South Korea’s Kospi opened at a record high on Monday, leading Asia-Pacific markets higher amid rising oil prices and escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.
But President Donald Trump’s rejection of Tehran’s latest offer to end the war has heightened concerns about a protracted Middle East conflict.
Iran has submitted a new proposal to U.S. negotiators focused on ending the Middle East conflict. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing sources, said the counter-proposal called for an end to the war on all fronts and the lifting of sanctions against Tehran.
However, President Trump said he did not like Iran’s response, calling it “completely unacceptable!” With real social posts.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the United States and Israel still aim to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and that the war with Iran is “not over.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments came ahead of President Trump’s planned visit to China later this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The war and Iran’s subsequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz caused global energy costs to soar and U.S. gasoline prices to soar.
West Texas Intermediate futures for June were up 3.67% at $99.09 a barrel as of 2:50 a.m. ET. Brent crude oil futures for July rose 3.42% to $104.71 per barrel.
After opening at an all-time high, South Korea’s Kospi closed today’s session up 4.32% at 7,822.24, while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat at 1,207.34. SK Hynix, the leading stock in the index, rebounded and rose more than 11%, following the sharp rise in U.S. semiconductor stocks on Friday.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average Trading was choppy, falling 0.47% to 62,417.88, while Topix rose 0.3% to 3,840.93. Nintendo’s stock price fell more than 8% as investors digested news that the game developer would raise the price of the Switch 2 while anticipating a decline in sales of the console.
australian S&P/ASX 200 It fell 0.49% to 8,701.80.
China’s CSI 300 rose 1.64% to 4,951.84 and Hong Kong’s CSI 300 rose 1.64% to 4,951.84. Hang Seng Index The stock was flat in the last hour of trading. Investors were also assessing data showing Chinese consumer and producer inflation rose more than expected in April due to rising commodity prices linked to Middle East conflicts.
indian nifty 50 It was down 0.94%.
