World Stocks Mixed, Oil Prices Jump    04/20 04:50

   Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday as a 
standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of 
Hormuz.

   (AP) -- Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday 
as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait 
of Hormuz.

   The Persian Gulf waterway was closed again after Iran reversed a decision to 
reopen the strait and President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of 
Iranian ports remains in effect.

   U.S. benchmark crude gained 5.3% to $87.88 a barrel, while Brent crude, the 
international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.62 a barrel.

   In share trading, U.S. futures declined, with the contracts for the S&P 500 
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%.

   In early European trading, benchmarks declined. Germany's DAX lost 1.6% and 
the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.2% to 8,325.67. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 
10,601.64.

   Despite renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast 
amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East, share prices were mostly 
higher in Asia., though they gave up the bigger gains of earlier in the session.

   In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 58,824.89, while South Korea's Kospi 
picked up 0.4% to 6,219.09.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8% to 26,361.07 and the Shanghai Composite 
index advanced 0.8% to 4,0802.13.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 8,953.30.

   In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 0.4%. India's Sensex rose 0.1% and the SET in 
Bangkok lost 0.2%.

   "The problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing 
of it," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. "The latest 
move higher in equities has started to feel less like conviction and more like 
momentum feeding on itself."

   On Friday, oil prices had dropped back to where they were in the early days 
of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to a fresh record after Iran said the 
strait was open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian 
Gulf to customers worldwide.

   A freer flow of oil could relieve pressure on prices for gasoline and all 
kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately 
help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.

   The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high of 7,126.06, closing out a third 
straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.8% to 49,447.43. The Nasdaq 
composite climbed 1.5% to 24,468.48.

   The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in 
late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario 
for the global economy despite their war.

   The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude had plunged 9.4% after Iran's 
foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial 
vessels through the strait "is declared completely open" as a ceasefire appears 
to be holding in Lebanon.

   Brent crude fell 9.1%.

   After Araghchi's announcement, Trump said on his social media network that 
the U.S. Navy's blockade of Iranian ports remained "in full force" pending a 
deal on the war, though he also suggested that "should go very quickly in that 
most of the points are already negotiated."

   President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. had seized an 
Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get around a naval blockade. Iran's 
joint military command said Tehran would respond soon and called the U.S. 
seizure an act of piracy.

   A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire 
Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz raises questions 
over new talks to end the war.

   Since the war began, market sentiment has swung between optimism and gloom 
over when the fighting will end and what costs the world economy will endure. A 
strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has helped 
support stocks.

   In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.02 Japanese yen 
from 158.79 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1759 from $1.1742.