritime safety agency UKMTO said that no crew members were injured in the incident. MSC said it is a “neutral commercial airline with no ties to the United States or Israel.”
Tech stocks rise
Trump later said he had persuaded the Israeli- and Iran-backed Hezbollah to downgrade, and the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon said the armed group had accepted a U.S. offer for a “mutual cessation of attacks.”
“Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding quickly,” Trump said in a social media post.
Trump’s comments appeared to ease concerns, at least in global business. Given the current enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, this has led to another strong performance in technology stocks.
“There has been no concrete progress in the Middle East talks… but investors appear generally optimistic that a long-term solution will be reached,” Suzanne Street, chief investment strategist at Fortune Club, told AFP.
Trade Nation’s David Morrison noted that despite the turmoil in the oil market, “prices remain near the bottom of their recent range” and well below the $100 per barrel level just a few weeks ago.
Even if euro zone inflation surged to 3.2% in May, all but ensuring a rate cut by the European Central Bank later this month, it wasn’t enough to weaken European stocks on Tuesday.
A new batch of headlines from US artificial intelligence giants supports this optimism.
Wall Street ended the session with more tech-heavy gains on Monday, with shares of chip giant Nvidia rising more than 6% after the company unveiled a powerful chip for Windows laptops.
Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet announced plans to raise up to $80 billion in stock to fund a massive expansion of its artificial intelligence infrastructure, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pledged to raise $10 billion.
Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, said it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering that could value the artificial intelligence lab at nearly $1 trillion.
“Headlines about Iran have taken the wheel, but AI trading remains the engine of the stock market,” Saxo Markets analyst Neil Wilson wrote on Tuesday.
The outlook for U.S. interest rates is also on the agenda, with employment data released on Friday likely to determine whether the Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark rate steady or potentially raise borrowing costs to boost the world’s largest economy.
Key data around 1400 GMT
North Sea Brent crude oil: unchanged at $94.95 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: rose 0.1% to $92.25 a barrel.
TOKYO – Nikkei 225: down 0.3% to 66,734.24 (close).
USD/JPY: rose from 159.67 yen to 159.82 yen.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index: rose 2.5% to 26,038.32 (closed).
Shanghai – Composite Index: up 0.4% to 4,075.10 (close).
LONDON – FTSE 100: up 0.1% to 10,347.85.
PARIS – CAC 40: up 0.5% to 8,183.49.
FRANKFURT – DAX: up 0.3% to 25,079.03.
NEW YORK – Dow: down 0.3% to 50,952.18.
NEW YORK – S&P 500: down 0.1% to 7,592.29.
NEW YORK – Nasdaq: down 0.1% to 27065.31.
- AFP Additional input and editing by Jim Pollard
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