Oil prices slip and world shares mostly gain as US-Iran talks still in
doubt
[April 21, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
Oil prices slipped and shares were mostly higher Tuesday in Europe and
Asia as U.S.-Iran talks aimed at ending the war remained in doubt.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil dipped 0.7% to $94.81. U.S.
benchmark crude oil lost 0.9% to $86.63 per barrel.
The war has disrupted transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a
vital waterway that usually is fully open to international shipping,
pushing oil prices sharply higher.
U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed
to transit the strait unimpeded, imposing a blockade on Iranian ports.
He has said Vice President JD Vance will visit Pakistan’s capital
Islamabad for talks with Iran. But after the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an
Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Iranian side has made no commitment to
more negotiations.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.6% to 24,558.9 and the
CAC 40 in Paris was little changed, at 8,333.05. Britain's FTSE 100
edged 0.1% higher, to 10,620.92.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up
just over 0.1%.
In Asian share trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9% to 59,349.17 on
strong gains for tech-related companies like Tokyo Electron, which rose
3.5%. Tech and energy giant SoftBank Group Corp. gained 8.5%, part of
the latest wave of gains pinned on expectations of windfalls from
artificial intelligence.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.7% to 6,388.47, and Taiwan's Taiex advanced
1.8%.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.5% to 26,481.48 and the Shanghai
Composite index added 0.1% to 4,085.08.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined less than 0.1% to 8,949.40.
Oil prices had climbed Monday following the latest rise of tensions
between the United States and Iran, but the moves were more modest than
they were earlier in the war. U.S. stocks, meanwhile, gave back a bit of
their record-breaking rally.
On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow
industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
Worries over disruptions of supplies of oil from the Persian Gulf if
Iran continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz are
clouding investor sentiment.
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A dealer walks past the screens showing the foreign exchange rate
between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana
Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee
Jin-man)
 The next big deadline is looming on
Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday
Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States
and Iran is scheduled to expire.
“The current dynamic is one of a precarious balance of truce,”
Mizuho Bank said in a commentary, so “as the ceasefire draws to its
2-week deadline, the all-consuming question is whether both sides
can seize on the talks to land on a US-Iran deal that ends the war.”
For now, oil prices remain well below the $119 per barrel level for
Brent crude when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is
still above where it was before the war.
Several of the biggest U.S. banks said last week that they see the
U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid
spending by U.S. consumers.
U.S. companies have been reporting big profits for the first three
months of 2026, helping to support the market. Nearly nine out of 10
companies that have already reported earnings for January-March
posted bigger profits than analysts had expected, according to
FactSet.
If the rest of the companies in the S&P 500 match analysts’
expectations, overall earnings per share for companies in the index
will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, it estimates.
Other companies scheduled to report their results this week include
UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter &
Gamble on Friday.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.21
Japanese yen from 158.82 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1767 from
$1.1789.
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