Wall Street Stocks Rise While European and South Korean Markets Fall; Oil Prices Ease
On Tuesday, the US S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices rose, while major European exchanges and Seoul declined. Crude oil prices edged lower as markets weighed a possible US–Iran agreement.
Global financial markets moved in different directions on Tuesday. Share prices on US exchanges partly recovered after several losing sessions, while indices in major European markets and in Seoul, South Korea, fell. Sentiment was shaped by lower oil prices, as investors assessed the chance that the United States and Iran could reach a deal.
Oil and political signals
Crude oil prices had dropped sharply on Monday on signs that US–Iran talks might resume. On Tuesday they eased a little further after US President Donald Trump said an agreement with Tehran "could happen". Traders also pointed to unconfirmed Middle Eastern media reports of progress on Iran's nuclear programme and on frozen funds.
On the New York exchange, WTI crude fell 0.4% to $96.09 a barrel. In London, Brent crude lost 1.2% to $103.60 a barrel. At the Netherlands-based Title Transfer Facility, the European natural gas benchmark, prices dropped 3.4% to €91.60 per megawatt-hour.
US markets
The prospect of lower energy costs helped Wall Street stabilise. The Nasdaq Composite, which had fallen for three sessions in a row, gained 0.8% to 25,372.01 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.4% to 7,568.92 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4% to 51,786.72 points.
Among individual companies, Apple shares fell 1.9%. Shares of artificial intelligence chipmakers Nvidia and AMD rose, as did those of CoreWeave, an operator of AI data centres.
Europe and Asia
London's FTSE 100 declined 1.1% to 10,638.43 points as oil and gas majors BP and Shell lost ground. Paris's CAC 40 fell 0.3% to 8,020.31 points, and Frankfurt's DAX 30 dropped 0.5% to 25,864.62 points.
In Asia, South Korea's Kospi index sank more than 3% on declines in SK hynix and Samsung. Shanghai's index fell, Hong Kong's rose, and the Tokyo exchange was closed for a holiday.
Currencies
The euro rose against the US dollar from 1.1187 to 1.1191. The British pound climbed from 1.3406 to 1.3413 against the dollar, while the dollar gained against the Japanese yen, moving from 157.94 to 158.75. The euro edged down against the pound, from 83.44 to 83.43 pence.
