The Japan Times - Stocks waver, oil steady ahead of US-China summit as Iran talks stall

Oil prices surged earlier this week on signs that no breakthrough was in sight to resume crucial Gulf tanker and cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, paralysed by the Middle East war.

The International Energy Agency warned that countries were tapping into oil inventories and strategic reserves at a "record pace", meaning further price volatility was likely.

Following surges for equities worldwide on the back of solid corporate earnings and hopes for a swift end to the Mideast conflict, investors were content to hunker down.

Wall Street indexes opened little changed after several weeks of hitting record highs despite the geopolitical turbulence, while in Europe, London and Frankfurt edged higher and Paris fell in afternoon deals.

"There is a calmer tone to markets on Wednesday," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB, adding that markets were boosted by a "no news is good news" approach.

The dollar firmed, while UK government bonds remained under pressure as Keir Starmer battled to remain prime minister, causing the country's borrowing costs to rise.

Traders are looking to China, where Trump landed Wednesday after saying he expected a "long talk" with his counterpart Xi Jinping about Iran.

The US president said he would ask Xi to "open up" China to American firms, adding that AI chip titan Nvidia's boss Jensen Huang was a last-minute invite among a host of top chief executives joining the trip.

Trump's visit to Beijing comes a day after US consumer inflation hit a three-year high in April, as the economic fallout of the Iran war rippled through the world's largest economy.

Soaring inflation could pile pressure on Trump to end the war, but he insisted that Americans' financial situation did not motivate him "even a little bit" to make a peace deal with Iran.

Iran's chief negotiator urged Washington on Tuesday to accept Tehran's latest peace plan or face failure.

Both sides have refused to make concessions and repeatedly threatened to resume fighting, but neither appears willing to return to all-out war.

- Tech stocks in focus -

Tokyo closed up 0.8 percent even as the yield on 20-year Japanese government bonds hit the highest level since 1997.

Pressure on Japanese debt is intensifying as the Middle East war sends oil prices spiralling, fuelling speculation that the Bank of Japan will increase interest rates.

But Seoul's stock market ended up 2.6 percent after the presidential Blue House distanced itself from calls for a social tax on artificial intelligence profits.

The tech-rich Kospi had plunged five percent Tuesday after a top official proposed a "national dividend" to redistribute excess corporate profits from artificial intelligence.

In China, tech behemoth Alibaba posted an 18-percent drop in net profit during its most recent fiscal year, weighed by domestic economic challenges and an expensive push into AI.

Another Chinese tech firm Tencent, however, posted a 21-percent jump in quarterly net profit as it also bets big on the AI sector.

- Key figures at around 1345 GMT -

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $107.38 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $102.46

New York - DOW: DOWN 0.5 percent at 49,526.18 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,385.89

New York - Nasdaq: FLAT at 26,077.49

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 10,304.95

Paris - CAC 40: FLAT at 7,979.23

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 24,105.26

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.8 percent at 63,272.11 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,388.44 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 4,242.57 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1714 from $1.1745 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3515 from $1.3542

Dollar/yen: UP at 157.77 from 157.57 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.67 pence from 86.70 pence

K.Tanaka--JT