South Korea’s Kospi opened more than 5% higher on Tuesday, leading a recovery in the region, after oil prices fell and Wall Street rallied as US President Donald Trump signaled that the conflict with Iran may be coming to an end.
Oil prices fell more than 10% after Trump said he was considering taking control of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important bottleneck for the crude oil market. Trump also told a CBS News reporter, who shared the comments in a post on X, that “the war is very much over, over.”
International Brent crude was down 10% at $89.03 a barrel at 9:10 p.m. ET on Monday. US crude fell more than 9% to $86.05 a barrel. The drop came after oil surged above $100 on Monday.
The drop came after oil surged above $100.
“With 20% of the world’s oil supply shut down, we have the largest disruption ever,” said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, referring to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The biggest disruption before the current war was during the Suez Crisis in 1956 when Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the energy advisory firm told clients in a weekly note. At the time, approximately 10% of the global oil supply was disrupted.
Other Asian stock indexes also rose. Kosdaq, a small-cap stock, added over 4%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.35% in early trade.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.66%, while the Topix gained 1.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.56%, while the CSI 300 gained 0.9%.
Travel-related stocks also recovered, SEEbiz reports. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Air China rose nearly 3%, while China Eastern Airlines added 2.9%. China Southern Airlines rose 2.85%. Singapore Airlines rose 1.54%.
US stocks rose overnight. The S&P 500 rose 0.83% to close at 6,795.99, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 239.25 points, or 0.5%, to end at 47,740.80. The index of blue-chip companies is recovering from its biggest weekly drop in almost a year. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.38% to end at 22,695.95.
The moves mark an impressive turnaround from the losses seen earlier in the day. The Dow was down nearly 900 points at its lowest point in trading, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down as much as 1.5%.
