{"id":139148,"date":"2026-07-15T03:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/world-shares-are-mixed-and-oil-prices-climb-as-iran-threatens-to-block-middle-east-energy-exports\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T03:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:40:54","slug":"world-shares-are-mixed-and-oil-prices-climb-as-iran-threatens-to-block-middle-east-energy-exports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/world-shares-are-mixed-and-oil-prices-climb-as-iran-threatens-to-block-middle-east-energy-exports\/","title":{"rendered":"World shares are mixed and oil prices climb as Iran threatens to block Middle East energy exports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is displayed at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 World shares were mixed on Wednesday and oil prices climbed after Iran threatened<\/a> to block Middle East energy exports now that the U.S. has resumed its blockade of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n

Stock price gains overall were moderate given worries that the United States and Iran may return to an all-out war.<\/a> Renewed attacks in the Middle East have raised the risks of further disruptions of transport of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing oil prices higher.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the U.S. blockade. U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> announced Monday that the blockade was resumed as an interim agreement on ending the war unraveled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,\u201d said the statement by the Iranian side.<\/p>\n

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $85.23 a barrel, while benchmark U.S. crude gained 0.7% to $79.89 a barrel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding signed last month has proved to be anything but. The two sides are once again exchanging military strikes, and they hold completely different views on the state of affairs in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith shipping around the Gulf becoming increasingly fraught with danger, traffic flows are declining once more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In early European trading, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5% to 8,371.11, while the German DAX shed 0.5% to 25,014.37. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.2% to 10,513.40.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Kospi led gains in Asia, surging 6.2% to 7,284.41 as prices rebounded from a recent sell-off in semiconductor stocks. Shares in computer chipmaker SK Hynix rose 8.8%, while those of Samsung Electronics surged 6.3%.<\/p>\n

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.5% to finish at 68,751.51.<\/p>\n

Australia’s S&P\/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,841.10.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 1.4% to 24,681.10, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.3% to 3,955.58 after the Chinese government reported the economy expanded<\/a> at a 4.3% annualized pace in April-June, slowing sharply from 5% in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks rallied following a report that showed U.S. inflation was not as bad<\/a> last month as economists expected. It said U.S. consumers had to pay prices for gasoline, food and other costs of living that were 3.5% higher last month than a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 added 0.4% to recover some of its 0.8% loss from the day before.<\/a> The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9%.<\/p>\n

Investors are watching for earnings reports this week from various global companies.<\/p>\n

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 162.32 Japanese yen from 162.26 yen. The euro cost $1.1421, down from $1.1423.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@yurikageyama<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
A man walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right bottom, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right top, at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A woman walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A man walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"People
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is displayed at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)(AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man) TOKYO (AP) \u2014 World shares were mixed on Wednesday and oil prices climbed after Iran threatened to block Middle East energy exports now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139148"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}