LDN Business - Global Markets

World shares are mixed, with sharp gains for tech stocks, while oil prices bounce back

[May 04, 2026] By ELAINE KURTENBACH

Shares were mixed in Europe and Asia on Monday, with big gains for computer chipmakers and other tech stocks after Friday's rally on Wall Street.

Oil prices rebounded and Brent crude climbed more than $2 a barrel as the U.S. launched an effort early Monday to guide ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran rejected the plan but was reviewing the U.S. response to its latest proposal to end the war, Iran’s judiciary Mizan news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei saying Sunday.

The price of a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude was up $1.80 at $103.73 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped $2.23 to $110.40 a barrel.

The future for the S&P 500 was nearly unchanged, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3%.

Germany's DAX edged 0.1% higher to 24,303.77, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.5% to 8,072.91. Markets in Britain were closed for a holiday.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2% to 26,095.88.

Markets in mainland China and Japan were closed for “Golden Week” holidays.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 8,697.10.

Strong buying of tech stocks pushed shares in South Korea sharply higher, as the Kospi gained 5.1% to 6,936.99. Samsung Electronics’ shares surged 5.4%.

In Taiwan, the Taiex leaped 4.6% as shares in computer chipmaker TSMC, the market heavyweight, shot up 6.6%.

Much hinges, analysts say, on progress toward ending the war with Iran and unlocking the shipping bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz due to the war.

The oil market “remains the fulcrum, with hundreds of tankers, bulk carriers, and cargo ships still stranded across the Gulf, idling as storage constraints force producers to shut ... production simply because there is nowhere left to store it,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

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A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Thousands of seafarers, many on oil tankers or cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began, describing to The Associated Press seeing intercepted drones and missiles explode over the waters as their vessels run low on drinking water, food and other supplies.

Trump said what he called “Project Freedom” would begin Monday morning in the Middle East. The U.S. Central Command said it would involve guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 service members, but the Pentagon did not immediately answer questions about how they would be deployed.

On Friday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to another all-time high of 7,230.12, closing out a fifth straight winning week.

The Dow industrials dipped 0.3% to 49,499.27, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to a record close of 25,114.44.

Apple led the way after delivering better profit than expected. Because it’s one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks in terms of overall size, its rally of 3.3% was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

Stock prices generally follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and U.S. companies have been exceeding expectations for earnings in the first three months of 2026. That’s even with the war with Iran and high oil prices souring confidence for many U.S. households.

In other dealings early Monday, the dollar rose to 156.92 Japanese yen from 156.80 yen, falling at one point to 155.75 yen due to thin trading given that Japanese markets were closed. The euro fell to $1.1717 from $1.1746.

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