Oil rose more than 7% and world shares fell after President Donald Trump said in his first national address since the Iran war began that the US will continue to hit Iran very hard.
Trump also said in his Wednesday night speech that the United States will “finish the job” in Iran soon as “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” and military operations could wrap up soon.
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump said in his address.
Trump did not mention a looming deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport, after he threatened Iran earlier with US attacks on its energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened. He did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 10,342.28. France’s CAC 40 was 0.8% lower at 7,917.81, and Germany’s DAX lost 1.6% to 22,935.01.
Asian shares closed lower. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.4% to 52,463.27 on Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.5% to 5,234.05, also after government data showed consumer prices in March rose 2.2% from a year earlier on soaring fuel costs.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7% to 25,116.53, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.7% to 3,919.29.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex traded 1.8% lower.
US futures were down. The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.1%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.9%.
Oil prices were sharply higher following Trump’s remarks. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.4% to $108.69. per barrel. Benchmark US crude rose 7.1% to $107.24 a barrel.
“The market has shown disappointment because the speech President Trump made was far less than what the market expected,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex in Tokyo. “There were no concrete details about the end of the hostilities with Iran.”
“What the market wants is a clear outline for the ceasefire,” he said.
Gold and silver prices fell. Gold’s price was down 3.4% to $4,648.20 per ounce, falling below the $4,700 mark. Silver lost 6.2% to $71.39 an ounce.
Renewed optimism on Wednesday for a possible end to the Iran war pushed world stocks higher, after Trump said late Tuesday the US military could end its offensive in two to three weeks.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 added 0.7% to 6,575.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 46,565.74, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to 21,840.95.
In other dealings early Thursday, the US dollar rose to 159.59 Japanese yen from 158.82 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1530, down from $1.1589.
