Aerial view of downtown Seoul cityscape with vehicles and bridges on the highway crossing the Han River in Seoul, South Korea.
Mongkol Joo Won | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Monday as investors hoped to avoid a diplomatic setback between the United States and Iran, even as concerns over the Middle East drove up oil prices.
Despite great uncertainty, Iran has presented the United States with a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, hinting at a postponement of nuclear negotiations, Axios reported on Monday, citing a U.S. official and two sources familiar with the matter.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.38% to close at an all-time high of 60,537.36, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.15% to close at 6,615.03, also hitting a new all-time high.
In Australia, S&P/ASX 200 It fell 0.23% to 8,766.4.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index Although down 0.24% in the final hour of trading, mainland China’s CSI300 index closed little changed at 4,770.95, as China’s industrial profits rose 15.8% year-on-year in March, accelerating from a 15.2% rise in the first two months of the year.
Sentiment held despite US President Donald Trump on Saturday backtracking on plans to send US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad, Pakistan, to negotiate with Iran.
“Too much time wasted traveling and too much work! On top of that, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership’,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Oil prices rose about 2% after plans for a second round of peace talks between the US and Iran collapsed again.
international benchmark brent Crude oil futures were up more than 2% at $107.49 a barrel by 7:35 p.m. ET. usa crude oil also rose 1.79% to $96.19.
Tensions remain high in the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian Revolutionary Guards reportedly boarded two cargo ships near the strategic sea lane.
US futures fell slightly Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures It decreased by 0.2% or 130 points. S&P500 futures Although it decreased by 0.3%, Nasdaq 100 futures It fell 0.3%.
Last Friday in the United States, S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite Stores closed at record levels. The broader market index rose 0.8% to end at 7,165.08, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.63% to end at 24,836.60. Both indexes hit new intraday highs. however, Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell 79.61 points (0.16%) to end at 49,230.71.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
