Stocks Rally as Oil Prices Ease        04/01 09:42

   Stocks are climbing worldwide, and oil prices are easing Wednesday as hopes 
build that the war with Iran could end soon. Some of the moves are tentative, 
though, after financial markets have already seen similar bouts of optimism get 
quickly undercut several times.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are climbing worldwide, and oil prices are easing 
Wednesday as hopes build that the war with Iran could end soon. Some of the 
moves are tentative, though, after financial markets have already seen similar 
bouts of optimism get quickly undercut several times.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and added to its leap from the day before, which was 
its best since last spring. That followed even bigger gains for stock markets 
across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South Korea, which were 
catching up to Wall Street's rally from Tuesday.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 292 points, or 0.6%, as of 10 a.m. 
Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

   Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald 
Trump said shortly before Wall Street began trading that Iran "has just asked 
the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!"

   "We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, 
we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!"

   Trump had said the night before that the U.S. military could end its 
offensive in two to three weeks. That added to optimism following a couple 
tenuous signals of hope from earlier Tuesday that Wall Street latched onto, 
including a news report quoting Iran's president as saying that it has "the 
necessary will to end the war" as long as certain requirements are met, 
including "guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression."

   The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and keep 
oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets, which could 
create a brutal blast of inflation.

   But hope has been quick to swing to doubt on Wall Street since the war with 
Iran began, triggering manic swings back and forth for financial markets. Trump 
has also made statements that lifted markets, only to see the gains quickly 
disappear after increasing his military threats against Iran. Investors say 
Trump's statements are becoming less impactful for financial markets.

   And oil prices remain high, even if they've eased so far this week. The 
price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting 
at $101.16 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70 before 
the war began.

   U.S. gas prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06, 
according to the auto club AAA.

   Iran hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait's airport on 
Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran as the fighting continued. Iran also 
continues to hold a grip on the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's 
traded oil passes during peacetime.

   "De-escalation hopes have given markets a lift, but we think the effects of 
the war would, in many cases, persist even if the war did end soon," Thomas 
Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research 
note Wednesday.

   "It's worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end 
'very soon,'" he wrote. "Do markets have further to recover if sentiment 
continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes."

   The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening 
on the Iran war.

   On Wall Street, the majority of stocks rose, with Big Tech powering the move 
higher. Gains of 2.8% for Alphabet and 0.8% for Nvidia were two of the 
strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

   They helped offset a 13.1% drop for Nike, which fell even though it reported 
a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave 
some lackluster financial forecasts.

   Hasbro fell 3.6% after the toy company found someone had gained unauthorized 
access to its computer network and is working to see what the full impact was.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 1% in France, Germany and 
the United Kingdom. Asian markets had even bigger gains.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey by Japan's central bank showed 
business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite Iran war 
worries.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report 
said U.S. retailers made more money in February than economists expected. A 
separate report said U.S. manufacturing growth last month was slightly faster 
than economists expected. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% 
late Tuesday.