World Stocks Slide as Violence Flares  09/01 04:55

   Oil prices jumped 2% and world shares skidded Tuesday as recurring violence 
in the Iran war after more than a month with no significant fighting heightened 
uncertainty over the future of the conflict.

   BANGKOK (AP) -- Oil prices jumped 2% and world shares skidded Tuesday as 
recurring violence in the Iran war after more than a month with no significant 
fighting heightened uncertainty over the future of the conflict.

   Shares in online fast-fashion retailer Shein fell as much as 10% after they 
began trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday. They closed 4% lower.

   Brent crude gained 2% to $92.35 per barrel. It gained 2.7% on Monday after 
the U.S. attacked rocket launchers on an Iranian island on Sunday, saying they 
were preparing to launch mines into the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by 
launching missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan, all of which were intercepted.

   The war has curtailed traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which once accounted 
for about 20% of the world's oil shipments. Oil prices remain high after an 
initial surge earlier in the war, and that has made everything from gasoline to 
shipped goods more expensive.

   U.S. benchmark crude climbed 2.5% to $87.84 per barrel.

   In early European trading, Germany's DAX lost 1.1% to 25,982.28, while the 
CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.4% to 8,303.65. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 1.1% to 
10,702.25.

   In Asian share trading, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 25,329.73 and the 
Shanghai Composite index shed 0.2% to 3,979.89.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gave up early gains, falling 0.2% to 66,215.34. The Kospi 
in South Korea added 0.2%, to 6,835.80.

   The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia slipped 0.1% to 9,066.70.

   Taiwan's Taiex picked up 1.8% and the Sensex in India fell 0.3%.

   U.S. futures were 0.1% higher.

   Wall Street closed out August on a downbeat note Monday as the S&P 500 index 
fell 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% and the Nasdaq 
composite slipped 0.1%.

   Monday's losses were broad, with nearly every sector within the benchmark 
S&P 500 finishing in the red.

   Edison International slumped 23.1% and PG&E fell 20.1% for the two steepest 
declines. That followed reports about potential California wildfire legislation 
that would allow insurers to sue utilities over related claims.

   But energy stocks notched gains. Exxon Mobil rose 2.7% and Chevron rose 2.1%.

   Higher energy prices have fueled already stubbornly high inflation, well 
above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. That has been weighing on household 
spending and consumer confidence and given the Fed a more complicated path 
ahead for its interest rate policy.

   The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations about 
Fed moves, held steady Monday at 4.34%, where it was late Friday. That's up 
significantly from about 3.50% at the beginning of 2026.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.75% from 4.73% late Friday. 
That's back up around the level seen two weeks ago when the Trump 
administration took the unusual step of announcing it would intervene in the 
bond market.

   Any increase to interest rates that could cool inflation also risks hurting 
the jobs market. Later this week, the U.S. will report August jobs data. In 
July, the U.S. job market stalled unexpectedly as employers cut 23,000 jobs. 
Labor Department revisions slashed another 103,000 jobs from May and June 
payrolls.

   In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.90 Japanese yen 
from 159.74 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1598 from $1.1619.