Market Hopes for US-Iran Agreement as Asian Stocks Rise

Central News (Central News Tokyo 12th comprehensive foreign wire report) U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn his threat of further attacks on Iran and stated that both sides are likely to sign an agreement within the next few days. As a result, Asian stock markets generally rose today, and international oil prices fell. According to Agence France-Presse, after Trump's remarks, U.S. stocks rebounded and closed, with the broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 Index closing strongly up 1.8%, and oil prices fell sharply. However, Iran's stance remains unclear. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said that the Tehran authorities have "not yet reached a final conclusion on this agreement." Billionaire Elon Musk's space exploration technology company SpaceX will go public on the U.S. stock market later today, becoming the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, adding to the market's bullish mood. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed nearly 3% higher today, and the South Korean composite stock price index (Kospi), which has a high weight in semiconductor stocks, closed 4.6% higher. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai stock market also rose. (Translation: Chen Cheng-Jian) 1150612