Global Shares Up on New Iran Talk Hopes04/14 06:00

   World shares were trading higher, tracking Wall Street gains, and oil fell 
on Tuesday as expectations rose over a possible second round of talks between 
the U.S. and Iran on an end to the Iran war.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares were trading higher, tracking Wall Street 
gains, and oil fell on Tuesday as expectations rose over a possible second 
round of talks between the U.S. and Iran on an end to the Iran war.

   In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 10,591.45. 
France's CAC 40 gained 0.6% to 8,285.37, while Germany's DAX was up 1% to 
23,980.13.

   Asian stocks ended higher Tuesday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 2.4% to 
57,877.39. South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.7% to 5,967.75 after briefly topping 
6,000 intraday.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.8% to 25,872.32, while the Shanghai Composite 
index climbed 1% to 4,026.63. China on Tuesday reported worse-than-expected 
export growth of 2.5% in March for the first month since the Iran war began, 
although some analysts believe Chinese exports of goods related to AI and 
renewable energy will continue to support overall export momentum for the year.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5%, and Taiwan's Taiex rose 2.4%.

   Investors are still hopeful for a lasting de-escalation of the Iran war, 
which is in its seventh week, as the U.S. and Iran are said to be weighing a 
second round of talks before a temporary ceasefire agreement expires next week. 
The U.S. military on Monday began a blockade of Iranian ports as Washington 
steps up its pressure on Tehran, following ceasefire talks between the two 
sides over the weekend that ended without an agreement.

   But U.S. President Donald Trump also suggested on Monday that the United 
States is still willing to engage with Tehran. "I can tell you that we've been 
called by the other side," he said, without further elaborating details.

   Oil prices continued to pull back on Tuesday from earlier gains. Brent 
crude, the international standard, was down 0.4% to $98.93 per barrel. It 
reached nearly $104 early Monday morning over Iran war worries on limited 
progress from the weekend ceasefire talks.

   Benchmark U.S. crude fell 2% to $97.09 a barrel.

   The global energy shock stemming from maritime traffic disruptions in the 
Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world's oil is typically 
transported, has led to surging fuel prices and is threatening to push up 
inflation in many countries and impact economic growth.

   Wall Street rose on Monday. The S&P 500 gained 1% to 6,886.24. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 48,218.25, and the Nasdaq composite added 
1.2% to 23,183.74.

   Shares of investment bank Goldman Sachs dropped 1.9% despite its 
announcement of better-than-expected quarterly profits.

   In other dealings, gold and silver prices rose on Tuesday. Gold's price was 
up 0.8% to $4,806.20 an ounce, while silver prices gained 2.9% to $77.82 per 
ounce.

   The U.S. dollar fell to 158.86 Japanese yen from 159.45 yen. The euro was 
trading at $1.1793, up from $1.1759.