World shares mostly higher and oil gains ahead of planned US-Iran
ceasefire talks
[April 10, 2026] By
CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG (AP) — World shares were mostly up Friday tracking Wall Street
gains while oil prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and
ahead of Iran-U.S. talks in Pakistan.
In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 10,627.69.
France's CAC 40 also gained 0.2% to 8,265.80, while Germany's DAX rose
0.2% to 23,844.89.
Asian stocks ended mostly higher Friday. South Korea’s Kospi climbed
1.4% to 5,858.87. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8% to 56,924.11. Shares of
Fast Retailing, parent of Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, surged 12%
after the group raised profit expectations for the year.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6% to 25,893.54, while the Shanghai
Composite index was 0.5% higher at 3,986.22. China on Friday reported
that its consumer price index — a main inflation gauge — was up 1% in
March compared with a year ago, lower than what analysts had expected
and down from the 1.3% increase in February.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.6%.
Talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for a
possible permanent ceasefire agreement in the Iran war are expected to
take place starting Saturday, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance leading
the delegation for the United States.
But ahead of the talks, deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday
raised questions whether the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is still
intact, while the Islamic Republic maintained control over the Strait of
Hormuz, which is largely closed despite demands from the U.S. to reopen
the waterway critical for global oil and gas transport.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorized talks
with Lebanon, with negotiations said to be expected in Washington next
week.
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A screen showing Asia markets indexes at the foreign exchange
dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea,
Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 Oil was up on Friday. Brent crude,
the international standard, was 1.8% higher at $97.68 per barrel.
Benchmark U.S. crude was up 1.9% to $99.76 a barrel.
For oil prices, “$65-70 a barrel is not coming back,” Ajay
Rajadhyaksha of Barclays wrote in a recent research note, referring
to the pre-Iran war oil price levels. The bank predicts that Brent
crude could remain at around $85 per barrel on average for this
year.
“A ceasefire is not a refund,” he wrote. “Ceasefires end wars; they
don’t undo them.”
On Thursday, Wall Street gained on hopes of the Iran war ceasefire.
The S&P 500 added 0.6% to 6,824.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
climbed 0.6% to 48,185.80, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to
22,822.42.
Shares of Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and Corona beers
in the U.S., jumped 8.5% following better-than-expected quarterly
results. Cloud services provider CoreWeave was 3.5% higher after
announcing an expanded deal with Meta Platforms through 2032. Meta
was up 2.6%.
In other dealings, gold and silver prices fell. Gold’s price lost
1.1% to $4,765.60 an ounce, while silver prices dropped 1.7% to
$75.13 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar rose to 159.31 Japanese yen from 158.96 yen. The
euro was trading at $1.1685, down from $1.1699.
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