Shares in Asia were mixed on Monday after US stocks hit more records, boosted by strong earnings from major companies.
Oil prices stabilized after US President Donald Trump said the United States would help ships leave the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday. Iran rejected the plan, but Trump also said that talks with Iran could lead to positive results.
The price of a barrel of standard US crude fell 21 cents to $101.74 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose five cents to $108.19 a barrel.
Much depends on progress towards ending the war with Iran and opening the bottleneck across the Strait of Hormuz.
The oil market “remains the fulcrum, with hundreds of tankers, bulk carriers and cargo ships still stuck across the Gulf, as storage constraints force producers to halt production simply because there is no longer anywhere to store it,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Trump said that what he called “Project Freedom” would begin Monday morning in the Middle East. US Central Command said it would include destroyers equipped with guided missiles, more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 soldiers, but the Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about how it would be deployed.
In Asian stock trading, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong jumped 1.4% to 26,135.47 points.
Markets in mainland China and Japan were closed for the Golden Week holiday.
Australia S&The P/ASX 200 index fell 0.3% to 8704.70.
Strong buying in technology stocks sent stocks in South Korea sharply higher, with the KOSPI rising 3.8%. Taiwan’s TAEX index rose 4.2%.
On Friday, S&The P 500 rose 0.3% to another all-time high of 7,230.12, closing out a fifth straight week of wins.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 49,499.27 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.9% to 25,114.44 points.
apple It led the way with better-than-expected earnings. Since it’s one of the largest stocks on Wall Street by overall volume, its 3.3% rise was by far the strongest force lifting the S Index.&p. 500.
Stock prices generally follow the long-term path of corporate earnings, and US companies have been beating earnings expectations in the first three months of 2026. This is even as the war with Iran and rising oil prices have dented the confidence of many US households.
Just over a quarter of companies in S&The P 500 companies have already reported, 84% of which beat analyst estimates, according to FactSet. The index is on track to achieve earnings growth of approximately 15% compared to the previous year.
The main uncertainty for the global economy is the direction in which oil prices are headed due to the crisis Iran war. Oil prices rose last week on fears that the war could keep the Strait of Hormuz closed for an extended period, trapping pent-up tankers in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude oil to customers around the world.
Brent crude was selling for just over $70 a barrel before the war began, and higher prices helped the two largest oil companies in the United States achieve stronger profits in the fourth quarter than analysts expected. However, share prices fell for both Exxon Mobil by 1% and Chevron by 1.4%, with oil prices falling on Friday and their respective announcements. Decrease in net income compared to the previous year.
In other trading early Monday, the dollar rose to 157.18 Japanese yen from 156.80 yen. The euro fell to $1.1724 from $1.1746.