By Una Hajdari
Oil prices rose on Thursday, holding near their highest levels in weeks,
as the deadlocked standoff between the United States and Iran kept
supply concerns elevated in the Middle East.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.3% to $94.5 a
barrel, while US benchmark crude edged up 0.2% to $87.4 a barrel as of
14:00 CET.
Prices have climbed steadily since the start of August, when Brent
was trading at around $87.38 a barrel, as the standoff over the Strait
of Hormuz keeps supply concerns elevated even without any single new
escalation.
Both benchmarks remain well above the barrel prices they were trading at before the war began.
Markets rebound on Treasury move
Global shares rallied on Thursday, reversing course after Wednesday's
heavy sell-off in artificial intelligence-related stocks, after the US
Treasury Department said it would at least double the size of its
buyback operations for longer-dated government debt, to $4 billion
(€3.4bn) or more per operation, starting in September.
The move eased pressure on bond markets that had pushed yields to
multi-decade highs in recent months, and lifted risk appetite across
Asia.
South Korea's Kospi surged 6.1% to 6,858.91, rebounding sharply after
sinking 5.8% on Wednesday. Samsung Electronics jumped 9.7%, while SK
Hynix surged 14.1% after the memory chipmaker announced a share buyback
plan.
Japan's
Nikkei 225 added roughly 0.9%, while the Topix rose 0.8%, recovering
some of Wednesday's losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.1% to
25,786.32, and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,905.23. Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3% to 9,066.40.
Related read from Euronews
Bond yields ease from multi-decade highs
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to around 4.64%, from 4.71%
on Tuesday, while the 30-year yield dropped to 5.18% from 5.28% —
pulling back from its highest level since 2007.
Yields have climbed in recent months on concerns over inflation stemming from the war in Iran and rising government debt.
Japan's 10-year government bond yield, which had been trading near a
three-decade high, fell to around 2.83% from more than 2.89% on
Wednesday.
On Wall Street on Wednesday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.2% for its
first gain in four sessions, snapping a three-day losing streak. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite each added 0.2%.
The US dollar rose to 158.60 yen from 158.16, while the euro slipped slightly to $1.1676 from $1.1677.
