Oil steadies and Asian stocks are mostly lower on mixed signs on Iran

HONG KONG (AP) — Oil steadied and Asian stocks were mostly trading lower Tuesday as signs of a de-escalation of the Iran war remained mixed.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.2% to 51,245.50. Losses after the Iran war began on Feb. 28 have been wiping out the gains it made from the beginning of the year.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.4% to 5,097.11. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.5% to 24,624.55, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.4% to 3,908.28.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.7%, while Taiwan’s Taiex was trading 2.2% lower.

U.S. futures were up nearly 1% early Tuesday.

With the Iran war in its fifth week, attacks in the Middle East continued and there was still no clear end to the war. Brent crude futures was less than 0.1% lower at $107.36 a barrel on Tuesday, while benchmark U.S. crude edged up 0.1% to $102.94 per barrel.

Oil prices have surged in March with Brent crude prices rising more than 40% since the start of the Iran war.

On Tuesday, a drone hit a Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai waters and caused a fire. The U.S.’s Gulf allies were privately making a case to the White House that Iran has not been weakened enough, officials said, and were urging U.S. President Donald Trump to keep fighting. Meanwhile, Trump has said the U.S. is in negotiation with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, though Iran denied such talks were happening.

Maritime traffic disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world's oil normally passes through, remains the pain point for global energy supplies. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump has “options available” in response to Tehran’s threats to control the strait, after Iran was said to have effectively created a “toll booth” there.

Wall Street stocks were mixed on Monday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% to 6,343.72, the Nasdaq composite lost 0.7% to 20,794.64, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% to 45,216.14.

In other dealings early Tuesday, gold and silver prices were up. Gold’s price was 0.7% higher at $4,587.80 an ounce, and silver prices rose 2.4% to $72.25 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar was at 159.61 Japanese yen, down from 159.71 Japanese yen. The euro was trading at $1.1472, up from $1.1465.