HONG KONG, China: Equities fell and oil prices rose Thursday amid continuing US-Iran tensions. Investors have spent most of the week upbeat that a breakthrough to end the seven-week conflict will be made soon, while healthy earnings and a resumption of the AI trade has also provided support. Crude prices jumped as much as four percent in early Asian business after global security monitors and Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards said Iranian forces had seized two ships and fired on a third in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has said vessels must seek permission to leave or enter the Gulf through the waterway, which in peacetime accounts for around a fifth of the world&#39;s oil and gas exports along with other vital commodities. However, the White House said Donald Trump did not consider the move to be a ceasefire violation because the vessels are not American or Israeli. Meanwhile, Iran&#39;s parliament speaker said the Islamic republic would not reopen the Strait as long as the US naval blockade remained, calling it a &quot;blatant violation&quot; of the two countries&#39; ceasefire. &quot;A complete ceasefire only has meaning if it is not violated through a naval blockade... Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not possible amid a blatant violation of the ceasefire,&quot; speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X. Still, Trump&#39;s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said he &quot;has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal&quot; for talks. &quot;Ultimately, the timeline will be dictated by the commander in chief,&quot; she told journalists. Oil prices Oil prices remained elevated Thursday, with Brent holding above $100 following a surge to more than $106 in the morning. Equities fell, though, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok and Wellington all down. But Seoul rose to a new record thanks to a fresh rally in the tech sector that has been the backbone of a surge in the Kospi index this year.&nbsp;London and Frankfurt fell but Paris edged up.&nbsp; &quot;Whether it&#39;s conflict fatigue or confidence that the conflict between the US and Iran will be resolved soon, there is limited evidence that the rise in the oil price dampened bond and equity markets,&quot; said National Australia Bank&#39;s Skye Masters. However, she added that the Washington Post had reported a senior Defense Department warned it could take six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines and that such an operation would probably not unlikely start before the end of the war. Financial markets &quot;It is questionable whether financial markets are correctly pricing the reality that supply constraints will remain an issue for some time,&quot; she wrote. Raphael Olszyna-Marzys, of Bank J Safra Sarasin, added: &quot;Financial markets are pricing a high likelihood that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will soon normalize. &quot;Our game-theory model suggests that a narrow agreement to reopen the strait is in both parties&#39; best interests. This outcome remains our base case. But it also reveals that a misreading of the other party&#39;s intentions could lead to a further ratcheting-up of tensions before we get there.&quot; Investors took some heart from strong earnings reports, with South Korean chip titan SK hynix posting a nearly 400% jump in net profit that hit a record for January-March thanks to the artificial intelligence boom. That came after Tesla announced forecast-topping first-quarter profits and Texas Instruments offered a healthy outlook. Bloomberg said almost 80% of the S&amp;P 500 firms that have reported first-quarter earnings had beaten analyst estimates so far. Key figures at 0810 GMT West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.8% at $93.74 a barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.0% at $102.92 a barrelTokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8% at 59,140.23 (close)Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0% at 25,915.20Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.3% at 4,093.25 (close)London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3% at 10,442.71Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1700 from $1.1709 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3488 from $1.3506Dollar/yen: DOWN at 159.63 yen from 159.49 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.76 pence from 86.70 pence

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Crude prices jumped as much as four percent in early Asian business after global security monitors and Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Iranian forces had seized two ships and fired on a third in the Strait of Hormuz.

Stocks sink and oil rises amid continuing US-Iran tensions

HONG KONG:&nbsp;Gold and silver hit record highs on Monday, while most equity markets fell after Donald Trump revived trade war fears by threatening several European nations with tariffs over their opposition to the United States buying Greenland. The US president has fanned already-rising geopolitical tensions this month by insisting that Washington would take control of the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-threatens-europe-with-tariffs-over-greenland-as-protesters-rally" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">North Atlantic island</a>, citing national security needs. And on Saturday, after talks failed to resolve &quot;fundamental disagreement&quot; over the Danish autonomous territory, he announced he would hit eight countries with fresh levies over their refusal to submit to his demands. He said he would impose 10% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland from February 1 -- rising to 25% from June 1 -- if they did not agree to the takeover. Tariffs threats&nbsp;The announcement drew an immediate response, with a joint statement from the countries saying: &quot;Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.&quot; The move also threatened a trade deal signed between the United States and European Union last year, with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul telling ARD television: &quot;I don&#39;t believe that this agreement is possible in the current situation.&quot; &lsquo;Anti-coercion instrument&rsquo;Meanwhile, aides to French President Emmanuel Macron said he would ask the EU to activate a never-before-used &quot;anti-coercion instrument&quot; against Washington if Trump makes good on his threat. This measure allows for curbing imports of goods and services into the EU, a market of 27 countries with a combined population of 450 million. Bloomberg reported member states were discussing the possibility of retaliatory levies on &euro;93 billion ($108 billion) of US goods. Trade war&nbsp;The prospect of a trade war between the global economic heavyweights shook markets, with <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/gold-soars-past-4500-as-safehaven-demand-hits-record-levels" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">safe-haven</a> assets extending gains that had come on the back of Trump&#39;s threats against Iran last week and the US ouster of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/gold-price-hits-record-high-of-438376-on-us-rate-cut-bets" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gold</a>, a key go-to in times of turmoil, hit a peak of $4,690.59, while silver struck $94.12. On equity markets, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, and Wellington retreated, though there were gains in Seoul and Taipei.&nbsp;European and US futures sank. &lsquo;Next signpost&rsquo;The dollar also retreated against its peers, with the euro, sterling, and yen all higher. &quot;The next signpost is whether this moves from rhetoric to policy, and that is why the concrete dates matter,&quot; wrote Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets. &quot;On the European side, the decision path matters as much as the headline, because there is a difference between merely mentioning the anti-coercion instrument as a signal and formally pursuing it as action. &quot;Even if the immediate tariff threat gets negotiated down, the structural risk is that fragmentation keeps rising, with more politicized trade, more conditional supply chains, and higher policy risk for companies and investors.&quot; There was little major reaction to data showing China&#39;s economy expanded five percent last year, in line with its target.&nbsp; However, growth in the final three months slowed sharply from the previous quarter. Investors in Seoul and Taipei brushed off a warning from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that South Korean chipmakers and Taiwan firms not investing in the United States could be hit with 100% tariffs unless they boost output in the country. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Key figures at around 0230 GMT </h2>Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0% at 53,412.88 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7% at 26,670.01 Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1% at 4,099.23 Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1628 from $1.1604 on Friday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3397 from $1.3382 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.54 yen from 158.07 yen Euro/pound: UP at 86.79 pence from 86.69 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1% at $59.52 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $64.15 per barrel New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2% at 49,359.33 (close) London - FTSE 100: FLAT at 10,235.29 (close)

Gold, a key go-to in times of turmoil, hit a peak of $4,690.59, while silver struck $94.12; on equity markets, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Wellington retreated; there were gains in Seoul and Taipei.

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Stocks sink and oil rises amid continuing US-Iran tensions

Gold, silver hit records and stocks fall as Trump fans trade fears