Oil prices jump as fighting flares in the Middle East, while Asian shares are mixed

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices climbed early Tuesday as fighting intensified in the Middle East, while Asian shares were mixed as markets in Tokyo and Seoul rebounded from early losses.

The price of Brent crude climbed more than 2.3% to $85.18 a barrel after soaring nearly 10% on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude was up 2.5% at $80.15 a barrel.

Oil prices are still below their wartime peak of nearly $120 a barrel, but uncertainty over the future stability of supplies has deepened as the U.S. and Iran each assert they control the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. share futures were mixed as the U.S. launched more strikes on Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the strait.

Fighting in the region has kept oil tankers from using the waterway to deliver crude to customers from the Persian Gulf, driving up fuel prices worldwide.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% to 67,743.50.

Shares in SoftBank Group, which has huge investments in AI, jumped 2.3% after its chairman, Masayoshi Son, gave a speech at a company event in Tokyo where he derided the idea that there is a bubble in investments in capacity for AI.

The Kospi in South Korea climbed 0.7% to 6,856.83.

The Shanghai Composite index gained 1.1% to 3,958.54. The government reported that China’s exports jumped 27% in June from a year earlier as adoption of artificial intelligence drove strong demand for computer chips and other technology.

China is due to report its economic data for the last quarter on Wednesday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng picked up 0.3% to 24,301.71, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged less than 0.1% lower to 8,804.70.

On Wall Street on Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, coming off its fourth winning week in the past five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%.

Chip stocks like Micron Technology helped lead the way lower. Micron fell 4.4%, eating into what had been a stellar rise of 243.1% for the year so far.

Worries are rising that stock prices have shot too high and that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much profit and productivity as expected.

Nvidia fell 3.5%. Because it’s the largest stock on Wall Street by value thanks to the euphoria around AI, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

Attention is turning to profit reports for the spring. On Tuesday alone, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo all are releasing their latest quarterly results.

Analysts are forecasting that companies in the S&P 500 index will deliver overall growth of 23.6% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. If they are right, it would be the second straight quarter of growth better than 20%.

Companies across industries will need to deliver strong growth to justify the big moves their stock prices have made. Indexes are near records despite their sharp recent swings due to worries around AI stocks.

More costly oil would push inflation higher, potentially leading the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates. Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.

In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar slipped to 162.35 Japanese yen from 162.46 yen. The euro rose to $1.1387 from $1.1382.