SINGAPORE: Stocks fell, the dollar firmed and oil rose on Thursday (Apr 2) after United States President Donald Trump said Washington’s “core strategic objectives” in the Iran war were nearing completion but stopped short of providing a clear outline of when the conflict would end.
The prospect of the end to the month-long US-Israeli war with Iran has lifted global stocks and knocked the dollar off its recent highs in the past two sessions after a brutal March where soaring oil prices sent risk assets into a tailspin.
But Trump, in his prime-time speech, said the US will strike Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the “Stone Ages”.
That sent stocks retreating, with US stock futures down 0.67 per cent while European futures were 0.1 per cent lower.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.75 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei reversed course to trade down 0.79 per cent in volatile trading.
Analysts and investors were focusing on when and how the Strait of Hormuz, a major fuel shipment route, would reopen and ease the bottleneck in supply that has hit Asian economies hard.
Iran has repeatedly fired on Gulf countries, some home to US bases, and is using the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, as leverage.
Higher energy prices in March stoked fears of global inflation, with worries about slowing growth also sapping sentiment.
The US dollar has been the haven of choice among investors during the tumult, and the greenback rose against most currencies after the speech.
The euro weakened 0.25 per cent to US$1.156. The front-month Brent contract for June rose over 3 per cent to US$104.75 per barrel.
