World shares surge and oil prices slip over 4% after Trump claims a
breakthrough in Iran war talks
[June 12, 2026] By
CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG (AP) — World shares advanced on Friday, tracking big Wall
Street gains, while oil prices sank more than 4% after U.S. President
Donald Trump claimed there was a breakthrough in talks to end the Iran
war.
High oil prices have added to inflationary pressures globally as the
Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the world’s oil and gas transit,
remained largely closed.
Expectations that an agreement between the U.S. and Iran may help reopen
the strait sent oil prices tumbling.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 4.5% to $86.31 per
barrel. That was still much higher than the roughly $70 a barrel level
it was at before the war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude shed 4.3% to $83.90 a barrel.
In share trading, the future for the S&P 500 was 0.2% higher, while that
for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%.
Investors in the U.S. and elsewhere were awaiting the debut Friday on
Wall Street of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, which is set to
become the largest IPO on record, raising around $75 billion.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX picked up 1.8% to 24,654.78,
while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 1.9% to 8,356.38. Britain's FTSE 100
added 1.2% to 10,428.98, despite official data that showed its economy
contracted by 0.1% in April.
Asian markets logged bigger gains.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 4.6% to 8,123.62, narrowing losses from
earlier this month from sell-offs of shares related to artificial
intelligence. The Kospi has nearly doubled over the past six months,
with a record closing high of 8,801.49 on June 2.
Samsung Electronics, South Korea's most valuable company, advanced 7.9%.
Computer chipmaker SK Hynix rose 2.3%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei’s 225 gained 2.8% to 66,020.04, also led by gains for
technology stocks. SoftBank Group, a multinational investment holding
company with a strong AI focus, was up 1.5%. Chip equipment maker Tokyo
Electron jumped 7.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.7% to 24,658.91 and the Shanghai
Composite index rose 1.1% to 4,031.51.
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Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room
of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June
12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed
2% higher at 8,804.00.
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 2.4%, while India’s Sensex advanced 1.4%.
The renewed investor optimism came after Trump said Thursday he had
called off military strikes against Iran. He asserted that the U.S.
had made “a great settlement of the war with Iran,” adding that an
extension of the shaky ceasefire between the two sides could be
finalized in “the next few days.” Few details were offered.
Global markets retreated earlier in the week as tensions between the
U.S. and Iran escalated.
“Trump has said many times before that a deal is very close, only
for hostilities to resume,” ING commodities analysts Warren
Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note on Friday. “However, there
does appear to be more positive noise around the deal this time.”
“(But) we would be cautious about assuming that the extension of the
ceasefire is a done deal,” they added. “Even if it is, it could be
fragile.”
On Thursday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 surged 1.8% to
7,394.30, back to where it was in early May. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average rallied 1.9% to 50,848.75, and the
technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 2.5% to 25,809.66.
Prices of AI and other tech stocks have been volatile the past week
in part due to renewed worries that massive investments and soaring
share prices are creating a bubble liable to burst. On Thursday,
U.S. chipmaker Marvell Technology climbed 11.1%, but technology
company Oracle lost 8.5% on worries over its high spending, despite
strong-than-expected quarterly results.
In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 160.04
Japanese yen from 159.93 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1580, up
from $1.1578.
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