World Shares Jump on War Ending Hopes  04/01 04:58

   World shares were higher and oil fell briefly below $100 per barrel on 
Wednesday after U.S. stocks soared to their best day in almost a year on 
renewed hopes that the Iran war could soon end.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares were higher and oil fell briefly below $100 
per barrel on Wednesday after U.S. stocks soared to their best day in almost a 
year on renewed hopes that the Iran war could soon end.

   The renewed optimism over a possible de-escalation of the Iran war, which is 
in its fifth week, came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the 
United States will be done attacking Iran probably in two to three weeks, and 
that the U.S. "will not have anything to do with" what happens next in the 
Strait of Hormuz.

   In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 1.8% to 10,356.41. 
France's CAC 40 was 1.3% higher at 7,920.89, and Germany's DAX climbed 1.6% to 
23,052.89.

   Asian shares closed sharply higher. South Korea's Kospi recovered its losses 
from earlier this week, surging 8.4% to 5,478.70, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 
5.2% to 53,739.68. A survey by Japan's central bank released Wednesday showed 
business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite Iran war 
worries.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 2.2% to 25,339.45, while the Shanghai Composite 
index was trading 1.5% higher at 3,948.55.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 2.2% to 8,671.80.

   Taiwan's Taiex climbed 4.6%, and India's Sensex rose 1.7%.

   U.S. futures were 0.4% higher.

   The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening 
on the Iran war.

   Trump's remarks came after he told U.S. allies to "go get your own oil" and 
blamed them for refusing to be more involved in its war effort. Significant 
maritime traffic disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of 
the world's oil typically passes through, has sent energy prices surging and is 
fueling global inflation.

   Oil prices fell and were briefly down 4% to below $100 a barrel on 
Wednesday, though the losses later narrowed. Brent crude, the international 
standard, was down 1% at $102.98 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 1.1% 
to $100.31.

   As the Iran war rattles global energy markets, on Tuesday, U.S. gas prices 
surged past an average of $4 a gallon, the first time since 2022.

   "De-escalation hopes have given markets a lift, but we think the effects of 
the war would, in many cases, persist even if the war did end soon," wrote 
Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics in a 
research note Wednesday.

   "It's worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end 
'very soon,'" he wrote. "Do markets have further to recover if sentiment 
continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes."

   Wall Street advanced on Tuesday. The S&P 500 jumped 2.9% for its largest 
gain since May to 6,528.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 2.5% to 
46,341.51, and the Nasdaq composite leaped 3.8% to 21,590.63.

   Shares of U.S. semiconductor company Marvell Technology spiked 12.8%, after 
Nvidia said it was investing $2 billion in the company. Nvidia jumped 5.6%.

   Centessa Pharmaceuticals leaped 44%, following U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly's 
announcement that it was acquiring the company that's developing a new class of 
medicines that could treat excessive daytime sleepiness.

   McCormick, the spice and flavorings company, fell 6.1% after confirmation 
that it was combing with Unilever's food business.

   In other dealings, gold prices rose 1.6% to $4,751.80 per ounce. The U.S. 
dollar was trading at 158.36 Japanese yen, down from 158.72 yen. The euro was 
at $1.1584, up from $1.1553.