Oil prices jump nearly 6% after Trump says ceasefire with Iran is 'over'
[July 08, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices surged nearly 6% after U.S. President Donald
Trump said Wednesday that the interim agreement with Iran is “over,”
though he will allow talks to continue.
Trump made the comments following U.S. strikes on Iran in reaction to
attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The price of Brent crude
oil jumped 5.6% to more than $78 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude surged
5.8% to $74.55 a barrel.
“For me, I think it’s over,” Trump responded when asked about the status
of the ceasefire. “It’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” he said
on the sidelines of the two-day NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
Crude prices had declined recently from spikes well above $100 a barrel
to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran began in late
February.
Iran and the United States agreed as part of their interim deal on
ending the war to allow ships to pass through the strait without paying
charges for 60 days. But Tehran has insisted it must control the
vessels’ routes and vowed to later charge fees for passage. That would
upend decades of practice in the waterway. The ships attacked Tuesday
all appeared to be using a route close to Oman’s shore, rather than one
ordered by Tehran.
The upsets for oil markets have coincided with waves of worries that the
craze for artificial intelligence-related shares has pushed prices past
the amount of gains in productivity and profits likely to result from
massive investments in computer chip production capacity and data
centers.
“As such, geopolitical headlines will likely determine market sentiment
over the coming hours. A further deterioration in the situation could
weigh further on equity valuations along with rising stress in
technology,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary.
In share trading, Germany's DAX shed 1.1% to 25,191.69 and the CAC 40 in
Paris gave up 0.9% to 8,358.67. Britain's FTSE 100 slid 0.8% to
10,579.09.
The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower and that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was down 0.4%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 2.1% to 66,819.05, while the
Kospi in South Korea shed 5.4%, to 7,246.79.
The South Korean index has soared and then fallen back, briefly
surpassing the 9,000 level last month and then succumbing to bouts of
heavy selling of big AI-related tech shares like Samsung Electronics and
SK Hynix. Samsung fell 6.3% early Wednesday after dropping about 7% the
day before. SK Hynix shed early gains to drop 5.7%.
Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.6%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 3% to 24,193.56.
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Dealers talk near the screens showing foreign exchange rates at a
dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 8,
2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
 Hong Kong traded shares of Chinese
AI model startup Zhipu, known also as Z.ai and traded as Knowledge
Atlas Technology, rose nearly 14% on Wednesday.
A six-month lock up period for “cornerstone” investors after its
$558 million trading debut in Hong Kong in early January expires
this week. State-owned China National Radio reported late Tuesday
that nearly 70% of Zhipu’s cornerstone investors are committed to
stay on, despite previous worries that the lock up period expiration
could trigger a sell-off of shares. Zhipu’s share price has risen
more than 1,300% since its January trading debut in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.5% to 3,970.88.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,785.10,
while India's Sensex lost 0.7%.
On Tuesday, the roller-coaster ride for AI stocks whipped back down,
dragging Wall Street lower.
The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, though the majority of stocks within the
index rose.
The drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry dragged
the Nasdaq composite 1.2% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial
Average dropped 0.2%.
Advanced Micro Devices sank 6.5% and Intel shed 9.7%. Micron
Technology lost 4.7%.
SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, fell 6.8% in its first day of
trading after it was included in the Nasdaq 100 index.
In other trading early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.26
Japanese yen from 162.11 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1426 from
$1.1414.
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AP Business Writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this
report.
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